MOSCOW, Apr 30The Russian Dota 2 team Virtus.pro terminated the contract with esportsman Ivan Moskalenko (Pure), who drew the letter Z on the mini-map during the Dota Pro Circuit tournament match. While waiting in the Eastern European DPC League match against the Mind Games team, Moskalenko drew on the mini-map, a symbol that looks like the letter Z. After that, his partners began to paint over the drawing. Moskalenko later apologized for the symbol. He stated that the letter Z he got unconsciously. Beyond the Summit (BTS), which is the organizer of the tournament, has announced the disqualification of the team that played in neutral status under the name Outsiders.
"Any actions have consequences, whether they were intentional or not. Virtus.pro has consistently opposed incitement to hatred and hatred in esports throughout its history. The club terminates the contract with Ivan "Pure" Moskalenko for actions unworthy of a professional player, which led to the disqualification of the team from the tournament and caused enormous damage to the club's relations with the international esports community" Pure during the game first contacted Valve and the tournament organizer, doing their own investigation.Sergei Glamazda, CEO of Virtus.pro, personally spoke with the players to find out more about what happened.Pure publicly explained immediately after the game.BTS also contacted other athletes on our team to hear their version of events We have been advised that the final decision rests with the publisher The severity of the punishment is shocking Valve has a history of imposing disciplinary sanctions but disqualifying an entire team due to a minimap art by one of the players creates a completely new precedent,» Virtus.pro said in a statement posted on Twitter.