Dota 2 team AnimeVesta is in hot water after they used a Nazi symbol during the MESA Invitational 2024.
While AnimeVesta didn’t take long to remove the symbol from their team logo and in-game banners, it has already made headlines in the Dota 2 community with many condemning the mistake.
Who are AnimeVesta?
AnimeVesta is a new, emerging Mongolian Dota 2 team that recently participated in MESA Invitational 2024 after qualifying via the MESA Champions Fall 2024.
As a new team, AnimeVesta didn’t have any logo yet, so their branding remained undisclosed until match day. That’s where the Nazi flag as a Dota 2 team logo was stamped throughout AnimeVesta’s base, including the fountain, team flags and banners in the match.
Nazi flag as a Dota 2 team logo
The Nazi insignia used as a Dota 2 team logo by AnimeVesta is called the Sturmabteilung or SA in short. In essence, it’s a military party that had significant role in Nazi Germany’s rise to power, and hence why it’s a controversial logo to this day.
For the most part, not many viewers really caught on or knew about the SA insignia until a knowledgeable person posted about it on Dota 2 Reddit. It didn’t take long before the post went viral and MESA International 2024 called for AnimeVesta to remove their Dota 2 logo immediately.
AnimeVesta’s in-game logo and banners (Image credit: Dota 2)
AnimeVesta’s official statement
AnimeVesta apologized for the use of the Nazi logo, stating that they weren’t aware of the meaning behind the SA symbol when finding a suitable copyright-free design. They also emphasized that they understood the severity of their mistake.
“We, AnimeVesta, wish to sincerely apologize for the use of a logo that inadvertently resembled a symbol historically linked to hate and violence. In our efforts to find a suitable design for our team, we discovered a logo that appeared to be free of copyright, but we did not recognize its connection to the SA symbol.”
This seems to suggest it was an honest, albeit ignorant mistake from AnimeVesta. In regions that aren’t Germany and Europe, the SA symbol and its ill history may not have been taught. Hence, not everyone is aware of the SA symbol, especially one that isn’t the more infamous Nazi symbol – the Swastika.
Hopefully this incident won’t affect the new Dota 2 team that has performed well enough to make it into MESA Invitational 2024, especially since it was seemingly an honest mistake.