Striker on EWC Club Partner Program: "I wonder how that complies with Valve's rules against discriminatory treatment"

The Esports World Cup just announced their Club Partner Program, which will boost participating organizations with up to $1 million in extra funding "to expand their brand and grow their global audience".

In a post on X, HLTV's Editor-in-chief Milan "Striker" Švejda pondered if this would go against Valve's regulations:

Considering a lot of these are CS orgs, I wonder how that complies with Valve's rules against discriminatory treatment.

This clearly gives additional funds to select teams, and it being obfuscated across many esports only exacerbates the transparency issue.

Counter-Strike 2 will be featured at the next edition of the Esports World Cup, but it is not know yet whether it will be a Valve Ranked event or not.

40 teams have been included in this year's partnership program, but teams must reapply every year - or qualify based on achievement at EWC. The full announcement and details may be found here.