Immortals have parted ways with Vito “kNg” Giuseppe, after the player elected to play in a professional match despite being suspended from competition.
The controversial player had not competed with the team for over a week after having returned to his native Brazil on Sept. 12, reportedly to renew his P1 visa. During his absence, the team competed at the ELEAGUE Premier with legendary Brazilian player Raphael “cogu” Camargo, which lead to a mixed performance out of the roster.
By Sept. 19, the team was still competing with stand-ins during online matches, and was still using its coach Rafael “zakk” Fernandes during their first game in the North American EPICENTER 2017 qualifiers. But following the first map of their opening series, kNg returned to the fold and played two games alongside his, now, former team mates.
Someone who wasn’t notified about kNg’s return was Immortals CEO Noah Whinston. In a Tweet sent out on Sept. 19, the CEO wrote that the 22-year-old competed despite being under internal suspension—meaning he was not allowed to compete in any professional games for a specific period of time.
Less than an hour after the statement from Whinston, kNg Tweeted that he is “no longer part of Immortals.”
The news of kNg’s departure comes roughly one week after the 22-year-old created major controversy after sending a death threat to a fellow professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive-player Pujan “FNS” Mehta via Twitter. The threat was sent during the playoffs of DreamHack Open Montreal on Sept. 10, and although bearing the appearance of a joke, kNg allegedly had to be physically restrained in order to guarantee FNS’ safety.
The Counter Logic Gaming in-game leader joking about kNg and other players on Immortals being hungover on the final day of the event. Immortals were punished with a default map-loss in the DreamHack Open Montreal grand finals after the majority of the roster failed at showing up at the event on time.
During his four-month-long tenure with Immortals, kNg helped the team to reach the grand finals of the PGL Kraków Valve Major on July 23. The squad was, however, unsuccessful in stopping eventual winners Gambit, and had to settle for a second-place finish at the final Valve Major of 2017.
