Ivan ‘Pure’ Moskalenko’s player Virtus.pro caused himself and the team to be eliminated from the Eastern European qualifiers for the tournament ESL One Stockholm Major Dota 2. The reason for the decision to disqualify the team was because Moskalenko drew the letter Z – a symbol used to support Russia’s barbaric attack on Ukraine (Footage sent from Ukraine shows Russian military vehicles painted with the letter Z).
Moskalenko drew the symbol above using the feature that allows players to draw on the minimap in Dota 2 to discuss strategy. After appearing, the letter ‘Z’ was immediately drawn over by Moskalenko’s teammates. The incident happened in the upper bracket semi-final between Outsiders and Mind Games – the team that owns two Ukrainian players.
Virtus.pro entered the tournament under the name Outsiders and won the match. However, after evaluating the incident, the organizing committee Beyond the Summit announced that the team was disqualified, canceled the results of the previous match and recorded the victory as Mind Games.
Beyond the Summit said: “Outsiders will be eliminated from the DPC EEU Tour 2 Regional Playoffs. All future matches as well as previous wins by Outsiders will also be forfeited. We will soon share updated schedule.”
However, according to Moskalenko, the whole thing happened by accident. This player shared in a video posted on Twitter: “The game was paused for a long time, my teammates and I were talking and drawing on the small map. When we realized the exact content of our drawing , we tried to paint over it. I don’t mean to offend anyone, it was all an accident.”
