Virtus.pro fail Exort Cataclysm at home LAN

Virtus.pro went to a local LAN in Moscow — Exort Cataclysm Season 1 — as the main favorite and the highest-rated team according to HLTV and VRS. But already in the first tournament of 2026 the team was eliminated at the 13–16th place stage.

In a single day the team consecutively lost to RUSTEC 0:2 (Match) and WW — 1:2 (Match). Both teams are noticeably lower than Virtus.pro in the HLTV ranking: RUSTEC sit around #200, WW — around #117.

The failure continued a streak of setbacks for Ilya "Perfecto" Zalutskiy's lineup: an early exit from BLAST Bounty after a 0:2 loss to Vitality, a defeat to Nuclear TigeRES in the Round of 16 of IEM Rio 2026 Open Qualifier, and 9–16th place at CCT Season 3 Europe Series 13, where Virtus.pro even gave up a map to Nemiga by technical defeat due to "missing cameras from two players".

The only winter reinforcement was the invitation of temporary coach Dmitriy "ProbLeM" Martinov, but in VRS the team has already fallen from #50 to #84. On HLTV Virtus.pro do not yet have a single announced next tournament.