The Danish tournament organizer BLAST has decided to break its cooperation with NEOM. It is a company based in Saudi Arabia; it is government backed and is the creator of a futuristic business zone. As recently as July 28, BLAST announced that it had entered into a partnership with NEOM. It was planned that it would help create a major cybersports hub in the Middle East.
However, almost immediately the information about this deal caused a negative public reaction. Many publications mentioned violations of human rights and freedoms in Saudi Arabia, as well as the fact that NEOM forcibly evicted local tribes from their territories to build the futuristic city. This has been stated not only by activists but also by representatives of the cybersports scene. In particular, the Astralis executive called such a partnership unacceptable. The CEO of Complexity team also expressed the same opinion: he noted that this decision was not discussed with BLAST partner teams.
For some time BLAST avoided commenting on this topic, but on August 13, officially confirmed the break of the partnership agreement with NEOM. At the same time, the company said it plans to contribute to the cybersports scene, including in the Middle East.
