A Bad Meme gets VP Staff Fired

After posting and deleting an inappropriate meme, Virtus.pro have fired at least one of the esports organization’s social media managers.

Virtus.pro’s Dota 2 team is currently aiming to take home a Mercedes-Benz that is up for grabs at a Dota 2 tournament sponsored by the car manufacturer. With this in mind, Virtus.pro’s social media managers posted a meme that was frowned upon by the community.

In the tweet, a woman could be seen sitting on a couch with the five Virtus.pro players wearing big grins behind her. The face of the woman was swapped out for a Mercedes-Benz logo, and the picture was captioned, “Who’s gonna “ride” the Mercedes this year?”

The sexual innuendo certainly landed with the community, though not to the humorous effect that Virtus.pro had likely hoped for. The implication of VP’s players competing to ride a woman was met with an immediate backlash.

The post was almost immediately deleted from Twitter, but famed commentator Paul “Redeye” Chaloner was quick to take a screenshot and share it, questioning why one of the biggest organizations in esports would promote such a thing.

Virtus.pro general manager Roman Dvoryankin agreed with the criticism, accepting that the post was unacceptable and pointing to it having been deleted fewer than 10 minutes after the original posting. He also apologized and assured fans that it wouldn’t happen again.

A few hours later, Dvoryankin confirmed that the organization had parted ways with the individuals involved in managing Virtus.pro’s social media accounts.

The move was generally well received, with such community figures as Alan “Nahaz” Bester lauding Virtus.pro for taking swift action.