BLAST Premier & Elisa Esports restrains from Russian-based teams for the foreseeable future *

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Update:

• On March 2, Nordic Esports Operator Elisa Esports also announced that it suspends all the Russian-owned esports organizations from participation in its tournaments until further notice.

Original article:

Danish-based CS:GO tournament series BLAST Premier announced that it will no longer invite Russian-based teams to its tournaments for the foreseeable future due to war in Ukraine. The company also cancelled CIS qualification to its upcoming BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2022 event.

BLAST Premier apologized to CIS esports fans and players, but still mentioned that it's the appropriate decision to make in the current situation. "Gaming and esports unites people from all races, countries and beliefs. We hope the situation on the world stage reflects this as soon as possible", — says the statement on Twitter.

Source

The decision of TO will surely affect some of the most well-known esports clubs from Russia, including Gambit Esports, Virtus.pro, and Team Spirit.

Over the past few days several esports events were postponed or cancelled due to war between Russia and Ukraine, including Apex Legends Global Series, League of Legends Continental League, VCT 2022 EMEA Stage 1 Challengers and PUBG Mobile Pro League CIS 2022. In addition, Valve has postponed the start of the spring season of Dota Pro Circuit 2021/2022 in Eastern Europe for and indefinite period of time.

Also Read: VCT EMEA & PMPL CIS postponed due to Russian invasion in Ukraine