ALEX explains why CSGO player strike was justified after BLAST drama

Cloud9’s Alex ‘ALEX’ McMeekin may not have been part of the eight CS:GO teams who were going to strike during the BLAST Premier Fall 2020 Finals, but he is standing in solidarity with the players saying they were justified in taking action against them for their handling of voice comms.

BLAST once again came under fire from CS:GO players during the Fall Finals. The tournament organizer reportedly planned to used players voice comms in an “harmful and illegal” matter, according to the CSPPA.

This led to the players striking, ultimately delaying ⁠— but not canceling ⁠— the finals broadcast. However, while a resolution was found, the players are still unsure of what’s happening due to a lack of communication between BLAST, the CSPPA, and their teams, according to ALEX.

“No one knows what’s going on, at least within the players. I’ve spoken to multiple players, and for us, no one knew this was sorted on November 23, and that’s why the strike action was taken,” he told Dexerto.

“If it was made public, or privately passed on to the players or the CSPPA that this was dealt with and players were aware, then they wouldn’t have had to strike for it.”

• Read More: CS:GO community reacts as pros delay BLAST Fall Finals over voice comms

ALEX also criticized those who were claiming the player strike was unnecessary. Given the coaching bug abuse and other scandals across 2020, the voice comms issue was seen as a small issue to strike over.

However, the Cloud9 star believes that no player would strike without reason. Every pro wants to play the game, and they want answers as to why they weren’t kept in the loop while teams were.

“What I don’t understand is that people aren’t striking because they want to ⁠— everyone wants to play the game. But I can tell you from my understanding…they didn’t know that it was resolved, and for me, that justifies the fact that they did it.”

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“That brings up a greater issue: Was it resolved and players weren’t told? By orgs? By the players’ association? That’s where we should be investigating right now between BLAST saying it was resolved and players not knowing. Someone is lying somewhere, and we need to find out what happened, because it’s literally destroying the players’ association reputation.”

He also shot down the assumption BLAST were blindsided by players. According to ALEX, players were aware of the issues during the Showdown before the finals. However, because it wasn’t fixed ⁠— and there are legal ramifications behind it ⁠— the players were left with no choice.

• Read More: Richard Lewis & Thorin dissect the CSPPA vs BLAST controversy

“We were asked to have this movement done for the BLAST Fall Showdown, but it was canceled because BLAST responded to the CSPPA’s messages…so to say that they weren’t aware it was going to happen seems a bit weird to me.”

“Was this worth strike action? In my opinion, yes. What we were told was voice comms were leaked from one team to another ⁠— or in some way ⁠— and that can’t happen. There’s so much sensitive information in them that would give a team an advantage.”