Anton Cherepennikov has a birthday – what did he do for Russian e-sports

On May 7, Anton Cherepennikov celebrates his birthday – the former CEO of ESforce Holding turned 37 years old. More than a year has passed since he left esports, but the industry does not forget Cherepennikov’s merits in its development. What the businessman did while he was at the helm of the company, we will tell in the material.

Brought Virtus.pro back to life and turned into a successful organization

The story of perhaps the most famous Russian e-sports tag began in 2003, but then – in 2009 – ended unexpectedly. The club lost sponsors and stopped making profit, after which the project itself was frozen, and the team was simply disbanded.

However, two years later, Anton Cherepennikov bought the rights to the brand from the previous owner and revived the organization – also with a new corporate identity, the “bearish” theme of which remains with the club to this day.

In the first line-up, under the revived tag VP, the players were already poorly known to modern gamers: Alexey HEL1 Novikov, Ivan F_1n Kochugov, Alexey LeX Kolesnikov, Vladimir VofkiN Shmakov and Alexander Talisman Talismans. Two months later, the Reshuffles began, which led to the appearance of the composition with Cyril ANGE1 Karasev, Mikhail Dosia Stolyarov and Dauren AdreN Kystaubaev. It was this roster that interrupted the legendary series of 87 composition victories Ninjas in pajamasBeating the Swedes in the finals of StarLadder StarSeries V. But this five were not able to stay in the club. True stability in VP came in 2014, when the Polish roster joined the organization AGAiN – today these players are remembered solely as the “golden line-up of Virtus.pro”.

Gathered the best CIS Dota 2 roster in the DPC era

When the history of the CS: GO gold roster began to end, Virtus.pro was ready for this, because in parallel the club had a successful Dota 2 roster. Alexey Solo Berezin’s team was assembled in August 2016, and by the next season became one of the best in the world.

This roster played three times in the championships of The International series and each time was considered one of the favorites of the event. And outside the most prestigious series, the roster won five majors in two years – no other club in Dota 2 can still boast of such an achievement.

Launched one of the most popular tournament series in eSports

Once upon a time, prestigious championships were held in the CIS, by the standards of the old e-sports, but then foreign tournament operators began to go ahead of the competition. By 2016, in Europe there were competitions from ESL and PGL, in the USA from MLG and ELEAGUE, and in China Mars Media was in charge. The CIS seemed hopelessly behind the world, but Epic Esports Events was able to change the balance of power.

The first EPICENTER tournament did not receive major status, but the championship participants themselves were delighted with it. The epic opening ceremony, which is still remembered in the comments, and the corresponding cuts along the entire playoff grid – Epic Esports Events entered the stage very loudly and since then has become one of the leading TO in Dota 2, ironically staking the spring slot for majors. Today the tournament series continues to develop independently – including in CS: GO, but it was Anton Cherepennikov who gave her the start.

He opened the e-sports Yota Arena and one of the first computer clubs of a new type

When many rushed to develop online projects that arose due to the growth of e-sports, Anton Cherepennikov did not forget about offline by launching Yota Arena. The arena became one of the first specialized venues for e-sports events – later similar ones began to appear around the world. No less significant was the Cyber ​​Loft Club, which actually launched a new wave of Internet clubs in the country. Not so long ago, many people buried this business – today new sites are appearing everywhere.

Opened one of the most visited e-sports resources in the world.

Cybersport.ru is also a product of Anton Cherepennikov. Initially, the portal was a Virtus.pro team site, but even then it actively covered the successes of other teams. Soon fans of these clubs began to visit the site, and gradually the resource turned into a platform for communication (and, of course, disputes) of various e-sports enthusiasts.

Nine years have passed since the launch of the site, and during this time Cybersport.ru has become the leading e-sports portal in the CIS and has become a leader in the world. In March 2023, 2.96 million unique users visited the site, and the total number of portal page views for the month amounted to 20.3 million. The growth rate is 60% YoY (from year to year).