Virtus.pro cries foul on the “cancel culture” sanctions that ESL has put on the Russian org, amidst the more general sanctions put on Russia by Western businesses.

Virtus.pro has released an official statement with regards to the ban ESL has put out on them as well as co-Russian org Gambit Esports. Through a tweet, Virtus.pro states:

“We are facing a prime example of “the cancel culture”. However, in this case, there are no ultimatums that are supposed to push us towards certain actions. That's why we won't respond to this aggression with aggression of our own by forbitting our players to play in this tournament. They spend lots of time to become pro players, and like some tournament operators, we are not ready to invalidate someone else's efforts. Our players will always be “The Bears”. If they decide to play at the tournament, we will support their decision.”

ESL has earlier offered the players from the Virtus.pro and Gambit Esports clubs to still compete in the upcoming ESL Pro League 15, albeit under a neutral flag, effectively coming in without representing Russia or any other country. A similar arrangement was done in the Olympics, allowing Russian athletes to play under the “Olympic Athletes from Russia” name. Virtus.pro's players have not made any indication yet that they will be playing in the EPL 15 without their organization.

ESL has barred the Russian teams Virtus.pro and Gambit Esports from joining the upcoming EPL 15, due to the organizations' connections to Russian oligarchs, usually as investors to the organizations' businesses. This is part of a growing movement from different organizations within esports and the video game industry that has banded the West together in a bid to put economic pressure on Russia through different forms of sanctions in hopes of putting a stop to its invasion of Ukraine.