CS:GO<\/em> tournament organizer BLAST has officially parted ways with Saudi Arabian project NEOM two weeks after the deal was announced, BLAST told Danish newspaper B.T.<\/a> today. This confirmation comes after HLTV reported<\/a> yesterday that BLAST and NEOM mutually agreed to terminate the partnership.<\/p>
Although BLAST made a statement to B.T., the tournament organizer hasn’t written an official post on its website<\/a>. The last published article is from July 28 when BLAST announced the partnership with Saudi Arabian futuristic city NEOM\u00a0and described it as “record deal.”<\/p>
BLAST has been heavily criticized by the esports community and part of its talent crew<\/a> since the announcement.\u00a0Frankie Ward<\/a>,\u00a0Vince Hill<\/a>,\u00a0Harry Russel<\/a>,\u00a0Hugo Byron<\/a>, and former talent and new Team Liquid\u2019s head coach\u00a0Moses<\/a> publicly expressed their concerns with the deal. BLAST’s partnered teams reportedly meet with<\/a> the tournament organizer earlier this week to try to pressure them into canceling the deal.<\/p>
This scrutinity was due to the reported abuse of indigenous communities around NEOM<\/a>, Saudi Arabia government\u2019s poor human rights record, and its anti-LGBTQ+ laws. Frankie, Vince, Harry, and Hugo all said they wouldn\u2019t work with BLAST until the deal was dropped.<\/p>
BLAST is now the second esports company to end a partnership with NEOM in the span of two weeks. On July 29, \u00a0the LEC formed a partnership with NEOM but\u00a0canceled the deal less than 24 hours after the announcement<\/a>\u00a0after\u00a0several broadcast talent members<\/a>\u00a0and other people on Riot\u2019s staff boycotted the project.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
