Team Ukraine withdraws from IESF WEC 2023 due to Team Russia’s attendance

Team Ukraine withdrew from IESF WEC 2023 after the organizers allowed Russian teams to participate in the upcoming events.

Recall that following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Esports community united and many tournament organizers banned Russian teams and players from their tournaments. However, over time, these bans and vetoes are gradually lifting.

Similarly, this decision comes after IESF members voted completely in favor of Russian players and teams being allowed to compete under the flag and name of their country. As a result, this did not sit well in Ukraine and many countries worldwide, so Team Ukraine decided to withdraw its CS:GO and Dota 2 teams from the IESF WEC 2023.

Team Ukraine withdraws from IESF WEC 2023

After the IESF announced that the veto on Russian teams and players was no longer active, CS:GO and Dota 2’s Team Ukraine withdrew from the competition.

Ukraine National Team Concludes Participation in @iesf_official 2023

Due to the disgraceful decision by IESF regarding the re-entry of members from a terrorist country into future competitions, the Ukrainian Esports Federation refuses to continue the participation of our… pic.twitter.com/ymUTTeCJCX

— IKLA (@iklagg) August 30, 2023

According to a statement on the official RESF (Russian Esports Federation) blog, 32 of the IESF delegates voted to remove the Russian veto. They also mentioned that 13 voted against and, finally, 25 abstained.

In both CS:GO and Dota 2, Team Ukraine had demonstrated a high level of play. In Dota 2, the team qualified for the playoffs but lost in their first Upper Bracket match to Kyrgyzstan. However, when the IESF released the news, the team decided to withdraw from the tournament before the match against Indonesia, so they lost by FF. To this, Ivan “Kidaro” Bondarev, Support of Team Ukraine Dota 2 team said:

“After the news and the fact that the decision to remove Russia’s veto is final, there is no desire to compete anymore.”

On the other hand, Team Ukraine’s CS:GO team was in the quarterfinals in the playoffs and would play against Team Serbia. However, the team announced that it was withdrawing from the tournament because of the situation regarding Russia.

UESF accuses delegates of taking bribes

So far, the IESF has not yet made any official statement regarding lifting Russia’s tournament bans. However, the UESF (Ukrainian Esports Federation) said and promised they would challenge the decision in court. In addition, they also accused IESF delegates of taking bribes to allow Russia again to participate in the events.

According to the UESF on its Telegram channel, the IESF is immersed in different corruption scandals.

“We have some unpleasant news.

 

Despite all the protests and attempts by the Ukrainian Federation to prevent this, the International Esports Federation IESF returned Russians to its tournaments. It lifted the ban on using the flag.

 

We see this as a corruption component and bribery of delegates’ votes, as the international federation is already mired in corruption scandals.

 

We will appeal this decision in court and fight for a re-vote on this issue.

 

But we would like to add that this does not mean that the orcs will return to the Federation of Europe, from which we, together with most European federations, stopped their membership!

Yes, it is a tactical defeat today, but the war continues!

And we will win!”

For now, we can only wait for the official statement from the IESF regarding this situation. We invite you to stay tuned to our publications, as we will update the information as soon as possible.

Header: IESF