ESL issues statement regarding Ukraine
The upcoming ESL Pro League will not field any organizations with apparent ties to the Russian government.
ESL is the next big esports organization to take action following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The tournament organizer has decided to suspend all CS:GO organizations with “apparent ties to the Russian government” from the upcoming ESL Pro League, they wrote in a statement.
- On the upcoming ESL Pro League, we made the decision that organizations with apparent ties to the Russian government, including individuals or organizations under alleged or confirmed EU sanctions related to the conflict, will not be allowed to be represented (currently we identified two teams - Virtus.pro and Gambit), ESL stated.
However, that doesn’t mean that Dzami “Jame” Ali and Vladislav “nafany” Gorshkov and their troops can’t attend the $823.000 event.
- We recognize that players are not complicit with this situation, and we do not think it is in the spirit of esports to impose sanctions on individual players. The Virtus.pro and Gambit players are therefore welcome to compete under a neutral name, without representing their country, organization or their teams’ sponsors on their clothing or otherwise.
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You can read our editorial “Is this the end of the CIS dominance in CS:GO?” to get a better understanding of the matter.
