GeoGuessr pulls out of Esports World Cup after fan protest

GeoGuessr has formally pulled out of the Esports World Cup following a massive fan protest that lasted less than twenty-four hours. On May 22, at about 4 a.m. ET, Daniel Antell, the CEO and co-founder of GeoGuessr, issued a statement to the official GeoGuessr's social media accounts announcing the decision. With 85 million users, GeoGuessr is a hugely popular geography game that asks players to figure out where they are in random locations throughout the globe.

Numerous developer and community-made customization options allow players to customize not only who they play against but also the maps that spawn, whether they are dropped in an urban or rural area, whether spawns are restricted to specific geographic areas, whether they can move, pan, or zoom or not move, pan, or zoom (NMPZ), and much more. There are also a ton of amazing community-made custom maps available. It has long been a mainstay of esports.

"Groups targeted by the government include women, LGBTQ people, apostates and atheists, political dissenters, migrant workers in the Kafala system, religious minorities, and many others," Zemmip said on the GeoGuessr subreddit. "The subjugation of these groups is extensive. Members of these groups are routinely subjected to discrimination, imprisonment, torture, and even public executions. These severe human rights violations are well-documented and indisputable," the statement reads. 

Also Read: Roman Reigns and Jason Momoa to feature in Street Fighter live-action movie

Daniel Antell released the statement on issue

GeoGuessr first said this morning (May 22) that it had listened to its community and would be pulling out of the event after hundreds of messages appeared on social media and the subreddit from perplexed fans wondering why their maps were blacked out. "We will not participate in the EWC," CEO and co-founder Daniel Antell said in the statement. "I’ve seen your reactions over the past few days regarding our decision to participate in the Esports World Cup in Riyadh," he further added.

"When we made that decision, it was with positive intentions. To engage with our community in the Middle East and to spread GeoGuessr's core mission of letting everyone explore the World. Since Erland, Anton, and I founded GeoGuessr in 2013, we’ve always strived to be a community-first game. Everyone here at the Stockholm office is a passionate GeoGuessr fan, doing our best to build something meaningful, with you and for you,” the statement read.

However, dozens of titles and publishers are still taking part in the July event, including Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Rainbow Six Siege, Apex Legends, League of Legends, Dota 2, and Valorant, among many others.

Check Out: Microsoft breaks truth on helping Israeli military with AI technology