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Virtus.Pro has terminated its contract with Ivan "Pure" Moskalenko. The Dota 2 pro drew a Russian militarist symbol in-game, resulting in the team being disqualified from the DPC EEU playoffs.
The Russian esports organization announced his release on Twitter while criticizing Valve for the decision to disqualify the entire team.
"The severity of the punishment is shocking."
Pure also released a statement on the team's official Twitter handle, calling the drawing "accidental."
Virtus.Pro disqualified from tournament, terminates Pure
Virtus.Pro, whose esports rosters have played under the name Outsiders due to sanctions against the Russian government, was disqualified from the DPC EEU Regional Playoffs. The reason stems from an incident that occurred during a pause in Game 1 of its match with Ukrainian esports organization Mind Games.
During the pause, Virtus.Pro carry player Pure drew the letter "Z" on the in-game minimap. The letter has recently been used as a pro-Russian symbol in the ongoing war in Ukraine.
While the origins and meaning of the symbol are unknown, as the letter is not used in the Cyrillic alphabet, it has been used by the Russian government and military in pro-war messaging.
After the match, it was reported that Virtus.Pro would be disqualified from the tournament, forfeiting all future matches and retroactively awarding a victory to Mind Games.
After news of the team's disqualification broke, the team announced that it would terminate its contract with Moskalenko. The CIS esports organization further stated that it contacted Valve about the incident immediately after and performed its own investigation.
The esports team added that the organization's CEO Sergey Glamazda spoke to the players in between games when Moskalenko admitted to what he had done.
Virtus.Pro also criticized Valve's disqualification of the team. In its statement, the team called the punishment "shocking," saying that punishing the organization based on one player's actions was unfair:
"Disqualifying the whole team from a DPC tournament based on a drawing on a minimap by a single player sets up a whole new precedent."
The team terminated Pure's contract for "diminishing actions" that led to the team's disqualification as well as eroding its relationship with the worldwide esports community. The team said it would announce further roster changes separately.
Fans react to Virtus.Pro's disqualification, Pure's release
As most of the western world has sided with Ukraine in the ongoing war with Russia, many fans have had unkind words for Moskalenko and the Virtus.Pro organization.
Many were glad to see his career potentially ended for the pro-militarist symbol.
Many criticized Virtus.Pro's statement against Valve, as well as their stated reasoning for terminating Moskalenko's contract. Fans believed that the team released him because they received punishment while minimizing the severity of his actions.
Many likened the statement by the organization to Russian President Vladimir Putin's comments on cancel culture, where he argued that sanctions placed on Russia in the wake of the war were unjustified.
While it is unknown what is next for Pure and the Virtus.Pro organization, this was certainly a dark moment when esports and current real-world conflicts intersected.
