Immortals has issued punishment for three Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players following a series of events at and after DreamHack Montreal, the team announced on Friday. Henrique "HEN1" Teles, Lucas "LUCAS1" Teles and Vito "kNg" Giuseppe have all been fined one months salary and their prize pool cut of Montreal, LUCAS1 and HEN1 have been benched, and kNg has been let go from Immortals.
On Sep. 10, the three players were tardy to the final of DreamHack Montreal against North, which led to the forfeit of one map in the three-game series, leading to the fine previously mentoined. Following that event, Counter Logic Gaming player Pujan "FNS" Mehta and coach Steve "Ryu" Rattacasa alleged on Twitter that the three had partied the evening before, sparking negative backlash from the community. kNg later lashed out at FNS via social media in what Immortals CEO Noah Winston described as "unprofessional and unacceptable statements."
As a result kNg was suspended and later cut by Immortals after violating the suspension to compete in an online match with the team. Following the removal of kNg, both HEN1 and LUCAS1 expressed their desires to leave the team, leading to both being benched by the organization until they are bought out by another team in the future.
"Long from now, Immortals and the players that play for us will be remembered not because of single tournaments we did or did not compete in, but because of the philosophy, the ideals and the results over the long-term that we created together," Whinston said. "I have nothing but respect for HEN1, LUCAS, and kNg, the accomplishments that we achieved together as an organization and as a team would not have been possible without their input, but for now, it's time to move in a different direction."
Shall HEN1, LUCAS1 and kNg play together on a different team, they will hold the Legends spot in the next Counter-Strike major event that was earned by the team at the PGL Kraków Major in July, due to Valve's rule that three-fifths of a roster hold those spots. Immortals will need to requalify for the major if HEN1 and LUCAS1 depart the team.
The roster will rebuild around Ricardo "boltz" Prass and Lucas "steel" Lopes, Whinston said, with their roster plans currently undetermined.