Amid the ongoing crisis in Ukraine due to Russia's invasion, ESL has taken their own measures in protesting for Ukraine. Following in the footsteps of Blast Premier, ESL has announced that they are banning organizations with “ties to the Russian government” from playing in ESL Pro League 15. Thus far, they have identified Virtus.Pro and Gambit Esports as two teams who fall under these criteria.

However, ESL isn't shutting the door completely for these rosters to compete in Pro League 15. (via ESL Gaming)

“We recognize that players are not complicit with this situation, and we do not think it is in the spirit of esports to impose sanctions on individual players. The Virtus.pro and Gambit players are therefore welcome to compete under a neutral name, without representing their country, organization or their teams’ sponsors on their clothing or otherwise.”

In addition to these sanctions, ESL is also cancelling any scheduled CIS events until further notice.

If VP and Gambit both decide to not compete at all in the ESL Pro League, this will be a huge blow to the scene. Both teams are some of the best CS:GO has to offer, with Gambit in particular being second only to Natus Vincere (the reigning Major champions) in HLTV's official ranking system. Losing both of them for an indefinite period of time will massively shake up the CS:GO scene.

The next major ESL event is ESL Pro League 15, with both Virtus.Pro and Gambit set to compete there. With the tournament set to happen in less than a week, it will be an interesting time to see whether they find a suitable replacement for these teams.