Valve appears to have restricted the use of gambling-related names in team branding for The International 2026.
Although there has been no official statement from Valve confirming this policy, recent invite announcements suggest the change is already in effect. For example, teams associated with betting companies are no longer using their full commercial names.
The team linked to the Russian betting brand BetBoom appears in the invites as BoomBoys instead of its original branding. Similarly, Parivision is listed under the name Team Vision in the European qualifiers. These teams have also reportedly updated their logos to match the rebranding.
At previous editions of The International 2026, similar adjustments were already observed, with teams appearing as “BB Team” and “Pvision.” However, this year Valve seems to be enforcing stricter naming rules.
Interestingly, at the IEM Cologne Major 2026 in CS2, the same organizations are reportedly allowed to use their original names. This discrepancy may be linked to regional legislation, particularly in China, where gambling is strictly prohibited under law and all related promotion is illegal.
As a reminder, the invited teams and qualifier details for The International 2026 were recently announced.
