Virtus.pro bench electroNic hours after BLAST Open London elimination

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 29/08/2025

Virtus.pro have announced that they are benching in-game leader Denis ‘electroNic’ Sharipov from their Counter-Strike 2 team.

The news comes just a few hours following the team’s elimination from the BLAST Open London.

Virtus.pro finished last at the event following a 2-1 defeat in the lower bracket to M80, number 30 in the HLTV rankings.

electroNic spent over a year and a half with the team. He was a major signing for Virtus.pro from Cloud9 back in April 2024.

Having been a four-time HLTV Top 20 Player, there was a lot of excitement when he replaced Nikolay ‘mir⁠’ Bityukov.

However, a disastrous year means electroNic is now the third CS2 player to be benched by Virtus.Pro in 2025.

He joins Timur ‘FL4MUS⁠’ Marev and David ‘n0rb3r7⁠’ Danielyan on the sidelines following the run of bad results.

There were a lot of factors which fed into what went wrong with FL4MUS at Virtus.pro, considering he was such a bright prospect before joining.

Commenting on electroNic’s departure from the CS2 team, CEO of Virtus.рro Nikolai Petrossian said:

“Denis is one of the most experienced and decorated players in the world. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to build a team together that could consistently fight for top positions at the biggest tournaments.

“I’d like to thank him for the journey we shared, no matter how difficult it was at times.

“Big thanks to Denis for his genuine motivation and his readiness to take on the responsibility of being the team’s captain.”

Virtus.pro has not yet announced who will replace electroNic, but claim an announcement will be made soon.

Who are the favourites to win the CS2 BLAST Open London 2025?

The BLAST Open in London is looking like a very open tournament where multiple CS2 teams could win.

Esports World Cup winners MongolZ are in fine form but have been replaced by Team Liquid at the tournament due to visa issues.

After their historic win streak in CS2, you might have expected Team Vitality to be the favourites on Counter-Strike betting sites.

However, the team has struggled in recent months, finishing third/fourth in their last three major tournaments.

Team Spirit were also in good form, having won IEM Cologne and BLAST Bounty earlier this month.

Yet, they had a disastrous performance at the Esports World Cup and were eliminated in the Round of 16 by HEROIC.

It’s going to be a fascinating tournament and will surely produce an electric atmosphere in the OVO Arena at Wembley.

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

In my seven years of esports writing, I've introuduced esports coverage to newspapers, interviewed some of the biggest names in the industry, and driven viewers mad with the puns in my YouTube scripts. I'm most proud of the latter.

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