London-headquartered esports organisation Fnatic have launched an investigation into comments that their Russian Valorant player made about the war in Ukraine.
Fnatic have suspended Andrey ‘BraveAF’ Gorchakov – who joined the team at the start of 2022 – while they carry out the investigation.
The org said in a Twitter update just now that they are aware of the situation and “will have further updates on our Valorant roster in the coming days”.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th 2022.
The news comes after Fnatic qualified for the 2022 Valorant VCT Stage 1 Masters LAN.
In a separate move, Fnatic have signed French player Enzo ‘Fearoth’ Mestari in a loan deal from Alliance to help at the LAN event.
“Whilst we’ve recently added Tom ‘otom’ Hart to the squad as a substitute, his agent pool in this case does not align with what we’re looking for,” Fnatic said. “With a strong background in the VRL and French Valorant scene, we’re excited to see what Fea is capable of on the worldwide stage.”
What did BraveAF say to get suspended by Fnatic?
Leaked direct message chat logs show BraveAF allegedly speaking to someone from Ukraine.
He apparently said: “People in the West achieved the collapse of the USSR, now they want the collapse of the CIS. And Ukraine succumbs to them, and Putin won’t let that happen.
“You need to give up as soon as possible. I hope this all ends as soon as possible, and Russia, Ukraine and Belarus will be a single whole, cause nobody wants it in the West.”
When the other person said there are explosions in Ukraine, fighter jets and that they are “sitting in the bathroom afraid of every loud sound”, BraveAF apparently said, “civilians will not be harmed, Putin said, it’s not about civilians, this is not a full scale war.”
What did BraveAF say about being suspended by Fnatic?
Regarding Fnatic’s statement, BraveAF said he “never wanted it to be understood like that and never meant it like that”.
In a series of tweets, BraveAF said: “These screenshots are from direct messages of me and a Ukrainian girl. We had a little chat before February 24th 2022 and I wrote her in the morning of the 24th to know if she’s alright. By that time nobody knew what was going on and I just wrote my initial thoughts and first impressions.
“By that time my knowledge was far from [what] I learned after, because I wasn’t [following] politics at all. You can clearly see on those pictures that I want this to end asap and don’t want people to get hurt or killed.
“And by saying “give up” I meant to put down this conflict so less people get hurt. I am for peace.”
We’ll update this article pending the result of Fnatic’s investigation.
Related article: How the esports community reacted to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
