Official: ICY signs with Virtus.pro

29-12-2024 19:12

The Kazakh AWPer has penned a long-term agreement with the organization.

ICY picks up the AWP from Jame

Virtus.pro have announced that they have completed the signing of Kazakh AWPer Kaisar "⁠ICY⁠" Faiznurov from Cloud9. The 19-year-old has signed a contract that will keep him tied to the organization until 2028 and will take over AWPing duties from Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali, who was benched at the end of the season.

ICY becomes the second signing made by Virtus.pro in the off-season following the arrival of Timur "⁠FL4MUS⁠" Marev from GamerLegion. The Russian rifler filled the vacancy created by David "⁠n0rb3r7⁠" Danielyan's benching.

Formerly of AMKAL, ICY spent the second half of the season playing for Cloud9. Despite the team's middling results, he was a solid contributor, especially on LAN, where he averaged an impressive 1.22 rating.

"ICY is a promising player who has already made a name for himself on the international stage," Virtus.pro CEO Nikolai Petrossian said in a statement.

"His energy and talent will drive the team to new heights. Signing a long-term contract with Kaisar is part of our strategy to rejuvenate the roster. We are thrilled to welcome him to Virtus.pro and are confident he will help us achieve great success in CS2!"

Virtus.pro did not say what will happen with the IGL role, though it is rumored that it will be Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov picking up the baton. The Russian player is no stranger to the role, having called during his Natus Vincere and Cloud9 stints.

Sources: G2 in talks with Cloud9 over HeavyGod

ICY will link up with his new teammates after the New Year for a bootcamp ahead of BLAST Bounty Season 1, which is scheduled to start on January 13.

Virtus.pro are now:

Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov
Evgenii "⁠FL1T⁠" Lebedev
Petr "⁠fame⁠" Bolyshev
Timur "⁠FL4MUS⁠" Marev
Kaisar "⁠ICY⁠" Faiznurov

Pavel "⁠PASHANOJ⁠" Legostaev (coach)

Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali (benched)
David "⁠n0rb3r7⁠" Danielyan (benched)

well, that was quick

2024-12-29 19:13

177

1 reply

It can work if elec takes supportive roles and plays into strength of his star players. If he tries to be the star it will fail. He will pad stats but thats about it. The team won't function. I do wonder if elec learned from his C9 failure.

2024-12-30 00:20

jame>icy

4 replies

Icy can't do this: youtube.com/watch?v=3ViaqCHKXkU Jame will always be the king.

2024-12-29 21:06

2 replies

WTF, I've never seen that clip, lmao!

2025-01-02 00:17

Now you know why he is always saving.

2025-01-02 01:39

+1 Jame could change his meta and stay Any day of the week he is better as awper than ICY

2024-12-30 00:21

good pickup but weird lineup, who is the supportive element? FL1T I guess?

14 replies

electronic and fame I guess

2024-12-29 19:16

fame, he played some of anchor roles. idk if he will back to his 2021 or 2022 or even 2023 prime considering this though....

3 replies

rare flair combo

2024-12-29 23:20

could be vp fan in polish era

2024-12-30 00:18

no, i am fan of current vp

2024-12-30 00:51

could be fl4mus, he used to be anchor before ash made him star rifler in gl

2024-12-29 19:22

electrobot

2024-12-29 19:25

Now bench dogatronic and inv Jame back on AK

2024-12-29 19:32

Now bench botronic and sign boombla

2024-12-29 19:44

bot? lmao ppl star to forgetting who papatronic is lmao

2024-12-30 02:58

fame

2024-12-29 19:41

No need for it, 5 star players and elec igl will surely work.

2024-12-29 20:22

for sure

2024-12-29 21:58

more like how is the igl? elec was ass when he tried it

2024-12-30 16:22

that was quick

WHAT???

It's so fast

Egotronic igl?

most definetly maybe FL1T secondary calling

2024-12-29 20:12

Disband in 6 months

2024-12-29 20:57

God it’s going to be a nightmare. Electronic igl in navi was a disasters, vp reshuffling again i guess after Austin

2024-12-30 00:48

virtus top?

2024-12-29 19:14

20 maybe

2024-12-29 21:31

Not elec IGLing pls...

cooked

they need 5 poles, thats all i say

Those days are over, now we dont have enough talent to even form a top20 team just sad. Maybe not talent but rather most semi pro players lack professional approach sabotaging their own chances. They are just a bunch of clowns.

2024-12-30 00:17

Too busy matchfixing no chance

2024-12-30 18:47

electronic igl again it's gg

actually decent team in paper, but lets see how it goes

its icy time

2024-12-29 19:15

CRINGE team. RIP VP from virtus plow and jame time to this. Fuck whoever handles this team and efotronic

I mean aside from electroNic IGL this roster's really good lol

2024-12-29 19:19

Jame is a god damn bot lmfao

2024-12-31 10:36

Welcome!

are they one of the youngest teams now?

