❘ Published: 2023-08-18T16:04:44
❘ Updated: 2023-08-18T16:34:22
CS:GO Roll partnered with G2 in May 2023.
G2 Esports appears to be distancing itself from CSGORoll just three months after announcing a controversial partnership with the skins gambling website.
The Berlin-based esports organization partnered with CSGORoll on May 2, announcing the deal through a promotional video featuring their CS:GO star Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov in a casino setting.
The announcement was met with intense criticism in the CS:GO community, not only because CSGORoll has been accused of offering unregulated gambling of CS:GO skins (it has been banned in Australia for breaching the country’s gambling laws), but also because m0NESY had turned 18 the day before the announcement video was released.
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Moreover, G2 came under fire for the wording of their announcement. The organization stated that “skins = wins” and labeled CSGORoll “a CS:GO Skins trading market”, when, in reality, it is a skins casino website offering a wide variety of games, from Plinko to dice rolls.
ESL/G2ESL’s broadcast of IEM Cologne (left) and G2’s latest VLOG (right)
Three months into the partnership, G2 seems to have been quietly erasing evidence of its ties to CSGORoll. The gambling website is no longer listed as a partner by G2, and its logo has been removed from the banners on the players’ social media pages. G2 has also taken down announcements of the partnership from its website and Twitter. The controversial promotional video has been made private on YouTube.
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Meanwhile, CSGORoll’s logo was blurred out in the latest VLOG posted by G2 on YouTube. The video, recorded during IEM Cologne (when CSGORoll’s logo was still visible on the players’ jerseys), was the first in which the description text does not mention the gambling company as a partner.
G2’s CS:GO team is currently competing in Gamers8, a gaming festival hosted in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. CSGORoll’s logo was not present on the jerseys that the players wore in Thursday’s match against 9INE.
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Despite all this, CSGORoll’s website continues to display a banner showing that it is an “official partner” of G2 Esports.
G2 Esports did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.