According to a report by Dexerto the CS:GO players of Virtus Pro will be playing under the name ‘outsiders’ during ESL Pro League Season 15. Virtus Pro was prohibited from participating in the competition by ESL because of their ties to Russia and its government, much like Gambit Esports, but allowed their players to still compete if they’d participate under a different banner, which they decided to do.
Addressing ESL Pro League statement on https://t.co/RghpmPyTHr. pic.twitter.com/sfNliB4rGU
— Virtus.pro (@virtuspro) March 4, 2022
Despite the CS:GO team going ahead and playing under a different name, Virtus Pro has been speaking out about their ban imposed by ESL, which they call unfair and a result of ‘cancel culture’. “We are facing a prime example of the cancel culture. However in this case , there are no ultimatums that are supposed to push us towards certain actions. That’s why we won’t respond to this aggression with aggression of our own by forbidding our players to play in this tournament. They spend lots of time to become pro players and unlike some tournament operators, we are not ready to invalidate someone else’s efforts.
Outsiders (Virtus.Pro):
- Timur “buster” Tulepov
- Aleksei “Qikert” Golubev
- Dzhami “Jame” Ali
- Mareks “YEKINDAR” Galinskis
- Evgeniy “FL1T” Lebedev
Also read:
- Virtus.Pro claims to be threatened with disqualification at Gamers Galaxy Dota 2 Invitational
- Virtus.pro and ENCE secure a spot in the PGL Stockholm Major 2021 Legends Stage
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