Daniel Kloud, Entropiq CEO, has revealed in a an interview with HLTV that the CS:GO team is set to move on from all the Russian members that make up their squad.
Aleksey “El1an” Gusev was transfer listed a month back, with Guy “anarkez” Trachtman filling in for him, and it now looks like Aleksey “NickelBack” Trofimov, Vladislav “Krad” Kravchenko, Igor “Forester” Bezotecheskiy, and head coach Dmitriy “hooch” Bogdanov will follow El1ian without even having completed 18 months with the team.
Image Credits | Entropiq
Kloud addressed the elephant in the room in his announcement but this wasn’t the only reason why the Russian members have been transfer listed. The team have had had a few disappointing campaigns recently, failing to qualify for the PGL Stockholm Major last year and the PGL Antwerp Major this year.
Here’s Kloud’s statement:
“We didn’t achieve our goals this year for various reasons. We especially regret the unsuccessful qualifications for the last two Majors. At the same time, since the beginning of the war [in Ukraine], it has been impossible to fulfill business goals associated with our CIS roster. For these reasons we decided to place the team on a transfer list.”
Russia has a massive esports following and the example of Entropiq just goes on to show how geopolitical conflicts can seep their way into every industry; the esports industry is no different.
The consequences haven’t been as severe as they are in other industries, where sanctions have been ordered against Russian business but there are many obvious issues like travel restrictions, lack of sponsorship money and more. The stance taken by players doesn’t really matter here — it looks like the European esports community will be completely washing its hands off of any Russian affiliation in a few more months.
There were suggestions that Russian players and teams will most likely be competing against Chinese teams but this process hasn’t started yet. As mentioned earlier, Entropiq’s members were allowed to participate in the PGL Antwerp Major after much discussion. The tournament took place around the time of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but the situation has changed since.
Many esports brands and teams were quick to condemn the actions of Russia when the invasion began, immediately separating themselves from any Russian association. Other teams like Entropiq were in a bit of a fix with an all-Russian lineup. It looks Kloud’s announcement was inevitable and it remains to be seen what the future of Entropic and its members will look like.
Image Credits | Entropiq
Russian players who would like to continue competing in Europe will likely have to relocate to another European and go through a process of naturalization, which could take years and might mean being separated from their home for the foreseeable future.
They could also decide to stay and suffer the economic hardships that come with a country undergoing economic sanctions, and essentially bid farewell to an esports career in the elite. There are no easy decisions here for the players or those managing the teams with lots of Russian members. When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.
For now, Entropiq will put all its eggs in the Entropiq Prague, their Balkan CS:GO team, and their all-Polish women’s team Entropiq Queens. The members are unlikely to get picked up by teams before the Rio Major.
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