Virtus.Pro will appear in CSGO under a different name. All because of restrictions on Russia

The ESL has imposed a ban on Pro League 15 competitions for organizations that have “visible ties to the government.”

Four days ago, we informed on our website that the ESL decided to exclude two Russian organizations from the Pro League 15 competition. This decision was made for Gambit and Virtus.pro due to “visible ties with the government”.

The organizers, however, did not want to impose similar restrictions on the players themselves, and therefore the VP squad will perform at the tournament, but without any ties to their official team.

The line-up of Virtus.pro will perform under the name “Outsiders”

The Russian organization was recognized as being linked to the Russian authorities, although it denied this claim and even provided documents to prove it. Unfortunately, they were excluded anyway, so a team consisting of two players from Russia, two from Kazakhstan and one from Latvia, will play in the ESL Pro League 15 under a neutral name, without representing their team.

Virtus.pro has even released a statement explaining the situation from its perspective:

• ALSO – You go out to pick up the parcel and suddenly you see Gabe Newell. What was the founder of Valve delivering?

The team itself, however, does not want to limit its players to respect their hard work:

As you know, the Gambit team was also limited in a similar way. At the moment, however, it has not been informed whether its players will take part in the tournament.