Virtus.pro have reached the
Group Stage of the
RLCS 2026 World Championship in Fort Worth, Texas after two confident wins against
Bigodes and
Mate y Tapa in the Play-In phase. The North American fourth-seed will be appearing at their first LAN Main Event together since reaching the Boston Major in February. They missed out on the Paris Major before falling to a third-place finish in the
Rocket League Esports World Cup Last Chance Qualifier.
Dylan "Wahvey" Thanus spoke with Sheep Esports to discuss Virtus.pro’s preparation for the World Championship, his link-up with Jayden "2Piece" Horton and debutant Cohen "Tawk" Hawco, and who he believes is the Michelin Best Player of the Year.
You’re joining us after coming off your top-16 qualifying win, how does it feel?
Dylan "Wahvey" Thanus: “It feels amazing. It was very stressful especially in that last series because Mate y Tapa were putting up a good fight but I do think we controlled the game pretty well near the end of that series. I’m super ecstatic to get the win because at the last Worlds we lost in the Play-In. So it's at least nice to get to the main event this time.
Unfortunately, you didn’t make it to the Paris Major, so what was the preparation like for this event specifically, especially with all that extra time?
Wahvey: For everybody, the World Championship is the biggest event of the year, it's the one everyone cares more about but because we missed Paris, I think that made Worlds mean even more to us as a team. We really went all in on our preparation. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen more replays in a five-day span in the past five days really prepping up for this tournament. We wanted to make sure everything was right, everything was perfect, and we had the best chance possible to win. I think we did a great job of that given our results so far.
Being known as one of the best 1s mains in all of North America, what does it mean to have Tawk and 2Piece as teammates for the 3s matchups?
I can’t believe I’m still being called a 1s main, but having Tawk (Cohen Hawco) and 2Piece (Jayden Horton) here actually gives me so much confidence. I play with them all day and I see how insane they are at the game. I know I can go to whatever I want and if I mess up 2Piece will pull off a god save or Tawk will just triple reset and clip farm on the opponents.
We have seen you jump on a bed, one of the most known things about you. If you win a series tomorrow, is there anything you’re planning to jump on?
I don’t think there is anything I can jump on top of, unless there is a prop ready for me.
If you had to give your own Michelin Best Player of the Year, who would it be?
Wahvey: Zen (Alexis Bernier), I’m not going to lie. At 3k and how good he is individually. I wouldn’t say it's obvious, because there are about four players contending for it but Zen is always a step above individually. I would give it to him, despite the fact that he hasn’t won any Major events this year.
We have the FIFAe World Cup coming up soon, do you have a favourite country in that tournament?
I would love for the US could pull through and have a good event, but my sleeper pick on a team I want to see do really well is Puerto Rico. A year or two ago I saw Kiro (Kirran Barreto) playing in a random off-season tournament with Andy (Andrew Nolan) and he looked good, his mechanics are insane. I’m very confident in their ability and I want to see them do well.
All the teams from around the world are coming here, are there any teams you specifically want to match up against?
I want to play against the best possible honestly. I’m very confident in our team's ability to go all the way and beat anyone in the world. I just want the opportunity to at least do that. With this format we definitely will, because in the group stage you’ll be guaranteed at least one of the top four teams once. I’m very excited to have that opportunity and our team will lock-in. We’ll do our best.”
