s1mple calls out mold and insects in EPL hotel; ESL responds
On Twitter today, Natus Vincere superstar Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev called out ESL for multiple issues plaguing his hotel room for ESL Pro League Season 16 in Malta alongside a perceived lack of professionalism and communication. In particular, the Ukrainian star highlighted a serious outbreak of mold by his HVAC unit as well as ants in his bed.
In a Reddit post based on s1mple's tweet, ESL's Senior Vice President of Game Ecosystems, Ulrich "TheFlyingDJ" Schulze, responded to s1mple's tweets, stating that the NAVI player was moved to a new hotel room after reaching out to ESL staff.
Schulze noted however, in an apparent contradiction to s1mple's tweets highlighting poor communication and responsiveness by ESL, that s1mple did not attempt to reach out to ESL staff before taking his complaints public. Additionally, Schulze stated that ESL had a "fairly active dialogue" with all 24 teams and that until today none of the players had made any complaints about mold issues. He closed by stating that ESL are working with hotel staff to determine how s1mple's room developed mold issues.
Issues with ESL's Maltese accommodation should be placed under an additional degree of scrutiny as EFG recently signed a deal with the Maltese Ministry of the Economy to extend their ongoing partnership for three more years. This deal will see ESL Pro League continue in the island nation until the end of Season 20.
ESL also elected to host the IEM Rio Major European RMR on the island, despite criticism regarding potential visa and travel issues. HLTV.org recently highlighted a number of Russian and CIS squads that could potentially miss out on the RMR due to EU visa scrutiny for Russians following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February.
