The Immortals Counter Strike team has split following a tweet from one of their players stating to a fellow competitor: “Prove it or I’ll kill you”.
A series of events that began at ‘Dreamhack Montreal CS: GO’ last month has led to Vito ‘KNG’ Giuseppe being terminated as a team member of Immortals.
Whilst Immortals finished as runners up at the aforementioned event in Montreal, three of Immortals team members, which included KNG as well as brothers Lucas ‘LUCAS1’ Teles and Henrique ‘HEN1’ Teles, turned up late to their matches twice in the tournament.
After the event, a competitor on a team that Immortals beat in the tournament accused the three Immortals athletes of being hungover, to which KNG tweeted (and then deleted) “Prove it or I’ll kill you”.
Following the threat, Immortals CEO Noah Whinston stated that he wanted to cut KNG from the team on the spot but was subsequently persuaded to give the Brazilian esports star a second chance. Therefore, the team agreed that KNG would not compete with the team until they had all had a meeting to discuss how best to go forward. With the meeting arranged, however, KNG was a no-show for the meeting and despite being suspended from the team, KNG stepped into compete when the Telos brothers refused to play unless KNG was re-instated into the team. Because of this, Whinston took action against all players involved.
“For violating that punishment, KNG was immediately terminated from his contract and is not a part of Immortals, and will never again be part of Immortals,” Whinston said.
Whinston has also suspended the Telos brothers as they continue to refuse to play without KNG in the team. Whinston has stated that they are suspended until another team buys out their contracts or until they decide that they wish to compete for the team without KNG.
It is a deeply unfortunate scenario for Immortals given it is a quite frankly a ridiculous situation which was instigated by apparent immaturity on behalf of KNG and the Teles brothers. KNG especially, who has won over $60,000 in prize funds, has acted very immaturely.
The Immortals League of Legends team will be keen to ensure that any controversy or naivety resulting from the CSGO team will not creep into their own performances this month when they compete in the 2017 League of Legends World Championships later this month.
The tournament is one of the highlights on the esports calendar, the event attracts millions of viewers from around the world and the events host stadium is sold out within hours of the tickets going on sale.
Part of the popularity of watching the best League of Legends (LoL) athletes in the world is the fact that viewers are able to bet live on the outcome of LoL matches. Many mainstream betting websites offer the option of esports betting, such is the popularity of esports.
It is unclear how events will turn out for the Immortals CS: GO team but what is clear is what an embarrassing situation the team has gotten itself into.
