ESL FACEIT Group (EFG) has updated its official rulebook to ban esports organisations from taking on sponsorship deals with Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) skin trading, case-opening, or skin gambling sites. The change brings ESL’s rules in line with new restrictions Valve itself put in place late last year, and it closes off a funding source that many Counter-Strike teams have relied on for years.
Previously, ESL’s rulebook only said sponsors couldn’t be linked to things like pornography, drugs, or other “adult” content that could embarrass the tournament organiser. That rule still stands, but ESL has now added a new clause specifically targeting Valve’s intellectual property. In simple terms, any company that interacts with a player’s Valve game inventory, think sites that let you deposit, trade, or gamble your in-game skins, is now off-limits as a team sponsor.
This isn’t ESL acting alone; it’s following Valve’s lead. In December 2025, Valve tightened the rules that govern all officially licensed Counter-Strike tournaments, banning skin gambling, case-opening, and skin trading sites from sponsoring or appearing at these events in any visible way.
For context, Valve controls which tournaments are allowed to use the Counter-Strike name and branding through what’s called the Tournament Operating Requirements (TOR) and the Limited Game Tournament License. Any event that wants to be an official, “licensed” CS2 tournament, whether it’s a top-tier Ranked event or a smaller Unranked one, has to follow these requirements.
Since ESL runs some of the biggest Counter-Strike tournaments in the world, it has to fall in line with Valve’s rules, hence the update to its own rulebook.
Separately from the sponsorship ban, ESL also clarified that private communication between teammates during a live match is not exempt from its code of conduct. In other words, what players say to each other over their in-game voice comms, even though the public and casters usually can’t hear it, still has to follow the same standards as public conduct.
The rulebook specifically calls out hate speech or discriminatory language as strictly prohibited, even in private team chatter. Players who break this rule could face penalties ranging from a warning to fines or other disciplinary action, at the discretion of tournament officials.
ESL hasn’t spelled out an exact list of banned words or phrases, but based on the wording, this is generally understood to cover slurs or insults targeting someone’s race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, or nationality. What it likely does not cover is ordinary trash talk, players yelling at each other, cursing out a bad play, or general frustration, as long as it isn’t tied to one of those protected characteristics.
That said, ESL has left itself room to make judgment calls. The rulebook makes clear that tournament officials will ultimately decide what crosses the line, meaning something that feels like normal heat-of-the-moment toxicity to players could still be flagged as discriminatory or excessive depending on the context.
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