Korean players refused to go to Moscow for cyber tournament because of homophobia and attitudes to Ukraine
DreamHack Tournament – an international cybersport competition – has been widely advertised in Moscow for over a year. However today, according to Сyber.sport.ua, it's been in none too good a plight. Since a number of teams voiced their intention to cancel their trips to the Russian capital because of "rampant homophobia" and "extreme belligerence towards Ukraine."
Many well-known players (starkrafters) will miss competitions. And participants from South Korea, who were supposed to take part in the tournament, refused an almost full-strength side, except for two people.
The owner of Korean team Axiom wrote an extensive commentary, explaining why his players won't be visiting the Russian station of the famous cyber festival.
"We're not sending players for a couple of reasons, – said in his explanation. – Firstly, Russias rampant homophobia. Not only is it morally repugnant, but it puts our players at risk. Korean males are culturally very comfortable with being close to each other. Holding hands, sitting on others laps etc, not at all uncommon. In Russia this could be mistaken for gay behavior and may result in misunderstandings that could even lead to violence. There are plenty of incidents where gay or "we thought he was gay" people have been beaten in Russia. Secondly, Russian belligerence in how they're acting with the Ukraine is reason enough to keep our players out on both moral grounds and with concern to their own safety.
It's just a really sad state of affairs. I have quite a lot of Russian fans, so does the team, but the safety of the players has to come first. The political reasoning isn't even that important. А So the primary reason for not sending our players is the safety concern. Not sending our players should not be considered a boycott of the event, we just want to risk our players well-being when there are other events they could attend that don't carry those risks."
Автор: Sofa Hadashot
