While Quake as a franchise isn’t quite the powerhouse it once was, it still hosts a dedicated community of professional competitive gamers that continue to compete in high-end tournaments, even today. These events are mainly hosted by the official Quake Pro League, which organizes and coordinates the majority of official Quake events worldwide.
Numerous pro gamers competing in Quake as part of the Quake Pro League come from Russia and Belarus, however, two countries that are currently in the middle of invading Ukraine under the leadership of Vladimir Putin. To that end, Quake Pro League has opted to ban all Russian and Belarusian gamers from enjoying its services.
According to the Twitter announcement made by the official Quake Champions account, the process of indefinitely suspending Russian and Belarusian pro Quake players is in accordance with the updated US Treasury Department policy. The majority of non-Russian companies seem to follow suit, cutting off both Russia and its satellite state, Belarus, from accessing their services across the board due to their invasion. Ukraine has requested PlayStation and Xbox sanctions to be put into place, too.
As the invasion of Ukraine continues to ramp up, the entertainment industry has mostly been following through with a wide variety of sanctions directed at both Russia and Belarus, many of which include suspensions and bans, such as the ones issued by the Quake Pro League. Some gaming companies have begun sending aid to Ukrainians, on the other hand, including, but not limited to, Bungie, CD Projekt RED, Remedy Entertainment, and others.
With the war in Ukraine raging on, however, some game development projects have had to be paused or outright abandoned. STALKER 2 is now put on hold, for example, as GSC Game World’s developers needed to find a way out of the country, as the company asked for its fans to support the Ukrainian armed forces with donations, if at all possible.
Though there are rumors of a potential new Quake game actively being developed, it seems likely that the franchise’s Russian and Belarus fans may have a hard time playing it should Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine continue. Quake Pro League may be just a small piece of the puzzle, comparatively speaking, but the gaming industry at large has made its stance on the war clear.
