Cancelling SESF Participation in the 2022 IESF World Championship

Dear Community, appreciated Members of the SESF,

With a newly elected Board, the Swiss Esports Federation (SESF) started a reassessment of the current situation on Switzerland's participation in the Regional qualifiers of the International esports federation (IESF) World championship organized by the European esports federation (EEF).

As the current political situation in Eastern Europe with the war in Ukraine becomes more and more volatile, the unease of the Board to send players to the Regionals in countries that partially have shared borders with in-conflict nations arose. Those concerns were further discussed in an intense extraordinary Board meeting, in which the majority of the board voted on not taking any further risks with sending a delegation to the EEF Regionals, especially because we do not have any signs for a de-escalation within the next months.

Since a participation (with full financial support) in the WC Final play-ins without competing in the Regionals is not possible, the Board decided to cancel the overall participation of Switzerland in the 2022 WC.

It saddens us to cancel our participation after investing a lot of time and effort into solving short-term logistical problems such as finding a Representative or organizing national qualifiers with the support of our very appreciated members on such short notice. The board picked up talks with the member organizations that were willing to help us on the qualifiers, where we mutually agreed not to continue the selection process under this circumstances.

We will discuss the future involvement of the SESF with the IESF and especially with the world championship with our members along one of the next members meetings, to make sure to meet your expectations in future.

The board would like to apologize for any inconvenience and disappointment linked to this decision and hopes for the understanding of our appreciated members and community.

Gabriel, Jon, Leonardo, Luca, Nina, Patrick & Yann