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ESL through an official statement have announced that they have cut ties with the Russian government which include individuals or organizations under alleged or confirmed EU sanctions related to the ongoing political conflict between Russia and Ukraine which follows the word that no Russian based teams would be allowed to participate at the Pro League Season 15.
Virtus.pro and Gambit have been flagged as the teams who won’t be able to participate at the EPL S15 under their original banners although they can compete under a different team name. Unlike BLAST and WePlay, ESL never held the players guilty for the current conflict and gave them a safe passage to compete. In addition, they would have to change their team merchandise which should not represent anything related to the Russian ethnicity.
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.
Furthermore, out of respect for the situation, we decided to pause all scheduled competitions in the CIS region and they can be played at a later point in time.
We will monitor and evaluate future competitions and make further decisions as the situation evolves
ESL
Ever since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, massive business conglomerates have decided to either pull out of the CIS region or discontinue their services until there is clarity on the political tensions although there has been a massive support in the interest of Ukraine.
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