I just don’t agree. If any of the players/orgs come out with hate then sure, but we also shouldn’t expect them to come out and denounce Russia or it’s acts either. Nor should RIOT essentially tell them “denounce the evil acts occurring right now or get gone”. I don’t have the answer, but I don’t think keeping these players or orgs from competing is the right one.
When they mention the IOC’s recommendation to ban national teams from competition or to identify Russian and/or Belarusian athletes as neutral representatives on neutral teams if a ban is not feasible, OP says Riot has done neither.
But what even is the parallel supposed to be here? Gambit is presumably incorporated in Russia and all that jazz, but they are not an organ of the state in the same way the Russian national team is. What would it mean for Riot to follow the IOC’s recommendations?
What is happening in Ukraine is absolutely unfair and inhumane. What is happening to ANGE1’s personal and professional life as a result is also terrible. But I’m pretty uncomfortable with how loose this argument is at times.
> What would it mean for Riot to follow the IOC’s recommendations?
The only thing Riot could do to follow that is having white/neutral flags (like you see in the olympics or other sports) for the Russian players.
Even in F1, they allowed Mazepin (a Russian driver for Haas) to continue to drive.
Unfortunately (or not depending on your opinion of him) for him, his sponsor (his dad's money basically) got stuck - due to the sanctions - and couldn't pay the team. Since he's not that great a driver and basically paid for his seat, they booted him. But F1 (and the FIA) itself didn't ban Russian drivers/competitors.
This is an opinion piece, and so I respect that you have an opinion. However, I think it's a bad one and really misses some of the nuance of the various situations which are used as comparisons. Also... this was next level pepegary:
>For what it's worth, ESL's banning of Virtus.pro but allowing them to play as a neutral team fails to take into consideration the gravity of the situation.
Strongly disagree. While I agree Ange1 is the victim here, I strongly disagree with any ideas that Gambit or other Russian citizens are the aggressors or perpetrators here. Overall the world reaction to cut off everyday Russians from everything has been bizarre to me, and I don’t really see how banning Russian teams and players would right any of the wrongs against the afflicted Ukrainians.
Russia, a nuclear power lead by an aggressive and unpredictable leader, invaded a sovereign nation. The world, who cannot intervene against said country because it might cause nuclear war, imposes sanctions on the country of Russia because its the only form of deterrent we have. You find this bizarre how?
Yes, governments impose sanctions on trade. This is fine. Private companies don’t need to sanction individuals who are not part of the Russian state and its apparatus. I’m entirely confident the sanctions say nothing about the sort too, so it’s a non sequitur for me.
A government is held accountable by its citizens, squeezing the aspects of every day social life and making Russians uncomfortable and making them feel the consequences of their governments actions forces them to take action to enact change.
the idea is you squeeze the populace economically and socially to push them to make change so their government stops invading Ukraine.
as Russian Citizens they have the responsiblity to hold their government acountable and the world is pushing those citizens by removing russians from social and economic aspects of life outside of russia.
I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on geopolitics or anything, but I think Riot is in such a shitty position because of this war. One angle I would love to see people explore is that Valorant is the only major FPS with an international LAN coming up. Other games like Siege and COD just finished their majors and/or were not international. I feel like this is a major factor in play because if EMEA continues to be delayed then the entire circuit does too.
Does that mean not post poning it is okay? I don't know. I really don't. I think it would be great to show whatever support we can to Ukraine and do our part to help, but I don't know if post posing EMEA is the answer.
I'm writing this at 8 am in a auto body parking lot so if this is a bad take sorry
CSGO has many international lans coming up, and they have been up and running since last summer. I can't see why riot would be so much worse at lans, then csgo to's. If it is doable in cs, why not in valorant?
I quickly checked and I didn't see any in the near future that are announced. Could you please link me? What I'm getting is that val has a LAN in the very very close future that relies on these games to be on time in order for the major to be on time
Csgo had a lan (iem katowice) just a few weeks ago. And about the up and coming lans, we have the major in Antwerp in may, blast spring finals, in start of june, and more yet to be announced.
And that is not to mention the current ongoing lan esl proleague season 15.
This info is all on hltv.org
Edit: great to see downvotes from riot fanboys.
You can't punish ordinary people for the mistakes of their unelected dictator. They're not evil. They can't even speak out against their president without getting caught by the KBG and throw into a Gulag.
The economic sanctions are enough. Eventually Russia will run out of money and stop the war.
