ESL has moved to enforce a rule that prohibits Team YP from playing at any ESL event, according to a report by Jeff Grubb for VentureBeat.

The tournament organizer has banned Team YP under an existing rule that prohibits sponsors who are "widely known for pornographic … or other adult/mature themes and products," according to the report. VentureBeat based the information off an email chain allegedly between an ESL representative and Team YP, informing the team of the rule and suspending them from playing at ESL events.

Update: In a statement given to theScore esports, ESL said the decision concerned its relationship with partners, and that it is consulting with YP about "potential alternatives."

Advertising pornography is not legal in the markets we operate in, and the vast majority of partners we’re working with have strict "no drugs, no alcohol, no pornography" rules that we’ve contractually taken on board. These aren’t new rules, but ones that have been in our rulebooks for a long time. We have spoken to Team YP manager earlier this year and in that conversation we’ve explained the situation and rules in detail, and offered to look for potential alternatives in a bigger group. At the same time, we’re consulting with our legal teams about this. We will inform the team and the management as soon as we have any updates.

In a statement given to VentureBeat, Team YP esports coordinator Claire Fisher focused on how the ban would impact players on Team YP, including StarCraft 2 gamer Jeon "Dragon" Yong Soo and YP's women's CS:GO squad.

"While for some, our participation in esports has been controversial, stopping our players from competing because they are sponsored by us, in spite of Team YP operating as a completely SFW [safe for work] brand, clearly separated from any adult content, seems unfair to say the least," Fisher wrote.

Team YP has worked to distance its brand from that of its primary sponsor, the pornographic video website YouPorn, by removing the YouPorn name and logo from its logo and merchandise, excluding links to YouPorn.com from the team website, and working to ensure that a user searching for Team YP would not find the sponsor's site.

According to the VentureBeat email string, Team YP offered to change the YP in their name to something else in order to further weaken the connection to YouPorn and circumvent the rule, but ESL reportedly argued that since the team would still be sponsored by a prohibited sponsor, it would not be a satisfactory solution.

This isn't the first time that an event organizer has tried to limit YP's participation over their sponsor. In Dec. 2015, Capcom warned Team YP that their players would not be allowed to wear jerseys with the team's logo for Capcom Cup 2015. In response, YP created an alternate jersey that blurred out the YP portion of the team's logo, in part to make a statement about censorship.

ESL organizes premier events across most major esports disciplines, including CS:GO, Dota 2, League of Legends and StarCraft 2. A complete ban would prevent YP's participation in a large number of high-profile tournaments, and could drive the team's sponsor to move away from supporting esports.

YP currently supports a CS:GO women's roster, YP Ladies, plus Dragon and several Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat players. Until recently the team also fielded a Russian men's CS:GO roster, but the players ended their relationship with the organization earlier this month, citing differing visions for the future.

Josh "Gauntlet" Bury is a news editor for theScore esports. You can find him on Twitter.