Ahead of CS:GO PGL Antwerp Major, Valve released player stickers of participating rosters. Everything seemed usual at first sight before the Cloud9 (ex-Gambit) player stickers were pointed out by esports journalist Guillame "neL" Canelo. The journalist noted that the autographs of Dmitriy "sh1ro" Sokolov and Timofey "interz" Yakushin have the Z symbol in them, associated with the Russian forces in Ukraine. 

Later on, FaZe Clan's "Twistzz" Russel Van Dulken shared his thoughts on the occasion, defending Dmitriy "Sh1ro" Sokolov. He said that he does not see any connection between the player's sticker signature and his political position.

On the other hand, the esports community thinks that including the Z symbol could still be avoided considering the global situation. However, the sticker makers explained after this, that the player signatures were sent to Valve before the war started.

Analysts Richard Lewis and Duncan Shields were not happy with NeL's approach to this situation. In fact, in the past similar signatures were used worldwide and it is not something to be concerned about. Lewis even showed the example of the same sign that is used by Valve themselves.

Russian players from Cloud9 face backlash due to their stickers in CSGO

Still, Cloud9 have been silent on this occasion. Shiro himself has posted a tweet, mentrioning that people should not look for any hidden agenda in his signature. 

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