"F*ck Valve": how the war over the casino logo on stickers turned into a public scandal at the Major in Budapest
The major esports tournament StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 in Hungary was marked by a high-profile and scandalous incident. Right during the confrontation between the teams "Imperial" and "Rare Atom" at the MTK Sportpark arena, an unauthorised protest action took place against the developers of the game - Valve.
A group of six people broke onto the stage, holding posters with the obscene inscription "F*ck Valve" and the image of the logo of the Brazilian team "Imperial". It is noteworthy that all the participants of the action were dressed in the same T-shirts with the branding of the crypto casino "Gamdom", the title sponsor of this team sports complex.
Who is behind the provocation?
Initially, in the specialised media, including the CS2 News account on the social network X, information appeared that the organizer of the demarche was the sponsor himself - the Gamdom casino. However, the reaction of the company's representative was immediate. The owner of the product, known by the nickname Felix, categorically denied the involvement of his brand in the incident.
According to Felix, the incident is a planned attack by competitors in order to discredit the casino. He announced his readiness to sue the organizers of this trick and announced a reward: $2,500 for the de-anonymization of each of the participants in the action.
Background to the conflict: the battle for stickers
The roots of this scandal go back to the events of August, when the Imperial team entered into a partnership agreement with Gamdom. As part of the contract, the esports club changed its emblem, effectively integrating the casino logo into it.
Initially, Valve released in-game stickers for the Major with this new design. However, the CS2 community harshly criticised the developers for directly advertising gambling in the client. Under public pressure, Valve decided to remove the controversial stickers and returned the old version of the "Imperial" logo, which, apparently, provoked an aggravation of relations between the sponsor and the publisher of the game.
Mark Patterson is the news writer at CasinosInCanada who covers the latest developments in the iGaming industry, including casino launches, regulations, and market updates.
Yes, this is some kind of circus.
For 2.5k bucks per head? Hmm, I would have turned in these runners if I knew)) In general, the security is leaky, as usual. And if they hadn't come out with posters, and what worse? Budapest, hello, we're waking up!
What a cringe. It is obvious that this is a set-up.
Ahaha, it's okay to break in like that! Gamdom probably choked there. But in general, the casino is evil, Valve did the right thing that the logo was rolled back.