Gambit in Jeopardy?

#1

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This thread is not meant to spark political debate. There are potential Valorant consequences of the recent world events.

Blast has recently announced that Russian organizations will not be a part of their CSGO events. It is debatable whether their decision was based on logistics or politics, but the consequence remains the same. The primary team that this effects in Valorant is Gambit (NAVI is Ukranian). Obviously the players of Gambit are not to blame for this situation, and multiple have even spoken out for peace.

The organization of Gambit, however, poses a different issue. Gambit are reportedly owned by a massive state owned Russian conglomerate company. Since many nations and companies are imposing sanctions or severing ties with Russian based companies, especially companies so integral to the Russian state and economy, Gambit could be removed from Valorant events. I think it is unlikely that Gambit are removed from the group stage of EMEA Stage 1, but large scale changes to CIS participation are looming. Riot themselves are no stranger to being part of a massive eastern based technology conglomeration. Gambit as an org could be removed from future events, but a more pressing issue is just the logistics.

Getting Gambit players to international events might be difficult. If travel from Russia in particular is restricted, Gambit may not be able to attend the international Masters events. I anticipate very little being done about this situation unless Gambit qualify for Masters 1.
Travel could also affect any Russian players on other teams who have not left Russia. I do not know where people are located, but there are russian players on FNC, GUILD, NAVI, and FPX.
Please be sensitive and understanding for everyone involved.

#2

bdzez

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theyre not even good who cares

#3

Hide123

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This ratio is good tho

#4

bdzez

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good try

#5

feelsbadboaster

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??

#7

bdzez

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???????? what has you confused little baby ????????????

#8

feelsbadboaster

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Yo mama got me confused😌😌🥱😭😭😁

#10

bdzez

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good try

#18

M0RTY

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true, better try than BR at Masters XDDDDDDD

#29

jblancard

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he is not br

#28

no1haterbutloveyou2

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:)

#32

Onliner

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Ratio

#34

turkey

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8/8 got so many people

#6

Larry

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I don’t know how I feel about this. I get why they are doing it but it feels wrong to punish players and organizations that have nothing to do with what is happening.

#9

DDenied

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It is sad for them but it is a good way to put pressure on the russian government

#11

avepalto

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because putin really cares about Gambit for sure

#36

hiimnsk

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so close minded.. Gambit org has ties to the government. so yeas still puts pressure on the government.

#13

Fat_Lard

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The Russian Government doesn't give a flying fuck about eSports

#15

bigcutepenguin

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yeah they do Team Spirit Invitational 10 https://www.pcgamer.com/vladimir-putin-congratulates-russian-dota-2-team-for-world-championship-win/

#26

Fat_Lard

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And The Champions of the US sports teams go to the White House every year. Does it mean either of them would stop a war they've been planning for decades? Hell no. This has 0 impact on what Russia is doing and only hurts people who have nothing to do with the war(except the fact that they live in Russia).

#38

asdfghjkl

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ur comparing real sports to esports & us and russia are dif asf

#16

DDenied

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its about the whole for example one person doing something to save the planet means fuck all but iff enough people do then it has an impact so esports is just one of many areas

#27

Fat_Lard

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Yes but this all has been Putin's dream for decades now and this is how he wants to leave his mark on history. They've saved billions of dollars over the years in preparation for the economic drawbacks of the war so this won't change Putin's mind on anything. I get the idea but it only really hurts the players and orgs who aren't even involved in all of this.

#22

ChrisPBacon

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I agree with the punishing players part as wrong but Gambit, as mentioned by the thread, is STATE OWNED meaning the organization supports the Russian government's actions. Having a STATE OWNED organization, with relations to the Russian government, participating in your tournament doesn't seem right.

#35

Larry

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Yeah I know, I’m just saying I feel bad for the players who have no involvement in it whatsoever but are being punished.

#12

RATZCLAN

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happiest day of my life

#14

CherryCoke

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The people of Russia are hurting enough because of this.

Why punish the players?

Sad if this happens.

#20

jajajaja

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you must be dumb af, its literally what they should do if they want to continue smoothly at the current situation

not because they should punish russian player

but because they need to save their 1-year planned tournament

organizing an event even online ones on russia would be complicated damn near impossible at the current situation

moreover inviting russian players when their country is restricting travels

would make it hard for the coordinators to manage it

let alone all the tension the event might have for having russian players

know that just cause you believe its not right to punish russian people for what putin does

does not mean every other person living believe its not right

punishing russian players / people from anything may give positive impact towards the current situation

at least the fact that Switzerland finally ditches neutrality to sanction Russia and Putin proves that punishing them might be one of the ways to do it

NOTE: I never said russian players/people in general should be punish, I'm just putting out the fact that punishing them is what many country and a lot other orgs are doing

#25

blueberry

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I’m not reading that you’re wrong

#30

PG_newt

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bro wrote a poem

#17

patuj

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So I guess Acend, Team Liquid and G2 will represent EMEA in Iceland... I mean its not bad, but would suck to not see teams with Russian players. Unless they get stand-ins, but let's say replacing trexx from Guild is extremely hard for example.

#19

nutab1e

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I don't think russian players will be excluded but if riot did do the same as Blast then teams from Russian based orgs would be excluded

#21

patuj

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I mean even the possibility of Russian players being able to fly to Iceland is pretty minimal by looks of it. EU has pretty much blocked airspace from Russian flights. Obviously this might change before Iceland.

#31

fadezis

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Solution: move to CH/KZ and fly to iceland from here😝

#33

patuj

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Could work

#37

hiimnsk

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would be kinda wrong exluding players and would make no sense

#23

Dokka

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We’ve heard literally nothing from Gambit except one tweet from Redgar, I think there is a lot of discussion going on behind the scenes and we may get some news before Friday

#24

Dokka

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Imo excluding Russian players does literally nothing to hurt Putin and only hurts the players themselves which is incredibly unfair, I will be really disappointed if riot announce something like that.

#39

Giannero

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It makes sense tho, it creates discontent in the population, which will eventually led to them not supporting Putin anymore