Valve requested EPICENTER to change its tournament logo after reports of potential violations of Ukranian law.
A Dota 2 league has been forced to change its logo after Valve feared it was promoting communism.
If you’ve tuned into the Eastern European Dota Pro Circuit Tour 1 during this opening week, you’ve probably spotted the leagues’ distinctive Pudge logo, featuring the hero’s face with a soviet-style motif.
However, that logo is no more, as Valve officially requested that league organizer EPICENTER remove the image. This was revealed in a post on the DPC EEU Twitter page earlier today (December 2nd).
The move comes after Valve feared the logo would violate Ukraine’s laws in regards to banning the promotion of Communism. Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union for much of the 20th century, before it declared itself independent in 1991. Soviet and Communist symbols are strictly policed in the country.
Communist symbol or harmless joke?
According to EPICENTER, they had acquired a "legal opinion confirming that the logo is not communist symbols and does not promote anything." However, cursory search reveals DPC EEU logo was clearly inspired by the logo of the Vladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization—Effectively a Boy Scouts-style organization that existed within the Soviet Union. A comparison between the two logos can be seen below.
Ultimately, EPICENTER has now moved to a far less controversial “E” logo, hoping that something so simple will not fall foul of any legal problems. It’s clear that Epicenter wanted to create a logo that evoked a nostalgic look at the shared history of the countries that make up the EEU DPC. However, their choice of an overtly political symbol, no matter if played for jokes, has run afoul of Valve.
Valve for their part are most likely just playing things incredibly safe with the change of a Dota 2 league logo. The EEU, or CIS, is a Dota 2 powerhouse, in terms of both playerbase and competitive scene. Doing anything that might get them kicked out of Ukraine is probably not a good idea. And Valve is probably already tired of DPC controversy just a week into the start of the season.
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