Russian teenage douchebag pro gamer Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko got his team disqualified from an international DOTA 2 tournament in Sweden on Saturday when he drew a “Z” over the game’s map during a livestreamed intermission of the tournament, Kotaku reports . These fast strategy games are dense as hell, their concepts too idiosyncratic and inaccessible even to many of us who are gamers, but the easiest way to explain it is that, like 1990s-era football commentators, Moskalenko and his team were drawing lines on a live map of their wizard soldiers’ manuevers against their opponents’ – two of whom are Ukrainian – when Moskalenko went ahead and drew the “Z”.
Moskalenko and his teammates quickly tried to walk it back, scribbling over the letter, and the teenage fascist tweeting a video apology, but the damage was done. Officials with the Esports League One Dota 2 Stockholm Major promptly disqualified Vitus.pro’s DOTA 2 from the tournament for the implied support for the murderous assault on Ukraine. The team’s CEO then fired “Pure”.
“So you all support the Azov Nazi battalion? 33 Million to arm Nazis? Nato funded Nazis? If this shit site allowed attachments, I’d level you guys right now with proofs” says a commenter calling himself “GODISMYTR” on the Kotaku article, an obvious MAGA gamer who wandered far afield from his safe space on 4chan or wherever the assholes post their bullshit these days.