BLAST will not invite teams from Russia to its championships
/The Danish tournament operator BLAST has decided not to invite teams from Russia to their championships. The decision was prompted by "the conflict in Ukraine", quoting BLAST comments.
Due to the conflict in Ukraine, no Russian team will participate in our tournaments for the foreseeable future. Our qualification for the CIS has also been cancelled. We apologize to fans and CIS players for this decision, but we do not consider it acceptable to hold a tournament at such a time. Games and esports bring people of all races, countries and faiths together. We hope that the situation on the world stage will soon also reflect this principle.
The announcement concerns not only BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2022, but also the upcoming WePlay CIS Masters: Spring 2022. Virtus.pro, K23, Entropiq and forZe were supposed to take part in the championship. Probably, the changes will also affect Gambit, which should have received a direct invite to BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2022 due to its rating in the BLAST Premier table.
At the moment, it is not known whether this news will affect other clubs from the CIS, including NAVI, which includes three representatives of Russia. At the same time, the team must perform at BLAST Premier: Spring Finals 2022, which is scheduled for June. In addition, the prospects for Russian teams at future championships, in particular at PGL Major Antwerp 2022, are very vague. I would like to believe that the military conflict on the territory of Ukraine will soon be resolved and all those responsible for unjustified actions against the civilian population will be punished.
[Updated]It is clarified that the BLAST solution does not apply to NAVI and Entropiq, since the organizations are based in Ukraine and the Czech Republic, respectively. The restrictions affect exclusively Russian organizations, some of which belong to people close to the regime that has declared war on the civilian population of Ukraine.
BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2022 is scheduled to run from April 27 to May 1 online. The organizers planned to hold the championship, dividing the participants into sub-regions: Europe and North America.