The company of eSport ESL announced that organizations from Russia or “with apparent links to the Russian government” will be banned from the next ESL Pro League. In the statement shared on its website, ESL said it also includes individuals or organizations under alleged or confirmed EU sanctions related to the conflict in this wording, leaving little room for doubt as to who will actually be banned.
ESL Pro League: Russia will be banned from the competition
These rules identify two teams in particular to which the ban applies at the time of writing, Virtus.pro e Gambit. However, players from these two teams will still be able to compete if they decide not to represent their country or organization.
“We recognize that players are not complicit in this situation and we do not think it is in the spirit of esports to impose penalties on individual players,” he said. ESL. “Virtus.pro and Gambit players are therefore invited to compete under a neutral name, without representing their country, organization or sponsor of their teams on their clothing or anything else.”
In addition, ESL will suspend all scheduled competitions in the CIS region, out of respect for the situation. Yesterday, the Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov posted a letter on Twitter addressed to all game development companies and eSports platforms asking them to take measures to encourage Russian citizens to end the invasion of Ukraine.