Esports leagues bar Russian-owned teams, cancel regional events
Enlarge / Members of Virtus.pro will be able to participate in ESL events individually but not as representatives of the Russian-owned team. (credit: Virtus.pro)
Some major esports leagues are following the lead of their traditional sports counterparts in banning Russian-based teams and canceling events planned to be held in the region amid Russia's continuing invasion of Ukraine. But at least one affected team is lashing out at the decision, blaming it on "prejudice" and "the cancel culture."
On Wednesday, the popular ESL Pro League became the latest to announce it was barring "organizations with apparent ties to the Russian government, including individuals or organizations under alleged or confirmed EU sanctions related to the conflict" from participating in its events. The league stopped short of sanctioning individual players on those teams, though, saying they were "not complicit with this situation" and were welcome to still compete "under a neutral name, without representing their country, organization, or their teams’ sponsors on their clothing or otherwise."
ESL identified two teams that would be initially affected by these sanctions, Virtus.pro and Gambit. The former is owned by ESFORCE, which is in turn owned by a partnership between Russian oil company Gazprom, insurance company Sogaz, and defense company Rostec, all of which have faced sanctions from the international community.