ESL says IEM Katowice will go on as planned despite Ukraine crisis

ESL has guaranteed that IEM Katowice’s CS:GO and Starcraft 2 tournaments will go ahead as planned despite calls for the event to be postponed in the wake of Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

In a brief statement posted on Twitter, ESL said that it is “closely monitoring the situation in Ukraine”, where gunfire and explosions have been heard in several major cities following an attack launched by Russian troops on February 24.

“Our current priority is to support the players, the talent, and the staff who may be affected by it,” ESL said. “The Starcraft 2 and CS:GO tournaments will continue as planned.”

ESL’s statement has been met with some disapproval, with a number of people arguing that the tournaments should be postponed in the wake of the attack.

The Starcraft 2 tournament, which will bring the curtain down on ESL Pro Tour 2021/22, began on February 23 and will run through the end of the week, with $500,000 on the line. None of the 36 players in attendance are from Russia or Ukraine.

But the CS:GO competition is a completely different story. Among the six teams who remain in the tournament, there are two players from Ukraine and ten from Russia, in addition to one coach from each country.

NAVI’s Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev, who is Ukrainian, was shocked by the news of the attack.

“Please, please stop, I can’t take it anymore, we all need peace,” he wrote on Twitter, later adding that his city was being shelled.

On social media, NAVI, a Kyiv-based organization, said they were “devastated” by the recent developments.

“Our main goal right now is to try to stay calm and take care of ourselves, our loved ones, and those who need help,” NAVI said. “We are all together in this. And together we’ll get through it.

“It is impossible that during this war we pretend that everything is okay. It is not.”

IEM Katowice’s CS:GO tournament, featuring a $1 million prize pool, will resume on February 25 after a four-day break. The matches will be held in front of an audience at the Spodek Arena for the first time since 2019 after the 2020 edition was played behind closed doors and the 2021 tournament was held online.