G2 has made a very controversial decision for using a very young professional gamer, m0NESY, to promote CSGO gambling – just days after he turned 18. G2 has been heavily criticized for sacrificing their youngster, Illya “m0nesy” Osipov for promotional purposes. m0NESY, who just turned 18, was thrown into the spotlight for a partnership with a CSGO gambling site. This has caused displeasure among many people in the community.
Gambling and CS:GO
CS:GO and gambling are a bit like vinegar and oil. It repels, but it’s also a good combination under the right circumstances. Still, it’s a red rag to many people in the community, as there have often been scandals surrounding gambling. About six years ago, a number of gambling websites that used CS skins as currency were shut down due to various controversies where streamers and content creators failed to disclose their ownership stakes while promoting them.
https://twitter.com/G2CSGO/status/1653414298109243393
Then, in recent years, the European government took more and more action against the gambling problem in CSGO because they didn’t want underage players to get in touch with it. Nevertheless, the whole CS:GO community, including the team, still works a lot with gambling sponsors.
G2 takes m0NESY as advertising face
Today, esports organization G2 has announced its latest sponsored partner. In this case it is CSGORoll. The sponsor itself didn’t cause the blatant controversy, but the player promoting it did. And to announce the news, G2 made a video featuring their super young star player m0NESY. The just came of age and thus has the legal age to gamble among other things. The organization even publicly congratulated m0NESY via Twitter and wished him a happy 18th birthday.
Tasteless action?
Many fans found this tasteless, after all, m0NESY has just turned 18 and would not have been allowed to advertise the site shortly before, let alone use it himself. Many of m0NESY’s fans are also still under 18 and are not legally allowed to play games of chance – but this is exactly the target group he is addressing now. m0NESY reached the legal age for gambling just two days earlier, on May 1, and that caught a lot of people off guard.
G2 are facing backlash for welcoming a CSGO gambling sponsor and making m0NESY the face of the promotion the day he turned 18… https://t.co/edj2sgKot0
— Jake Lucky (@JakeSucky) May 2, 2023
In that case, it would probably have been better to take an older gambler as a promotional face, someone who at least gives the appearance of gambling responsibly. Hardly anyone liked G2’s idea, and many fans of the organization found harsh words for the decision. G2 keeps getting itself into hot water, most recently the organization was in the spotlight thanks to Carlos Rodriguez aka Ocelote when he was partying with Andrew Tate, shocking fans.