Qikert Confirms He Is Leaving Virtus.Pro

Qikert has already announced his departure from Virtus.pro on July 14, when he revealed that his time with the CIS esports organisation is nearing its end. However, the Kazakh rifler didn't step down from the roster straight away and instead continued competing with VP for just over one month.

Since revealing his intentions to leave the team, Qikert has played during Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #1, CCT Online Finals #2, Intel Extreme Masters Sydney 2023: European Open Qualifier #2, and most recently, at Gamers8.

At the two qualifiers, Virtus.pro failed to find much success but won CCT Online Finals #2 and made some noise at Gamers8, where VP defeated FaZe Clan (2-1) but lost the second round against the reigning IEM Cologne 2023 champions, G2 Esports (1-2).

Gamers8 was Qikert's final event with Virtus.pro, where he averaged a 0.91 performance rating, a noticeable drop from his average rating (1.03) since he joined the team in December 2019.

Despite announcing his departure from Virtus.pro, Qikert has not revealed whether he has found a new team or what his plans for the future are. Moreover, it's unclear who will take over for him in VP's starting lineup.

Qikert leaves Virtus.pro as the longest-standing member of the team, alongside the squad's in-game leader Dzhami "Jame" Ali, having spent nearly four years competing for the CIS organisation – both as Virtus.pro and Outsiders. During his stint, Qikert has accomplished a lot; most notably, he helped Outsiders win IEM Rio Major 2022 and made the finals of the Intel Extreme Masters XV - World Championship in 2021.

Since the majority-Russian squad won the Major, they failed to reach the same heights and have since made several roster changes. Virtus.pro signed Aleksandr "KaiR0N-" Anashkin at the start of 2023, but the project didn't work out, ushering another signing in Nikolay "mir" Bityukov who joined the squad at the start of July.  

Now with the departure of Qikert, another change is in the cards as VP look to rebuild in a bid to find more success.

Virtus.pro have yet to announce its new lineup, but the announcement should come shortly. The team's next endeavour starts on August 24, when Virtus.pro are set to attend PARI Dunav Party and ESL Pro League in September.