The Russians will not play in an important esports tournament. Resolute action

The repressions against Russians in sport have been high for several days now. There were also voices that esports should follow a similar path, excluding Russian teams. Yesterday, WePlay officially withdrew from cooperation with Russian partners. As it turns out, it was a spark that slowly started to start a fire.

Prestigious series of tournaments not for Russians

BLAST tournaments are one of the biggest events for CS: GO teams every year. They are characterized by a great organization, great audience and, most importantly, large cash prizes for the best teams. It seems, however, that the Russians will have to deal with them with taste.

BLAST authorities decided not to invite Russian organizations to their tournaments. The organizers emphasized that the classic qualifications for the CIS region will not take place, as the dominant number of participants are Russian brands. BLAST has not specified an exact period of exclusion, but it is intended to last for all “foreseen events”, which is likely to be those for the current year.

This is partly a consequence of the position taken by WePlay. The Ukrainian organization took care of the qualifications for Eastern Europe on behalf of BLAST. By closing itself on its Russian and Belarusian partners, WePlay could not mediate further in this process.

Who will fall out?

There are quite a lot of leading Russian teams that constantly competed in BLAST tournaments. The exclusion will cover, inter alia, two of the world rankings, Gambit Esports. In addition, there will be such well-known formations as Virtus.pro, forZe, Entropiq, K23 or Spirit.

However, the suspension will also have an impact on less renowned teams. In the end, even slightly less experienced and perspective teams could participate in the qualifications. Meanwhile, canceling an elimination completely will block it completely.

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Although Natus Vincere – the first team in the world ranking – has as many as three Russians in its top five, the punishment from BLAST will not apply to them. The organization is Ukrainian, and the other two players are Ukrainians.

Part of the BLAST statement reads:

We apologize to our fans and players in Eastern Europe for our decision, but we believe that not reacting would be wrong with the current events. Esport and gaming unite people of different nationalities, races and beliefs. We hope the world will understand this as soon as possible.