Sh1ro Comments On The Controversy Over His CS:GO Major Sticker

Cover-Credits: 

Sh1ro Comments After Being Accused of Supporting Russia Over CS:GO Major Sticker

The Cloud9 recruit from Russia has finally spoken up on the situation.

Aditya Singh Rawat
Updated On: 
Highlights
Russian players sh1ro and interz became targets of unfair accusations for alleged usage of the 'Z' symbol in their player autographs for the PGL Antwerp Major 2022.
Multiple known personalities called them out for the same but upon deeper inspection by the likes of launders and Richard Lewis things became clear.
A day after the incident, sh1ro has come forward with a personal statement regarding the whole situation.

Valve had released the highly anticipated Major update for CS:GO yesterday which included everything from teams stickers, player autographs, Antwerp 2022 viewer pass, pick'em challenge, and everything in between.

While most of the community was busy celebrating, a wave of accusations tore through the internet accusing two Russian CS:GO players, Dmitriy "sh1ro" Sokolov and Timofey "interz" Yakushin, of supporting the war against Ukraine through the use of the 'Z' symbol in their player signature stickers.

The two players had become targets of unresearched information that had been presented out of context, but thanks to Canadian caster Mohan "launders" Govindasamy and esports journalist Richard Lewis the facts were presented quickly thereafter and the situation settled down.

Now, sh1ro has come forward to address the situation and make a personal comment on everything that transpired, with the community supporting and wishing him the best for the upcoming PGL Antwerp Major 2022.

Sh1ro makes a statement on the player signature sticker controversy

Sh1ro along with his teammate interz was falsely accused of using a pro Russian symbol hidden as part of their autographed stickers for the Antwerp Major. The 20-year-old Russian AWPer has come forward with a personal statement on the matter,

"Don't look for [a] hidden meaning where none exists. My business is to play CS:GO, not to make hidden diversions."

Note: The above has been translated from Russian to English using DeepL.

Statement made by sh1ro

It all started when Jack Etienne - CEO and Founder of Cloud9, shared a Tweet about having received a sh1ro player signature sticker.

Sh1ro - Player signature sticker for Antwerp Major

Soon after in a now-deleted tweet, French journalist neL had made a remark about how the 'Z' squiggle at the bottom of sh1ro's autograph could be mistaken by many as the symbol to support the Ukraine invasion. His final remark of the signature sticker being "very clumsy, to say the least".

Similar thoughts were echoed by both Polish caster Piotr "izak" Skowyrski and Ukrainian CS:GO coach Ivan "Johnta" Shevtsov, both of them being more direct and assertive of the symbol's presence.

However, the majority of the community's outlook on the matter stayed positive towards sh1ro and interz because launders and Richard Lewis came forward to present a bunch of facts pertaining to the situation.

This provided the much-needed context regarding the whole situation, along with a timeline on how things related to the player autograph had actually transpired. Not only did it clear sh1ro and interz names, as they were being painted in a bad light based on assumptions, but it also shut down the spread of misinformation before it got out of hand.

Sh1ro's statement was further retweeted by interz who seems to share similar thoughts on the whole situation. The two players along with the rest of the team continue to prepare for the Major and are all set to make their debut for Cloud9.


Published On: 
author profile picture
Aditya is the in-house CS:GO writer at AFK Gaming. While his understanding of the esports space is not restricted by geographical borders, his current focus lies in the Asian region. Understands and follows almost all major esport titles.

Follow us on social media

facebook-logotwitter-logoinstagram-logodiscord-logolinkedin-logo
google-news-logo

Others Also Read