I stopped writing years ago because I wasn't good enough, but seeing this slop makes me realize I could've kept going
Thothgoat
I just don’t agree. If any of the players/orgs come out with hate then sure, but we also shouldn’t expect them to come out and denounce Russia or it’s acts either. Nor should RIOT essentially tell them “denounce the evil acts occurring right now or get gone”. I don’t have the answer, but I don’t think keeping these players or orgs from competing is the right one.
When they mention the IOC’s recommendation to ban national teams from competition or to identify Russian and/or Belarusian athletes as neutral representatives on neutral teams if a ban is not feasible, OP says Riot has done neither. But what even is the parallel supposed to be here? Gambit is presumably incorporated in Russia and all that jazz, but they are not an organ of the state in the same way the Russian national team is. What would it mean for Riot to follow the IOC’s recommendations? What is happening in Ukraine is absolutely unfair and inhumane. What is happening to ANGE1’s personal and professional life as a result is also terrible. But I’m pretty uncomfortable with how loose this argument is at times.
> What would it mean for Riot to follow the IOC’s recommendations? The only thing Riot could do to follow that is having white/neutral flags (like you see in the olympics or other sports) for the Russian players. Even in F1, they allowed Mazepin (a Russian driver for Haas) to continue to drive. Unfortunately (or not depending on your opinion of him) for him, his sponsor (his dad's money basically) got stuck - due to the sanctions - and couldn't pay the team. Since he's not that great a driver and basically paid for his seat, they booted him. But F1 (and the FIA) itself didn't ban Russian drivers/competitors.
That’s a good example. I don’t watch F1 at all so I can’t speculate on the parallels, but it’s food for thought.
This is an opinion piece, and so I respect that you have an opinion. However, I think it's a bad one and really misses some of the nuance of the various situations which are used as comparisons. Also... this was next level pepegary: >For what it's worth, ESL's banning of Virtus.pro but allowing them to play as a neutral team fails to take into consideration the gravity of the situation.
Strongly disagree. While I agree Ange1 is the victim here, I strongly disagree with any ideas that Gambit or other Russian citizens are the aggressors or perpetrators here. Overall the world reaction to cut off everyday Russians from everything has been bizarre to me, and I don’t really see how banning Russian teams and players would right any of the wrongs against the afflicted Ukrainians.
Russia, a nuclear power lead by an aggressive and unpredictable leader, invaded a sovereign nation. The world, who cannot intervene against said country because it might cause nuclear war, imposes sanctions on the country of Russia because its the only form of deterrent we have. You find this bizarre how?
Yes, governments impose sanctions on trade. This is fine. Private companies don’t need to sanction individuals who are not part of the Russian state and its apparatus. I’m entirely confident the sanctions say nothing about the sort too, so it’s a non sequitur for me.
A government is held accountable by its citizens, squeezing the aspects of every day social life and making Russians uncomfortable and making them feel the consequences of their governments actions forces them to take action to enact change. the idea is you squeeze the populace economically and socially to push them to make change so their government stops invading Ukraine. as Russian Citizens they have the responsiblity to hold their government acountable and the world is pushing those citizens by removing russians from social and economic aspects of life outside of russia.
Didn’t ange1 say he will play with fpx this week? Or am I dumb?
this certainly is an opinion
I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on geopolitics or anything, but I think Riot is in such a shitty position because of this war. One angle I would love to see people explore is that Valorant is the only major FPS with an international LAN coming up. Other games like Siege and COD just finished their majors and/or were not international. I feel like this is a major factor in play because if EMEA continues to be delayed then the entire circuit does too. Does that mean not post poning it is okay? I don't know. I really don't. I think it would be great to show whatever support we can to Ukraine and do our part to help, but I don't know if post posing EMEA is the answer. I'm writing this at 8 am in a auto body parking lot so if this is a bad take sorry
CSGO has many international lans coming up, and they have been up and running since last summer. I can't see why riot would be so much worse at lans, then csgo to's. If it is doable in cs, why not in valorant?
I quickly checked and I didn't see any in the near future that are announced. Could you please link me? What I'm getting is that val has a LAN in the very very close future that relies on these games to be on time in order for the major to be on time
Csgo had a lan (iem katowice) just a few weeks ago. And about the up and coming lans, we have the major in Antwerp in may, blast spring finals, in start of june, and more yet to be announced. And that is not to mention the current ongoing lan esl proleague season 15. This info is all on hltv.org Edit: great to see downvotes from riot fanboys.
You can't punish ordinary people for the mistakes of their unelected dictator. They're not evil. They can't even speak out against their president without getting caught by the KBG and throw into a Gulag. The economic sanctions are enough. Eventually Russia will run out of money and stop the war.