This is a breaking story.
A match between G2 and mousesports was interrupted on Friday after protestors stormed the stage of Counter-Strike 2's PGL Major in Copenhagen.
The match was brought to a stop as G2 Esports were leading 7-5 on Vertigo. While the stream didn't show how the protestors got on the stage, the viewers could hear the boos from the fans. Shortly after, the game was temporarily paused.
The protest was quickly claimed by a CS skin gambling site, CSGOEmpire. Writing on X, CSGOEmpire claimed G2 continued to have a partnership with what they claimed was a "scam casino."
The casino in question is CSGORoll, a popular Counter-Strike skin gambling website. In May 2023, G2 Esports unveiled a partnership with the Cryprus-based company.
However, three months later, the European powerhouse removed the CSGORoll sponsor from their official sponsor list and deleted multiple tweets mentioning the brand.
The conflict between CSGOEmpire and CSGORoll began with HypeDrop, which is also controlled by CSGORoll’s owner, Killian.
In their most recent blogpost, CSGOEmpire explained the situation. “The HypeDrop scam was brutal — users were encouraged to wager millions of dollars in order to farm ‘daily tiles,’ a guaranteed daily reward system that allowed users to slowly make their losses back over time.”
“Killian, the owner of HypeDrop, advertised this system as an investment, offering returns to everyone that wagered. The promise drove the vast majority of revenue on HypeDrop, getting users to wager hundreds of millions more than they otherwise would. Entire communities formed around HypeDrop investing — people calculated ROIs, sold accounts, and lost money on HypeDrop in order to perfectly maximize their investing return.”
Only two days ago, HypeDrop announced the cease of its action. Therefore, members of their community will lose their progress and money invested in the upcoming days.
According to CSGOEmpire, Killian, the owner of HypeDrop, “disabled their daily tiles and refused to pay out rewards as promised. The whole thing was exposed for exactly what it was — a ponzi scheme.”
As CSGOEmpire considers CSGORoll to have “the exact same ponzi model” as HypeDrop, CSGOEmpire decided to protest against Killian during the game against G2 Esports. “G2 must stop promoting scam casinos immediately, especially scam casinos that steal user balances and run a ponzi scheme,” the blogpost included.
Luckily for the fans more interested in the tournament, the play was quickly resumed, with PGL Esports saying in a statement that the "individuals involved were removed by the police," but not before the PGL Major trophy was reportedly damaged in the ruckus.
Despite the trouble created by the protestors, G2 Esports won the match against mouseesports after taking the first two maps of the series, Inferno and Vertigo, and will play against Natus Vincere in the semifinals.