Alliance Withdraws From D2CL S8 Amidst Russia's Invasion of Ukraine

Alliance has withdrawn its Dota 2 team from the Dota 2 Champions League Season 8 (D2CL S8). The organization stated on its Twitter account that it can no longer compete in the event due to the ongoing Russian aggression in Ukraine. At the same time, Beyond the Summit (BTS), which was providing the English coverage of the D2CL S8, also announced on Twitter that it would cease to do so as well. At the time of writing, Epic Esports Events, the organizer of the D2CL S8, has not commented on these withdrawals.

Alliance and BTS withdraw from D2CL S8 citing the Russian invasion of Ukraine

“We can no longer participate in the tournament due to the ongoing war in Ukraine and Putin’s unacceptable aggression towards the Ukrainian people,” Alliance wrote. Having expressed solidarity with Ukraine, the organization also posted donation links on its tweets.

Expressing solidarity with Ukraine, Beyond the Summit also discontinued its official English coverage of the D2CL S8, as well as the Russian language coverage of the BTS Pro Series S10 that RuHub had been handling.

BTS and Alliance's decisions come a day after Natus Vincere (NAVI) severed all ties with ESforce Holding, which owns Epic Esports Events as well as RuHub, Virtus.pro, and cybersports.ru. The end of this partnership by NAVI was attributed to ESforce Holding's public denial of the "horror" happening in Ukraine.

Many of ESforce Holding's organizations have not taken a public stance regarding the ongoing Russia-Ukraine standoff. However, a now-deleted tweet from RuHub stated that the org, Epic Esports Events, and Virtus.pro were supportive of sending troops to Ukraine and were actively searching for employees who were in disagreement with them through the help of security. RuHub claimed later that the tweet was made by a former employee with unauthorized access to the account.

ESforce Holding is owned by VK (formerly Mail.ru Group), which reportedly has ties to the Kremlin.

Furthermore, Virtus.pro, which was set to compete at the Gamers Galaxy: Invitational Series Dubai 2022, said last night that it was threatened with disqualification from the event. It stated that it was given an ultimatum to issue an official statement on the Russian invasion or face disqualification. Gamers Galaxy organizers Nigma Galaxy SEA and WePlay Holding have yet to respond to these allegations.

Ukrainian and international esports teams and organizers withdrawing and breaking ties with various segments of Russian esports is consistent with what major international sports federations have been doing. The IOC, FIFA, and others have all taken action against Russian teams and organizations.