CSGO’s de_voyna map based on the Ukraine War has been blocked by Valve. It was replaced by a new map.
CSGO de_voyna mapis designed to broadcast uncensored news about the war to players in Russia. However, the creators of the map say that the map was blocked by Valve. The map was designed by Helsingin Sanomat, a Finnish newspaper.
Special map for Russian players instead of de_voyna map
The purpose of the map; It was to show players pictures of Russia’s military action, video footage and news reports. The de_voyna map, which resembles a war-torn European city, allows the players who died and who were on the spectator camera to see Russia’s actions in Ukraine, video footage and much more, through the free camera mode, through the walls.
As news and war media are censored in Russia, Helsingin Sanomat designed this map to inform Russian CSGO players about the invasion. “It would probably be impossible to censor a single particular map from Russia or any other country. Because it would be impossible to determine the censorship so precisely,” Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat said. However, the Finnish newspaper alleged that Valve specifically blocked the map to players with Russian IP addresses. The map has been one of the most popular custom maps in the CSGO workshop for a long time. Released on May 2, 2023, the map has been downloaded more than 24,000 times.
Finally, Helsingin Sanomat said: “If the Russian authorities wanted to prevent the spread of the map, they would probably have to block access to all of Valve’s games via Steam for Russian players. Therefore, it is obvious that this blocking was done by the game service provider Valve in the USA.”