Gambit Esports Roster Will Compete in ESL Pro League Season 15

Gambit Esports announced that its players would compete in ESL Pro League Season 15. Furthermore, the announcement revealed that the players would attend the tournament under a neutral name after the Russian esports organization got banned from attending any ESL events.

The participation of Gambit in the ESL Pro League Season 15 was at risk after ESL prohibited all teams with direct or indirect ties to the Russian government from attending any of its events. The restriction was introduced following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as one of many sanctions that hit Russia of late.

As a result, both Virtus.pro and Gambit Esports were prohibited from attending ESL Pro League. Likewise, the two Russian CS:GO teams also aren’t allowed to attend any BLAST events until further notice.

However, while the organizations cannot compete in ESL Pro League, the players are allowed to, as long as they do not play for their organizations. This rule allowed both VP and Gambit players to attend the event as independent stacks, and it seems like both teams decided to do so.

Virtus.pro players revealed that they would compete in ESL Pro League under “Outsiders” earlier this week. Now, just a few days later, Gambit Esports announced that it allowed its players from attending ESL Pro League.

Gambit has released a statement on Friday, March 11, revealing that the organization will not stand in the way of its players competing in ESL. Meanwhile, Abay “HObbit” Khasenov also confirmed that the team would attend the tournament in Düsseldorf.

“Out players are allowed to participate in the tournament under a neutral name,” read the announcement.

“As an organization, we won’t hinder the possibility, the players, coaches, and managers have made an incredible effort to earn the right to participate in the tournament.”

Even though Gambit Esports allowed its players to compete in ESL Pro League, the Russian squad have yet to pick a name under which they’ll compete. Nevertheless, the quintet of Hobbit, Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov, Timofey “interz” Yakushin, Dmitriy “sh1ro” Sokolov, and Vladislav “nafany” Gorshkov, still have plenty of time left to pick a name.

The Gambit roster have been seeded into Group C, which will begin on March 23 and run until March 27. Besides the Gambit squad, the group will also feature BIG, Movistar Riders, GODSENT, Party Astronauts, and Team Liquid.

Although not a particularly weak group, Gambit will enter Group C as the favorites to come out on top and claim the favorable seed for the playoffs.

Their opening match of the group stage is slated on Wednesday, March 26, when Gambit will clash with Party Astronauts. And according to the latest CS:GO betting odds, Gambit should kick off the tournament with a very easy win.

The esports bookies have Party Astronauts priced as high as +1600 to win the match, while Gambit are priced as low as -20000. So with that, their implied probability of winning the match is 99.5%, which is a fair price given Gambit’s strength.

Despite their recent disappointing run at IEM Katowice 2022, where Gambit placed fifth-sixth, this is still one of the strongest teams in the world.

According to the global rankings, Gambit Esport are the second-strongest team, behind only Natus Vincere. And even though the players won’t be able to represent the Gambit brand, that doesn’t take away from their tag as one of the top dogs to win ESL Pro League.

Meanwhile, their compatriots, Virtus.pro (now “Outsiders”) will kick off their ESL Pro League campaign on March 16, with the opening round of Group B.