Virtus.Pro Mocked After Blaming "Cancel Culture" for ESL Pro League Ban

Virtus.pro (VP) came forward with a response to the ban imposed by ESL against the esports organizations with ties to the Russian government. The organization took a firm stance against the decision while labelling it as a prime example of “cancel culture”.

On 2^nd March, ESL due to the ongoing Ukraine crisis had taken a decision to ban esports organizations that had apparent links to the Russian government for the upcoming ESL Pro League Season 15, scheduled to take place from 9^th March to 10^th April, which included both VP and Gambit Esports.

Unfortunately for VP, their response to the situation has been mocked by the majority of the CS:GO community, mainly for two reasons,

• For stating that (Virtus.pro) is not connected to the Russian government. Something for which it has been publicly called out by esports journalist Ryan, who is the editor-in-chief of dust2.us.

• For calling out ESL’s ban as a means of getting cancelled. For this particular take, the organization has received heavy criticism from community members.

Virtus.pro blames ‘cancel culture’ for ESL Pro League ban

ESL, when imposing sanctions against organizations that have ties to the Russian government, clearly stated that the Russian players are still free to participate and compete in the tournament as long as they do it under a neutral name, without representing their country, organization, and any of the team sponsors.

Despite this, Virtus.pro in its statement against this decision outright said that this move by one of the biggest tournament organizers in the world was “a prime example of cancel culture”. This did not go down well with the members of the CS:GO community, who called out VP and mocked them across social media platforms.

Additionally, VP went on to state that it is not connected to the Russian government and expressed that it would not tolerate such kind of behaviour.

“There are no rational reasons to suspend us from playing in tournaments, apart from prejudice and pressure from the outside,” stated Virtus.pro, while adding that the same had transpired with their Dota 2 team at the currently ongoing GAMERS GALAXY: Invitational Series Dubai 2022.

However, as stated by HLTV and Dust2.us, Virtus.pro is owned by ESFORCE, wholly owned by VK, formerly Mail.ru Group. VK’s controlling ownership is MegaFon Technology, a business partnership between Insurance company Sogaz, Oil company Gazprom, and Defence company Rostec.

Additionally many have pointed out that Virtus.pro had received funding of about $100 million from Alisher Usmanov - Russian business magnate and oligarch, in the past. Though since then the ownership has been handed over, it was still under the influence of the Russian government, as it was the state-run insurer Sogaz that got a hold of the organization’s shares.