The Ukrainian Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has recently announced a new ban on all Ukrainian athletes from participating in any competition with Russian participation, and this law has been officially published on the official website of the Ukrainian government.
This ban includes all formal or informal competitions. If Ukrainian athletes choose to ignore this ban and insist on participating, they will be forced to return to their country and have their visas and exit permits revoked.
Monte’s coach Imbt subsequently expressed his opinion on social media: Ukrainian athletes generally apply for permission to compete abroad from the Ukrainian esports association. However, the esports association does not have the authority to approve their own applications. They will summarize and submit the applications to the Ukrainian Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports for approval. From the current ban, the future approval process may be stricter and the situation is not optimistic.
Subsequently, Ukrainian commentator “v1lat” expressed his own opinion that this ban would target any national team athlete, but there are still doubts about whether esports players can be considered national teams, so it may not have a significant impact on clubs such as NAVI. However, another commentator “petr1k” quickly retorted: esports players are classified as national team members when applying for documents to play abroad, Therefore, this ban is highly likely to affect the team’s participation abroad.
Due to the fact that one of the two Russian teams, Aurora or ForZe, is bound to advance to Major, if the ban applies to esports, then NAVI and Monte may not be eligible for the Paris Major. Moreover, due to the presence of both Russian players, Electronic and Perfecto, the official approval from Ukraine may be stricter.
