Russia excluded Counter-Strike from esports tournaments

Russia’s attacks reached Counter-Strike, as the president of this country, Vladimir Putin, announced that a video game tournament would be organized in his country, where only Russian video games would be included. While World of Tanks and League of Legends are on the list of possible titles to be played, CS:GO is completely ruled out due to “political reasons.”

In early February, several reports indicated that Russia planned to ban CS:GO and Fortnite as a “blocking” measure, claiming that they are video games that incite “violence” in young people. However, from this point on, we heard no more of this issue, as it is no secret to anyone that many of the world’s best CS:GO players are Russian nationals.

Then, in early May, a Finnish newspaper called Helsingin Sanomat created a CS:GO map in collaboration with the community to “inform” Russian players about what was happening in the invasion of Ukraine. The Russian government has begun to take action, and the first measure is to exclude CS:GO from future tournaments organized in the country.

All-Russian video game event

Last May 30, a Russian news website called “Kommersant” reported that Lesta Games organized this online video game event. But first, let’s remember that this company took over WoT when Wargaming.net decided to leave Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.

The information published shows that, World of Tanks, Tanks Blitz and World of Ships competitions will be included. In addition, it is also noted that there will be different games developed by Russian companies and “friendly countries”.

The case of League of Legends is simple, as the game developers Riot Games are owned by Tencent, a conglomerate based in China.

Counter-Strike banned in Russia

As we know, Valve is headquartered in the United States, so CS:GO is completely ruled out of this online event that will be played across the Russian national territory. However, Gaukhar Aldiyarova, in charge of the Moscow division of Lesta Games, said this game is not part of the event due to political problems “within the game universe.”

However, we all know that CS:GO is a title with no narrative or scenario and much less a story like other video games. Moreover, what is most confusing about this situation is that political problems are alleged as the justification for the veto.

But, as we mentioned above, it may all be because of the map created by the Finnish newspaper, which informs Russian players of everything happening in the Ukraine invasion.

While this is not an official map added by Valve to CS:GO, the fact that it remains in the game may convince the Russian government that Valve supports this type of content.

Games of the Future

It is still unclear whether this CS:GO ban will be just for this tournament that will be played in the coming weeks or permanently. However, it is worth noting that, in 2024, an event called Games of the Future will be organized in Kazan, Russia.

This tournament will have a prize pool of $25,000,000 and will feature 16 esports titles. However, nothing is confirmed about which games will be in this event.

Header: Valve