Streamers Max “qojqva” Bröcker and Niklas “Wagamama” Högström have pulled out of the controversial Games of the Future tournament following community backlash. Both players had been scheduled to compete on Vikings, alongside several members of the Alliance organization.
Both players announced they would not be participating on Dec. 9, via separate social media announcements. The departure leaves the remaining members of Vikings, Alliance CEO and founder Jonathan “Loda” Berg, Henrik “AdmiralBulldog” Ahnberg, and Joakim “Akke” Akterhall, short of a full roster for the upcoming event.
Qojqva and Waga’s announcements they will not participate in Games of the Future are just the latest in a series of withdrawals from the event. Last week, Monkey Business, a stack helmed by Sébastien “Ceb” Debs and Johan “N0tail” Sundstein, were revealed as competitors in the tournament.
Just days later it was announced that Monkey Business had pulled out of the event due to the ongoing controversy. Now part of the Vikings roster has also withdrawn.
In his post, Wagamama stated he looked forward to participating but had chosen not to attend:
“I really looked forward to playing vs everyone the upcoming event but have also decided to not attend, hopefully another organizer will attempt an allstar styled tournament like this in the future.”
Qojqva’s post a few hours later more directly addressed the controversy:
“I have decided to withdraw from the event after the circumstances around the event came to my attention in the last couple of days”
However, many prominent Dota 2 players still remain committed to the event. Nigma Galaxy, the only organization to participate under its official banner, is set to feature Yawar “YawaR” Hassan, Aliwi “w33” Omar, Ivan “MinD_ContRoL” Ivanov, Bader “islA” Hannoun, and Elias “Nagato” Alhaj.
Additionally, several notable Chinese players will be competing in the event, including legendary carry Xu “BurNIng” Zhilei and former Yakult Bros. offlaner Ren “old eLeVeN” Yangwei.
As previously reported, Games of the Future and Phygital Entertainment have faced criticism due to their alleged connection to Russian governmental bodies, the UAE government, and Chinese government.
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Critics point to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, China’s position in global geopolitics, and the UAE’s record of human rights abuses as catalogued by organizations such as Amnesty International, as reasons to boycott the event.
In 2024, the previous edition of Games of the Future saw Nigma Galaxy, and US-based organization nouns, pull out of the event. Neither organization gave a reason for the departure.
Games of the Future 2025 starts on Dec. 14. It’s unknown at the time of writing whether new teams will be found to participate.
Stick with Jaxon.gg for more Dota 2 news and info.
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