The Risk For A Strange Double Standard: forZe at the Major.

On February 24, the Kremlin, through the intermediary of its "president" Vladimir Putin, announced the beginning of an offensive on Ukrainian soil, which quickly turned out to be an unofficial declaration of war. Since then, it has been difficult to ignore the fact that chaos reigns in this region of the world. It didn't take long for the esports world to be strongly affected.

Tournament organizers have taken turns to distance themselves from the regime in Russia. BLAST, on March 1, announced the exclusion of all teams based in the country, while ESL, two days later, adopted a more moderate position by banning teams with "apparent links" to the Kremlin. By "apparent", ESL is referring to international sanctions, citing in particular those issued by the European Union.

Gambit Esports and Virtus.pro were the two Russian teams first targeted. Their parent companies stack up like Russian dolls (obligatory joke) until the largest one is linked to power in some way.

Gambit was acquired in 2018 by Russian telecom giant Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), itself owned by the Sistema conglomerate, controlled by oligarch Vladimir Yevtushenkov. While the European Union and the United States have not yet sanctioned Yevtushenkov or his companies, the United Kingdom has placed his name on the list of sanctioned individuals on April 13, prompting it to cede control of the group in the process. It has also been reported that Yevtushenkov was among the thirteen oligarchs summoned by Putin just before the start of the invasion.

Vladimir Yevtushenkov, co-owner of MTS and Gambit.

Concerning Virtus.pro, the link is much more direct and simplistic. It is under the yoke of the company ESForce, itself owned by the VK group which was bought, in 2021, by the Sogaz Insurance Group, a conglomerate targeted by European sanctions since February 28.

Globally, Virtus.pro and Gambit were the only two structures targeted by the CS:GO tournament organizers' sanctions.

On April 19, the forZe team managed to qualify for the next Major in Antwerp with three wins and one loss. In the meantime, PGL, the organizer of the qualifying tournaments for this Major (RMR) and the aforementioned Major, has also joined BLAST and ESL in banning any representation of a Kremlin-linked organization at the Belgian tournament, without however specifying the nature of the links taken into account. Economic? If so, what? Ideological?

Doubts have been raised about forZe, whose main sponsor, Lukoil, is none other than the second largest oil producer in Russia. Its founder and president, Vaguit Alekperov, the seventh largest national fortune, has also been placed, like Vladimir Yevtushenkov in the case of Gambit, on the list of oligarchs sanctioned by the United Kingdom. He had publicly called for an end to the Russian invasion, but was forced to resign from his position on the board of directors of the oil group on April 21.

Vaguit Alekperov, former CEO of Lukoil, with Vladimir Putin.

Of course, forZe is not, strictly speaking, owned by the Lukoil group. Nevertheless, it is likely that a large part, if not the major part, of its financing comes from this company whose name has been attached to the team's name for several months now. Does this make it more acceptable? With the founder's resignation after the conclusion of the RMR, it seems impossible that this decision would have worked in the organization's favor when it came time to compete for the Major, despite being organized by PGL.

It seems that the organizers - BLAST, ESL and PGL included - had very limited time to announce their decisions about the participation of Russian-based structures in their competitions. If the case of Virtus.pro must be unanimous as the link with a company close to the Kremlin is obvious and objectified, the cases of Gambit and forZe force us to think.

Why is it legitimate to exclude Gambit, whose owner was, for the moment at least, only sanctioned by the United Kingdom (understand here that the European Union and the United States did not intervene) and allow forZe, a team whose CEO and co-shareholder of the major sponsor was sanctioned in the same way, i.e. only by the United Kingdom? Isn't sponsorship, as important as it is for an organization, a relationship thick enough to be at least considered?

Lukoil is the main sponsor of forZe since 2018

However, the difference between a partner and a parent company is that it is a priori easier to separate from the former than from the latter, especially in such cases. So why is Lukoil still on the list of forZe sponsors? Why should we be offended that the US Air Force once sponsored Cloud9 and compLexity and now ESL without questioning a sponsor like Lukoil whose co-shareholder and president has been sanctioned by the UK for his links with a regime responsible for the death of tens of thousands of innocent people AT THIS TIME.

At the end of the press release, PGL promised transparency about the situation. It's time to stick to it, especially since the situation is likely to last, and to give a little more detail on this notion of "links" between "individuals" or "organizations" and the Russian government, otherwise we are not safe from a strange double standard.