The brief and increasingly tumultuous relationship between Vito “kNg” Giuseppe and Immortals has apparently come to an end.
KNg tweeted Tuesday night he was no longer part of the team, hours after he played a match in the qualifier for EPICENTER — apparently without the consent of Immortals CEO Noah Whinston.
https://twitter.com/kngvito/status/910344846774341633
Having returned to Brazil last week to secure a visa, kNg was not playing with Immortals, which had been using stand-ins for online matches. But after coach Rafael “zakk” Fernandes played the first map of a best-of-three against Counter Logic Gaming in Tuesday’s EPICENTER qualifier, kNg showed up on the server for the final two maps, and Immortals won the match 2-1.
Whinston, apparently unaware of kNg’s plans to play, tweeted the player had been under internal suspension and was not authorized to play the match. An hour later, kNg posted he was no longer part of the team.
https://twitter.com/NWhinston/status/910329819438575616
The departure caps what has been a quick demise for kNg, a talented player who helped Immortals reach second place at the PGL Krakow Major in July. Trouble within Immortals seemed to start soon after the Major, when Immortals reportedly signed João “Horvy” Horvath. According to an HLTV report, the signing of a sixth player drove three members — kNg, Lucas “LUCAS1” Teles and Henrique “HEN1” Teles — to ask to leave the organization.
At DreamHack Montreal earlier this month, those three players arrived late for Immortals’ grand final match against North, which resulted in Immortals forfeiting the first map of an eventual 2-0 loss. After CLG’s Pujan “FNS” Mehta joked on Twitter about losing to Immortals earlier in the day — implying the players were hungover — KNg threatened FNS in a tweet that was deleted (though a screenshot was recovered). KNg also reportedly tried to track down FNS in the players’ hotel after seeing the tweet.
Whinston later wrote on Twitter to apologize for the team’s unprofessionalism and say the matter would be handled internally. Which it was, apparently, until it wasn’t. It’s still unclear how kNg ended up in Thursday’s match, considering he and (presumably) the team were aware of his suspension.
Cover photo by Pierre Yves-Laroche/DreamHack