On June twenty fifth, Virtus.professional introduced in fast succession the benching of Timur ‘FL4MUS’ Marev and the signing of 2021 Stockholm Main champion Ilya ‘Perfecto’ Zalutskiy. The time brings to an finish an especially troublesome six-month stint for FL4MUS at Virtus Professional.
FL4MUS left GamerLegion as probably the most thrilling younger prospects in Counter-Strike following a stand-out interval within the worldwide roster below British Coach, Ashley ‘ash’ Battye, so what went mistaken, and was the fault completely on the 20-year-old Russian rifler?
Why Virtus.professional signed FL4MUS
FL4MUS moved to VP following a profitable interval at GamerLegion. The Russian had unbelievable affect at GamerLegion, bursting rounds into life by means of progressive and strange entrying which frequently obtained his group area and man-advantages.
The Russian performed an instrumental function in GamerLegion’s Shanghai qualification, each as an emotional lead and within the server, of their development to the Elimination stage, the place their match ended.
In a roster that was balanced extra in direction of a passive playstyle, FL4MUS was the right aggressive tonic at GamerLegion… Then he moved to Virtus.professional
Virtus.professional struggles
In idea, Virtus.professional did want that aggression; they did want some innovation in what was proving to be such a strict type of Counter-Strike that it couldn’t shock opponents. If there was one factor FL4MUS persistently was in 2024, it was stunning.
Regardless of VP’s tactical want, the match appeared mistaken from the very starting. Early within the season, damaging speak emerged from each FL4MUS and the VP camp. In interviews with HLTV FL4MUS described that he was “doing every part mistaken“, upon switching roles the Russian mentioned he lacked expertise and confidence. When talking about FL4MUS, digital emphasised the necessity to lower out errors.
Definitely, FL4MUS by no means discovered any type of footing in kind at Virtus.professional, affected by a ranking collapse compared to 2024. The Russian went from averaging a stellar 1.10 ranking at Nemiga and GamerLegion to averaging 0.94 in 2025, struggling each on the CT and T-sides, regardless of Virtus.professional trying to change his positions after the preliminary stage of the season. The Russian surrendered star roles, and performed inside himself in anchor roles resulting in a gradual demise.
Talking on the Main, FL4MUS defined his T-side downturn within the following phrases:
You want to perceive once you will be aggressive and once you can’t. I’ve misplaced that connection generally, as a result of for instance in earlier groups, if I noticed a possibility I used to be going for it. On that group it was working, nevertheless it was towards the groups we had been enjoying.
Timur ‘FL4MUS’ Marev
From these interviews, we will see a transparent narrative rising contained in the VP camp – FL4MUS is inexperienced, he makes errors, he additionally believes within the criticism from his senior teammates, and easily believes he’s enjoying badly. I don’t see it that means.
Opinion: A participant robbed of confidence
Virtus.professional as an org must be involved with how rapidly FL4MUS appeared robbed of confidence after becoming a member of, with the primary interview quoted above going down in January. Fast to level out his personal weaknesses, the younger participant was additionally eager to dismiss all the great work he had accomplished at GamerLegion and elsewhere. But it was his confidence and swagger within the server that had obtained him into tier one.
VP’s messaging could have given a transparent narrative about FL4MUS, however, wanting from the surface, it appears the transfer was by no means going to work, not due to FL4MUS’s potential as a participant, however due to the constraints of the Virtus.professional’s playstyle being ideologically against the type of play that made FL4MUS GamerLegion’s x-factor.
FL4MUS’s play at all times concerned threat. When that threat paid off, ash would merely watch FL4MUS’s POV and snigger as he killed three individuals working out mid on Historic 15 seconds into the spherical. When it didn’t work, GamerLegion performed the drawback, backing FL4MUS that it might work subsequent time.
On the whole, FL4MUS’s time at Virtus.professional made him unrecognisable within the server, because the participant regularly slowed down in making performs, grouped extra with teammates, even enjoying some lurking roles. Virtus.professional’s system didn’t bend to accommodate FL4MUS,
FL4MUS bent to attempt to be a totally totally different participant for digital and wasn’t notably nice at being one thing he wasn’t. That reality shouldn’t be stunning to Virtus.professional, digital, or anybody related to the organisation. Gamers have pure skillsets, and also you signal gamers with their skillset in thoughts.
Virtus.professional lastly have their system participant, however should still battle to create space and shock opponents, this time and not using a younger entrying expertise who may have accomplished far more for them with a little bit of leeway.
Darragh Harbinson is an esports author specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports Information UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.
