Following the 2006 ECG event, Pikiner decided to step down from his starting position on the team and will now be the “tactical captain and trainer of Virtus.pro.” In a statement to Cyberfight.ru, Irina Semenovoy, Virtus.pro’s manager, explained that Pikiner had moved to Moscow, is working for the game publishing house Gameland, and is giving the maximum amount of time to his studies at the Moscow financial-juridical academy. These commitments meant that Pikiner could not adequately train with the rest of Virtus.pro for the upcoming WEG masters tournament.

Semenovoy added, “Kostya promised to give his best efforts to train the team for (WEG) and subsequent tournaments.”

To replace Pikiner, Virtus.pro tapped Novikov, a top Russian player, from the team Army of Angels. According to Semenovoy, Virtus.pro paid AA $5,000 dollars to release Novikov from his contract. He was recruited because of his skill and his personal relations with the team.

"Aleksey for a long time has been one of the best players in the country and, we are assured, that it will show in his splendid performance on the world stage," said Semenovoy. "Furthermore, in his nonprofessional life Aleksey is the friend of our player Dmitriy Bogdanov, and we believe this is a good opinion about Aleksey's character."

Virtus.pro’s roster is as follows:
Konstantin "groove" Pikiner (coach)
Ivan "F_1N" Kochugov
Alexey "LeX" Kolesniko
Boris "Snoop" Podvalshchikov
Dmitry "hooch" Bogdanov
Alexey "HEL1" Novikov