Mentioned in this article Games: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Following the recent events of violence in Germany, German television channel ProSieben has cancelled all esports broadcasts, including this week’s ELEAGUE Counter-Strike: Global Offensive matches. In addition, ProSieben has deleted its ELEAGUE website.

ELEAGUE’s semi-finals and finals will still be streamed live for German fans on the 99Damage Twitch stream. Matthias ‘Knochen’ Remmert, a 99Damage broadcaster, posted the announcement to Facebook, detailing the decision of ProSieben to cancel its esports coverage.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“I find it very, very unfortunate that such an act now has these consequences and can not have the chance to show the masses that esports are sports,” Remmert said, “and how professional [it is when it] comes to business.”[/perfectpullquote]

Remmert also encouraged CS:GO fans to respect the decision of ProSieben, despite wanting a “different approach” to the issue.

Germany has been a slow starter in the esports scene, despite one of the biggest companies in the industry, ESL, being headquartered in the European country. Many non-endemics are wary of esports, and brand games like CS:GO as “killerspiel,” a derogatory term of overly violent games.

On an ELEAGUE media conference call today, Richard Lewis spoke about the decision, calling the previous week’s events a tragedy and stating that the entire production team understands the decision. But he did say that Germany has strange rules and regulations regarding video games, and hoped that this decision would spur discussions for the future of the industry.

ELEAGUE’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive semifinals begin Friday, July 29. The finals will air Saturday, July 30.