Frankly speaking, it’s unlikely that the upcoming Counter-Strike major is going to happen at all this year, under the COVID-19 concern as Brazil is dealing with a greater outbreak than the United States. As it stands, however, Brazil is currently slated to hold the upcoming Counter-Strike: Global Offensive major and that has teams, fans, and management alike rather concerned for their players.
At the heart of all of this is, once again, MIBR; the Brazilian team known for making racist comments and encouraging fans to lobby against teams that they lose against. Of the past two teams that MIBR has played against, both teams have received multiple death threats and stated murderous intent from fans of MIBR.
With the past of the team, where KNG attempted to find an opponent to ‘kill’ after the match (due to the team implying they were late due to partying), that resulted in the police being called and KNG needing restrained. This player is still playing for professional teams within CS:GO.
It’s difficult to state, with this in mind, that MIBR is not a tremendous aspect of the rage-induced issue with Brazilian esports as they currently stand, and it’s a shame. Other teams such as FURIA continue to set pristine examples of sportsmanship and competitive integrity; a shame as the team name MIBR means ‘Made in Brazil’, which means that many look at MIBR as the key team for Brazil.
The Major is a big deal for professional Counter-Strike: it’s one of very few tournaments that Valve themselves are actually involved in; it’s currently scheduled to run from November 19 to November 22 in Rio, Brazil.
Having one of Valve’s official events be punctuated by a cold-blooded murder seems like the worst form of PR for Valve, Counter-Strike, Brazil, and esports in general. Valve has not yet commented on the concern regarding player and staff safety, and it’s been a moment since they’ve mentioned the ESL One Rio Major 2020 as well.
Likely, this is because everything is up in the air right now. The pandemic has ravaged many parts of the world and esports simply aren’t immune; large crowds during a pandemic seem to be the spawning zone of a new ground zero. It’s likely we’ll hear more from Valve, or ESL staff, in the interim until ESL One Rio Major 2020 gets a bit closer; perhaps around August is when we’ll hear next.
Here’s hoping that ESL and Valve place a priority on the safety of the competing teams, instead of placing a priority on maintaining previously discerned paths and events.
