Russia and Ukraine were able to do something in eSports that is impossible to imagine in football

In 2019 it is hard to imagine, and in 2013, the project of a joint football championship between Russia and Ukraine was seriously discussed. Presentation of the Joint Football League (JFL) was held at the office of "Gazprom" in the presence of the Chairman of the Board of the company Alexey Miller, the budget was projected at over €1 billion, with a presentation by the CEO of the organizing Committee, former head coach of Russia Valery Gazzaev. After the revolution in Kiev, the annexation of Crimea to Russia and the beginning of the war "in the Donbass", the football match "Spartak" - "Dynamo" (Kyiv) or "Shakhtar" - "Zenit" will not take place in any weather. Sport, and especially football, has long been a part of big politics. And in international tournaments, FIFA and UEFA breed not only clubs, but also national teams of Russia and Ukraine in different groups and grids.

What didn't work out in football happened in eSports, and in a natural way, without the creation of organizing committees, the participation of state companies and television: Russia and Ukraine are in a single cyberspace, by the way, Russian-speaking. And no political strife of recent years has changed the situation.

Illustrative example: of the participants in our first ranking of the most influential people in Russian eSports, seven live in Moscow, six live in Kiev, and two live in America. Esports in the post-Soviet space-teams, players, investors, managers, tournament organizers, streamers — this is Russia and Ukraine, and it is impossible to divide the two countries. In the leading teams (Russian and Ukrainian) Virtus.pro and Na'vi is performed by star players from neighboring countries, Russian viewers actively watch broadcasts from Ukrainian studios, and vice versa.

The most successful project, perhaps, is the multi — profile eSports holding ESforce, created in 2015 by Anton Cherepennikov, a Russian former team owner Virtus.pro, and Ukrainian Alexander Kokhanovsky, founder and former CEO of the Na'Vi team. In 2018, the company owned by billionaire Alisher Usmanov Mail.ru Group absorbed ESforce, paying $100 million. It was Usmanov and his partners ' money that gave a powerful impetus to the development of eSports in the post-Soviet space. back in 2015, his holding company USM announced its intention to invest in Virtus.pro $100 million and by the time of purchase, ESforce had invested $60 million. ESforce today includes Virtus.pro, EPICENTER tournament organizer, RuHub Studio, Yota Arena and other assets. In 2019 Mail.ru the Group sold 51% of ESforce to game developer Modern Pick.

In August 2019, State Duma Deputy Gazzaev said that the idea of the JFL can still be implemented. It is good that eSports remains out of politics for the time being.

Proof of this can be the recent final of the Intel Extreme Master 2020 tournament in Katowice, where the Ukrainian team – Natus Vincere, with 4 Russian players and 1 Ukrainian, won the tournament with a prize fund of $ 250,000.

After their victory, the former CEO Virtus.pro Roman Dvoryankin shared his emotions from NAVI's victory over G2 at IEM Katowice 2020.

"Esports is the best example of sports outside politics. What the Ukrainian NAVI team did today with the Russian guys, and how they were sincerely supported by the entire former Union, setting a record for the audience on Twitch, gaining 360 thousand viewers online."- Dvoryankin wrote on Twitter.