Professional Valorant Player BraveAF, who currently plays for Swedish org Fnatic has been suspended from the active roster after screenshots revealed that he was in support of the Russia-Ukraine war. As per the chat log, BraveAF did not categorize the invasion as ‘all out war’.
The screenshots were first posted by WePlay Media Talent and Ukrainian national Aleksei “yXo” Maletskyi. The chat logs were of a conversation between Andrey ‘BraveAF’ Gorchakov and a Ukrainian woman Nikole ‘T1gerToes’ Lee. In the instagram DM screenshot, BraveAF can be seen saying
“I really hope it’s going to end as soon as possible. And Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus will be united because no one from the West wants it. It’s needed. And I hope that yours [Ukrainian people] will understand it as fast as possible. They want to divide us, set us against each other.
People from the West achieved the collapse of the USSR and now they want to collapse the CIS. And Ukraine gives way. Putin is not going to let it happen. Okay, I’m not really competent in this type of thing. I will be honest, I’m judging through my lens. You should give up as fast as possible. there will be no casualties among civilians. Putin said. It’s not about civilians. It’s not all-out war.”
According to Nikole, the screenshots were from 24th february 2022, the day the invasion started. Later on the Valorant pro deleted the conversation, saying ‘you burned our correspondence’ and then proceeded to block her.
Once these screenshots were made public, the community was outraged and wanted an immediate response from fnatic. Other esports pros from Valorant and other games alike, shared their views on the situation.
CSGO legend s1mple said “you can immediately see the mentality of a professional – GIVE UP!”
FunPlus Phoenix IGL ‘ANGE1’ said “Some Russians think we should give up as fast as possible, right BraveAF? Well this is your and yours government biggest mistake, u don’t know sh**about Ukrainians”
A few hours later, fnatic released a statement saying they have launched an investigation into the matter. They also said that BraveAF is suspended from pro play until the investigation is finished, and there will be more updates in the coming days.
