Virtus.pro recently added its third Ukrainian player and would thus have the possibility to attend that ESWC qualifier, which will take place this weekend.

However, the Ukrainian ESWC committee believes that Virtus.pro is not entitled to participate in its qualifier as it considers the team to be part of a Russian project.

"We are interested in a local team winning it, therefore we are now discussing the possibility of banning Virtus.pro from the qualifier," said Mikhail Seleckiy, member of the ESWC committee in Ukraine.

This leaves Virtus.pro's participation in the ESWC qualifier seriously in jeopardy just one day before the start of the tournament.

Dmitry Smith, WCG Russia head organizer, said: "I do not know the reason why the organisation does not want to allow Virtus.pro to participate. I am aware that the Russian and Ukrainian offices of Intel [Virtus.pro's main sponsor] are conducting negotiations to solve this problem"

Team manager Konstantin "groove" Pikiner stated that Virtus.pro will remain in Ukraine until the end of the tournament and will fly to Moscow on Monday.

Virtus.pro has the following line-up:

Alexey "LeX" Kolesnikov
Roman "ROMJkE" Makarov
Ioan "Edward" Sukhariev
Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko
Mykhailo "kane" Blagin