Virtus.pro CS:GO Lineup to Compete in ESL Pro League Season 15 as 'Outsiders'
The Russian esports organization has allowed its players to compete.
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Virtus.pro's CS:GO lineup has decided to comply with guidelines imposed by ESL and compete in the upcoming ESL Pro League Season 15 under a neutral name.
As reported by both Dexerto and HLTV, Virtus.pro (VP) players will be playing under the banner of 'Outsiders' without representing their organization and any of its sponsors on the team's clothing, keeping in line with ESL's sanctions against organizations with ties to the Russian government,
Virtus.pro recently made a statement against the sanctions imposed by ESL and this did not go down well with the CS:GO community. In the statement released by the Russian esports organization, they had labelled the sanctions imposed by ESL as being a prime example of "cancel culture", while adding that they will not be forbidding their CS:GO players from competing at the tournament.
Russian esports organization Virtus.pro's CS:GO players set to compete in upcoming ESL Pro League Season 15 as 'Outsiders'
Earlier this month ESL decided that any CS:GO organization with ties to the Russian government will not be allowed to participate in the upcoming ESL Pro League Season 15. This affected two teams in particular, Virtus.pro and Gambit Esports, while the latter has not made any statement on the matter the former did speak up on the situation.
The community did not take their 'cancel culture' comment too well and mocked them for the same. However, the part that attracted the most criticism was where VP claimed that they were "not connected to the government (Russian)".
VP's claims of bearing no ties with the Russian Government is untrue as HLTV and Dust2.us have stated that VP is owned by ESFORCE, which is wholly owned by VK, formerly known as Mail.ru Group. Further, VK’s controlling ownership is MegaFon Technology, a business partnership between Insurance company Sogaz, Oil company Gazprom, and Defence company Rostec.
ESL Pro League Season 15 is scheduled to take place from 9th March to 10th April. As for Outsiders, they are placed in Group B which is set to kick off from 16th March onwards. They will be going up against FURIA Esports in their opening match at the tournament.
It will be interesting to see how this special situation affects the VP players, who have shown promise so far in the 2022 circuit, winning ESL Challenger #48 and placing 5th-6th at the IEM Katowice.
