Syman Gaming qualify for Berlin Major, told to change logo by Valve

Syman Gaming, a team that recently celebrated qualification to the StarLadder Berlin Major, has had their celebrations cut short.

The team currently ranked 40th in the world qualified for the major having finished in second place in the CIS Minor.  After their qualification, the team announced on twitter that they had been asked to change their logo due to plagiarism accusations by StarLadder and Valve before the major begins on August 23.

“We believe that the plagiarism charges aren’t substantial, therefore we ask Valve to reconsider their decision. We agree to have an independent examination of our logos,” Syman Gaming said in a statement.

Some have said that when viewed side by side, the Syman Gaming logo appears to share similarities with Immortals and Gamers Club.The logo seems to reference the ring surrounding the helmet of the Immortals logo and have Gamers Club’s within it. In a thread on reddit, many have pointed out the similarity. One user noted that the similarities were striking resemblance because the Immortals and Gamers Club logo have been so long in use.

Syman Gaming has argued that there is no issue as “Immortals will not participate in Major, and Gamers Club isn’t an esports club.”

While both statements might be true, the MIBR team will be competing and MIBR as well as Gamers Club, a Brazilian third-party matchmaking service, are now owned by Immortals. This could be how the complaint was brought to StarLadder and Valve’s attention in the first place, as Immortals may wish to avoid any sort of branding confusion at one of the biggest esports events of the year.