Cover-Credits:
Screengrab from xQc, Virtus.Pro
Virtus.Pro carry Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko’s actions of drawing ‘Z’, a symbol supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the team’s subsequent disqualification from the Eastern European Dota 2 Pro Circuit (DPC) 2021/22 Tour 2 playoffs caught the attention of Felix “xQc” Lengyel, arguably the biggest English Twitch streamer in the world. xQC expressed complete disapproval of Pure’s actions and stated that people shouldn’t bring politics into video games.
xQc comments on Pure and his ‘Z’ drawing on the minimap
After noticing a clip of Pure drawing the ‘Z’ symbol during Virtus.Pro’s match against Mind Games, xQc went on to explain why the symbol is problematic and educated his viewers about how it has become a propaganda symbol for Putin and Russia. “Especially since it is very political in nature, putting it in a game is kind of weird,” he said.
xQc went on to state that Pure knew it was bad to draw the symbol. “You can’t even deny that this guy knew that it was bad though, because he does it and then he immediately scribbles over like he knew. ” he added.
Following this he noticed that Pure and his team had been disqualified from the EEU DPC 2021/22 Tour 2 playoffs. “Guys, I am gonna go out on a limb and say.. I think overall, it doesn’t matter what it is, anything political in the middle of a tournament game, it is just f**king yikes dude. I don’t give a f**k about what side it is for or what it is, but politics into video games? Why? Just why man?” he added.
Pure has since been removed from the Virtus.Pro lineup, with the organization terminating his contract and issuing a rather controversial statement on the matter, expressing shock over the severity of this punishment, particularly with the fact that the entire team was disqualified “based on a drawing on a minimap by [a] single player.”
The team’s offlaner Dmitry "DM" Dorokhin also issued a plea to Valve asking them to reconsider the decision to ban his team from competing in the EEU DPC 2021/22 playoffs. “Don’t ruin our careers just because of some stupid random action by a 18 yo boy,” he said.
