Gambling site "protestors" storm a CS2 Major again at Budapest

It has happened again, another gambling site incident at a Counter-Strike Major. At the ongoing StarLadder Budapest 2025 Major, "Protestors" representing a gambling site stormed the arena with "F*ck Valve" signs. The individuals appeared to be dawning the "Gamdom" logo, an online casino/betting site that sponsors Imperial. The site even managed to get their logo into the game earlier this month under Imperial's name before Valve took it down and replaced it with one of Imperial's older logos.

In a turn of events, Felix, the owner and founder of the site in question, took to X replying to a post by CS2News. Felix outright denied that his site had anything whatsoever to do with the "protest" at the Budapest Major and claimed that a rival casino set them up to sabotage their reputation. "This is NOT Gamdom or Imperial 'protesting' This is an effort to sabotage us more by a competitor ", Said Felix on X.

He further alleged the rival casino of handing out $2,500 USD to each "protestor" to show up at the Budapest Major with the signs. Neither Valve nor StarLadder have addressed the incident on official channels. Many users criticized Valve for not entirely cracking down on the rampant gambling problem within Counter-Strike, going as far as to allege that Valve would not risk cutting down their income by restricting these online casino sites.