2024-12-29 19:20

so fast but Icy gonna carry bots with FL4MUS

Vp even more dead

2024-12-29 19:17

lol that was quick they still need an igl

2024-12-29 19:18

pog

Disaster is cooking with elec as IGL

+1 I don’t like it

2024-12-29 20:21

Would be good if they had a fucking IGL and not egotronic

c9 disband

2024-12-29 19:21

Interesting...

Electronic igl, why are we doing this

2024-12-29 19:26

Nice

Okay cool >Until 2028 YOU SIGNED HIM FOR HOW LONG????

2024-12-29 19:27

c9 disband for 10000th time lol

Im a bit surprised about how fast vp moved tbh, there were reports this morning potentially linking degster, then once he was linked as the heroic trio to falcons they switched to icy instantly. Why im surprised is that they seem (in the case of electronic when he came too) to make signings hastly to not lose the opportunity, but on the same time i feel like they might not get to test the players in their team environment so im worried they might end up again with clashes of personalities and playstyles

2024-12-29 19:28

Well the issue is that if you wait too long, you get nothing. VP is not outbidding Falcons for Degster and Icy is a serviceable awp that has proven skill. It's a judgement call that you just have to make in the moment. How many other CIS awpers are as good as either of those two? Artfrost? 2025 is gonna be all about getting results so I don't blame them for going with known quantities.

2024-12-29 19:40

Idk i dont feel like either icy or fl4mus are proven by any means, signing a 4 year contract is a big bet imo. I understand that they dont want to lose the opportunity, I also said that in my op, but i feel like u cant look at icy and fl4mus as being proven the same way ropz in proven to work in 2 tier1 international teams already and has been round for some time, i can understand why would u bank on him to do it a 3rd time without testing him. But icy looks invonsistent and both of them barely played any real tournament other than the shanghai major Edit: im not saying they are not good players and dont have potential, i really like fl4mus at least. However with other signings like this where teams placed a bet on youngsters i feel like it they had the chance to test them in their team environment before pulling the trigger, where this time i feel vp is just buying people without any considerations other than roles and them being hot prospects and hope they will work

2024-12-29 20:03

They're more proven that a lot of other players their age. Icy plays pretty well on LAN and Flamus is the only reason why GamerLegion made it so far at the major. I won't say they are 100% guaranteed great players, but well worth the potential risk of bringing them on. If they play about as good on VP as they do now, then it's a successful rebuild.

2024-12-29 20:06

Good luck buddy

2024-12-29 19:31

Top 20 team. Gratz

electronic IGL, oh jeepers

2024-12-29 19:36

From top 8 team to decent tier 2 team in a year

2024-12-29 19:37

I hated on elec IGL, but unironically I think it could work with a team full of youngsters. With flamus and icy it makes sense.

2024-12-29 19:38

BOTronic igl is gonna be the end of this team..

Said it 2 days ago already

Damn I didn’t even realise they benched Norbert, why would they do such a thing?

-fl1t +boomich and go

2024-12-29 19:46

Honestly, hear me out.... This is a beautiful pick up, but my only concern is whos gonna be IGL? hope its not Electronic cuz he didn't do to great when he IGL'd in Navi

2024-12-29 19:52

He'll be scapegoated in 6 months

2024-12-29 19:59

Cant wait for electronic to fumble another roster

Well that was fast

2024-12-29 20:10

New VP looks kinda sick, cant lie

2024-12-29 20:13

elec gonna ruin whatever good lineup he gets

2024-12-29 20:30

maybe this time he wont lol. no other egoist to clash with him

2024-12-29 20:31

The issue is that he thinks that he's still very good which isn't a case

2024-12-29 21:07

Unexpected

2024-12-29 20:14

VP roster look super good with huge firepower but with elec igl nothing gonna change

2024-12-29 20:38

electronic destroys C9 twice lol

Electronic the team destroyer

2024-12-29 21:23

that's a weird lineup tbh, on paper seems like a downgrade especially when you take papatronic's big payout into account

Vp cooking Jame was trapped in 5 years old meta

2024-12-29 21:32

Wow VP management sure is decisive about their decisions.

2024-12-29 21:33

another electronic IGLING? :D

2024-12-29 21:54

Plz no electronic igl experiment again lol

2024-12-29 22:06

Electronic still there So... This wont work.

2024-12-29 22:10

how much?

2024-12-29 22:24

bro signed a 4 year contract... that seems risky.

2024-12-29 23:27

the stupidest decision to replace Jame they just needed -elec -n0rbert + 2 young player

2024-12-29 23:29

cloud9 top 100 team of 2025

2024-12-30 00:03

4 years with elec uhh

2024-12-30 01:12

W move

2024-12-30 03:05

Please kick electronic so this team could actually do something...

2024-12-30 03:27

ICY much deserved

2024-12-30 05:14

sounds like a former great team is just a stack of random players now

2024-12-30 06:52

Not sure what I like the most, the fact they got Fire and Ice all together or that the team nicknames are start sign in Fl4mus, Fl1t and Fame. Felectronic and Ficy nice to catch up.

2024-12-30 10:11

promising to actually have an awper on VP. but if egotronic is IGL this project is doomed for another year. ELECTRONIC, JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN'T AIM ANY MORE DOES NOT MEAN YOU CAN IGL.

2024-12-30 10:21