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.
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.