While the Ukrainian team NAVI was celebrating its victory at one of the most prestigious Counter-Strike 2 tournaments, another resonant story broke out in European eSports. The Finnish city of Vaasa did not agree to host the prestigious Counter-Strike tournament StarLadder StarSeries Fall with a prize fund of 500 thousand dollars after it turned out that Russian teams and players could be among the potential participants. This was reported by the Finnish publication Іѕ. Fi.

According to this local media, negotiations continued for a long time between the organizers of the Counter-Strike StarLadder StarSeries Fall tournament and the authorities of the city of Vaasa. The reason for the refusal was information received from an outside party in April that Russian players could participate in the tournament. Entry of Russians into Finland has been restricted since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

At the same time, the StarLadder tournament is part of the VRS rating competition system, which works according to clearly defined rules. According to the regulations, half of the tournament participants must receive invitations based on their positions in the VRS ranking. In addition, the rules do not allow discrimination against teams or players based on nationality..

Currently there are no restrictions on the participation of Russians in Counter-Strike, but their flags or symbols of countries are usually not displayed at tournaments. There are now several Russian players who compete in the top ten teams in the world. Therefore, it is quite possible that at least one Russian, if not more, could travel to Vaasa. Additionally, this was facilitated by the absence of other major tournaments in the same period of the calendar.

Top Russian athletes were last seen in Finland in March, when skiers Saveliy Korostelev and Daria Nepryaeva competed at the Salpausselka Games. Russians competed in the Games as neutral athletes, that is, not under the Russian flag. The skiers probably arrived in Finland on a Schengen visa.

If a Russian athlete has a permit to enter the Schengen area issued by another Schengen country, he can also travel to Finland with the same permit. Russian CS players would be unlikely to receive a visa to Finland if they had to apply separately for the tournament.

At the same time, it would be much more difficult for Russian players to obtain a separate Finnish visa to participate in an eSports tournament. Theoretically, a letter of recommendation could be provided by a member of the Finnish Olympic Committee - the Finnish Electronic Sports Federation (SEUL), however, after the start of the war, the organization repeatedly criticized the presence of Russians in international e-sports.

Similar high-level tournaments this year took place in Malta, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Brazil, Kazakhstan, the USA and China. Almost all of these competitions, with the exception of American ones, featured Russian players.

The total budget for the event in Vaasa would be between 1 and 2 million euros. Despite the difficulties, they tried to keep the tournament in Finland until the last moment. Because of this, the deadlines for negotiations were repeatedly postponed, but a final agreement was never reached..

StarSeries Fall 2026 will now take place in Barcelona. Instead of a large arena, matches will be played in a small studio, but the $500,000 prize pool and eight-team format will remain unchanged..

[see_also ids\u003d"

Let us remind you that six athletes from Russia and four from Belarus received permission to compete under their national flags at the 2026 Paralympic Games in Milan-Cortina. The International Paralympic Committee said these athletes would be treated the same as any other country.. Russia received two quotas in para-skiing, two in para-skiing and two in para-snowboarding. This decision became another example of how the issue of admitting Russians to international competitions remains painful not only in e-sports, but also in traditional sports.