G2’s CS:GO captain claims pro-Russia comment tied to him is fake

"It actually boggles my mind that it is so easy to put up shit like this without any consequences."

G2's CS team huddle together during ESL Pro League season 17 in 2023.
Photo by Adela Sznajder via ESL Gaming

Rasmus “HooXi” Nielsen has denied making a pro-Russia comment in a Telegram conversation that has gone viral today. The in-game leader for G2 Esports said the conversation and comments are fake and called out CS:GO personalities for sharing it and attributing the comments to him.

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In the Telegram conversation that you can find below, one person claiming to be an admin for a charity CS:GO tournament made to raise money for Ukraine interacts with a user called HooXi and invites him to take part in the tournament. The Telegram HooXi asks for $500 to participate and later denies taking part in the tournament as he doesn’t want to support Ukraine in “any way.” This interaction gained traction on social media after the Ukrainian streamer Arseniy “ceh9” Trynozhenko shared it on his own Telegram channel and called HooXi a clown.

“Without giving too much attention to the ‘journalists’ that are trying to put up fake conversations or comments from my side it actually boggles my mind that it is so easy to put up shit like this without any consequences,” HooXi said today on Twitter. The G2 captain has no official profile on Telegram, a service of instantaneous messages similar to WhatsApp that is used considerably in countries like Brazil and India but not as much in North America or Europe. Telegram is also widely used as a tool for spreading fake news because of its capability to reach thousands of users at once.

Screengrab via Telegram

This apparent attempt of impersonating HooXi on Telegram comes after G2 refused to take a photo next to a Ukrainian flag at IEM Katowice in February. G2 has been deemed by some fans as pro-Russia in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine since then, which HooXi has denied on behalf of the team.

The only social platforms HooXi is verified on are Twitter and Instagram.

Author
Image of Leonardo Biazzi
Leonardo Biazzi
Staff writer and CS:GO lead. Leonardo has been passionate about games since he was a kid and graduated in Journalism in 2018. Before Leonardo joined Dot Esports in 2019, he worked for Brazilian outlet Globo Esporte. Leonardo also worked for HLTV.org between 2020 and 2021 as a senior writer, until he returned to Dot Esports and became part of the staff team.