The Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to launch the Cyberchampionship. At the annual tournament, veterans will compete against each other in video games like World of Tanks or League of Legends. However, the popular shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will be absent from the tournament.
Why will the shooter be absent? An employee of the Russian tournament organizer explained that the game was banned due to its “one-sided reporting on political events in the game universe” (via pcgamer.com).
The exact background remains unclear, as CS:GO does not portray political events in the game and does not address current political issues. The omission of CS:GO is particularly controversial because some of the best CS:GO players come from Russia.
Some of the Russian professionals were even suspected of supporting their country’s war:
– Ukraine Live Blog (via Zeit)
– War in Ukraine (via nzz)
– Solidarity with Ukraine (via auswärtiges-amt)
Important note: If you are troubled by dark thoughts due to the current situation: You are not alone. Please seek help. For example, from the telephone counseling service at 0800/111 0 111 or the online counseling, where you can also use a chat. It’s free and applies nationwide.
Several journalists therefore suspect that an action by the Finnish newspaper “Helsingin Sanomat” could be behind it (via dotesports.com). The journalism team created a map in CS:GO that displayed Eastern European cities destroyed by the war.
The maps are also said to have contained images with texts that are otherwise not available in Russia. The journalists wanted to provide “uncensored access to the horrors of the war in Ukraine in their native language”.
CS:GO has recently begun a new era. Counter-Strike 2 is getting some changes that you can see in the following trailer:
All known games of the Cyberchampionship
Which games are allowed to participate? Among the games featured at the tournament is the portfolio of the tournament organizer Lesta Games itself. The publisher distributes games like World of Tanks and World of Warships in Russia after Wargaming transferred the rights in the country to the company. Wargaming has nothing to do with the tournament.
Thus, the following games will be displayed at the tournament:
- World of Tanks
- World of Warships
- World of Tanks Blitz
- League of Legends
The tournament is supposed to support games from the home region and from “friendly countries”. This includes League of Legends, whose developer studio Riot Games is owned by the Chinese company Tencent.
Which other games will be seen during the Cyberchampionship and how the tournament will be broadcasted is still unknown. Further details are likely to follow in the coming time.
Due to the Ukraine conflict, many games like WoW and New World are no longer playable in Russia. Therefore, other titles are currently experiencing a surge in popularity:
Because WoW is no longer playable in Russia, an old game is now bursting at the seams
