YouPorn's e-sports team faces code of conduct roadblock

Team YP, a competitive gaming team sponsored by the streaming site YouPorn, says it has been banned from a major e-sports league because of its pornographic connection.

The Electronic Sports League (ESL)responded by sayingit is working toaccommodate Team YP while continuing toenforceits rules that forbid sponsors associated with adult content.

A section of the ESL's code of conduct "reserves the right to prohibit or remove teams with sponsors orpartners that are solely or widely known for pornographic, drug use or other adult/mature themes andproducts" from its competitive events.

According to VentureBeat, which claims to have email correspondence between the two parties, Team YP offered to rebrand, even removing the "YP" from theteam names, but ESL did not agree to theterms.

"The ESL ban impacts many players on our roster, including those onour Rainbow Six: Siege(former Evolve team), StarCraft 2 and Mortal Kombat Xteams, and makes our planned expansion into other branches of e-sportsextremely difficult," Team YP co-ordinator Claire Fisher told CBC News.

"We hope for the players and fans' sake that thisgets resolved sooner rather than later, but based on our latestcorrespondence, in which they declined our offer torebrandthe team,we're not optimistic."

When asked about why it reportedly cut ties with Team YP, ESL spokeswomanAnna Rozwandowicztold CBC News, "'cutting ties' is a bit of a dramatization, as we remain proactivein trying to help solve this situation."

"Advertising pornography is not legal in the markets we operate in, and the vast majority of partners we'reworking with have strict "no drugs, no alcohol, no pornography" rules that we've contractually taken onboard," ESL said in a statement. "At the same time, we're consulting with our legal teams about this. We will inform the team and the management as soon as we have any updates."

ESL saidits rule against sponsors with adult content connections has been in the books for over a year and a half, adding that "discussions with the teams have been going on for a long time, so it is not like we just decided to enforce it now, they [Team YP]just made it public now."

Team YP promotions porn-free

YouPornentered thee-sportsscenein 2014,signing aDOTA2 team formerly known as Play2Win. But other than signing a handful of players,its ranks have thinned in the last year, as contracts with theirDOTA2 and Counter-Striketeams expired.

YouPorn has gone to extensive lengths to ensure theword "porn" doesn't appear on any of itswebsites or promotional material, and searchesfor Team YP don't bring up links to theporn site.

The teamlogo, a sword piercing a mountain range, could qualify as innuendo depending on how vivid your imagination is.

Still, YP ultimately stands for "YouPorn," and for ESLthat appears to be enough to break its code of conduct.

YP logo banned from Street Fighter tournaments

YouPorn has run into problems with branding its e-sports team in the past. Games publisher Capcom disallowedthe team's two competitors, Valentine (Valmaster)Petit and Anton (Filipinoman)Herrera, from wearing TeamYP shirtsat Capcom Cup, the company's premier event for competitive Street Fighter V,in December.

Valmaster and Filipinoman's sponsor names were not displayed on Capcom Cup's livestream graphics, as theywere for other sponsors like Red Bull and PC gaming company Razer.

Team YP responded by making a shirt that showed its logo in pixelated form and soldit on the team's store with the tagline "censorship in e-sports."