The Ukrainian national CS:GO team withdrew from the IESF World Esports Championship 2023. The reason for this was the unbanning of Russians in future tournaments under the federation's auspices.
In addition to the CS:GO team, other Ukrainian representatives — Dota 2, PUBG Mobile, Mobile Legends, and eFootball — also withdrew from the championship. The coach of the PUBG Mobile team, Dmitry Bamb1ni Kuzmenko, shared this information. As of the publication date, the Ukrainian Computer Sports Federation (UESF) has not made an official statement.
Why were the Russians banned?
Russian players and teams had been denied participation in championships under the International Esports Federation (IESF) due to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Unban
On August 28th, it was announced that the International Esports Federation lifted the ban on Russian teams, allowing them to participate in future competitions. They were also permitted to use the flag and anthem. More details can be found at the link.
UESF's Reaction
After the IESF announced the unbanning of Russians, the UESF stated that they would challenge this decision in court. Furthermore, all Ukrainian teams will boycott future tournaments under the IESF. Anton Markelov, the Executive Director of UESF, believes that there is a corrupt element in the international federation's actions and bribery of votes in a closed session against the backdrop of an already tarnished IESF reputation due to financial scandals. Markelov's comment can be found here.
The Ukrainian CS:GO and Dota 2 teams successfully passed their group stages at the IESF World Esports Championship 2023, and teams in other disciplines had just started competing. However, participation in the tournaments was cut short due to IESF's pro-Russian stance despite their armed aggression against Ukraine.
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