French president Macron praises Vitality for Grand Slam win, despite blaming gamers for riots in 2023

After Team Vitality claimed the ESL Grand Slam Season 5 prize of $1 million, the French organization was congratulated by the country's president Emmanuel Macron.

"With its Grand Slam, Vitality has elevated France to the top of esports and made our colors shine," the president of France wrote on X. "Congratulations to the entire team!" But as pointed out first by Complexity general manager Graham "messioso" Pitt, Macron's congratulations don't perfectly align with his statements about gaming the past.

Back in June and July of 2023, roughly eight days of riots took place in France after a 17-year-old was shot and killed at point-blank range by a police officer. Thousands of cars and buildings were damaged or destroyed, primarily by young protestors, resulting in €650 million in damages.

Days after the riots subsided, Macron blamed social media and video games. "It sometimes feels like some of them are experiencing, on the streets, the video games that have intoxicated them," Macron said at a press conference regarding the protestors. Macron also threatened to cut off social media in France entirely in response to the protests.

Macron made these comments despite there being a lack of evidence correlating video games and violent actions. Video games, most notably ones depicting violence, have often been targeted as the cause for real-life violence despite this lack of evidence.

The riots and Macron's finger-pointing towards gamers occurred only weeks after the final CS:GO Major was held in Paris, which was also won by Vitality. Months prior to that, Macron excitedly welcomed BLAST to Paris to celebrate 10 years of Counter-Strike Majors.