100 Thieves Face Controversy in Young CSGO Life

(Editor Note: This post contains some language which may be considered harsh and offensive. We have edited the article to reflect this, but the videos and tweets generally are NSFW and uncensored. Be advised.)

Vito “kNgV” Giuseppe is no stranger to getting himself wrapped up in controversy, due to poor decisions when it comes to using his Twitter account. The once up and coming star for the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team of Immortals first became known for making inappropriate comments on Twitter when he tweeted out a death threat towards fellow CSGO player Pujan “FNS” Mehta. The threat was in response to a tweet FNS had made where he claimed that three of Immortals’ players had been hungover in their match against FNS’ team at the Dreamhack Montreal Open. This incident was one of the deciding factors in Immortals dropping kNgV from their CSGO team.

kNgV’s fellow Immortals teammates Lucas “LUCAS1” Teles and Henrique “HEN1” Teles stepped down from the Immortals roster following kNgV’s release from the team. This made the trio an intriguing prospect for potential organizations to consider signing. The three players owned a legends spot in the ELEAGUE Major: Boston because of them being the majority of the Immortals team that earned the spot from the previous Major. This lead to 100 Thieves, an esports organization owned by former professional Call of Duty player Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag, to sign the trio to their new CSGO team to compete in the ELEAGUE Major: Boston. Unfortunately, the 100 Thieves team would not get a chance to compete at the major, due to travel Visa issues.

ELEAGUE gave you 100T's rooms by mistake :>

— Thorin (@Thooorin) January 21, 2018

After the news of the 100 Thieves team not being able to compete at the major was announced, esports journalist Duncan “Thorin” Shields made a joke on Twitter about how Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo had been given a room meant for the 100 Thieves roster. This was in response to the SK Gaming player tweeting that whenever he plays at ELEAGUE ran tournaments the hotel room next to his is always playing loud music and smoking marijuana.

Those shit you're talking about, are you sober? or is it just after you make love to your boyfriend?

— Vito Giuseppe (@kngvito) January 21, 2018

kNgV did not take Thorin’s joke very lightly and responded to Thorin’s tweet with a homophobic comment directed towards the popular journalist. Five days after the incident, 100 Thieves made an official announcement on their Twitter account announcing their decision to release Kng from their CSGO roster. It has been rumored that 100 Thieves will replace kNgV with João "felps" Vasconcellos, who recently competed at the ELEAGUE Major: Boston with SK Gaming.

After being dropped from 100 Thieves, kNgV posted a statement on his Facebook account explaining his side of the situation. The post was translated into English by a Reddit user on the Counter Strike: Global Offensive forum.

"Good evening!

"First of all, I would like to start saying that this letter is not a retraction, because I cant retract for something I haven’t done. That said, I would like to clarify what happened between me and Mr. Thorin in 22/01 on Twitter.

"The Mr. cited above made direct insinuations on my team about the use of drugs, this accusation is very serious because it affects not only me but my family too, in view of my mother and my sisters being immediately addressed with questionings over this matter without any foundation. The first point in this case is that I’m taking all the legal measures for slander and defamation imposed by this guy, which are recurring over several months.

"After this accusation, I really made a mistake by using a sexual situation as an argument, which has no relation with homophobia or prejudice, but I agree that it was of an extremely bad tone. In mitigation, I have to say that I was in an extremely delicate emotional moment, being not able to participate on the major, my biggest project in the year.

"‪In this moment I only feel total frustration, for not being strong enough to tolerate the constant provocations of this commentator, who is probably celebrating my departure of 100Thieves.

"I believe that nothing happens by chance, and I’m sure that this door closes only for others to open in my life. ‪ I would like to thank 100Thieves for this brief period. It certainly added a lot to my professional curriculum and personal formation. ‪ To everyone that likes me and my work I leave my see you soon, there will still be a lot of shots being distributed on the games I will play around the world. For those who doesn't like me, I only ask you to understand that in this and other situations I acted impulsively, but NEVER with malice or intent to harm someone.

"Cheers, KNG."

As of this writing, there are over 600 comments on Kng’s Facebook post ranging from support for the player to extreme criticism of his actions.

After Kng’s Facebook statement, Thorin posted a series of tweets that explained his thoughts on the situation, which received a large mixture of responses from the CSGO community.

The world of professional Counter-Strike was not the only esports community to recently have a publicized homophobic controversy. Félix "xQc" Lengyel, a player for the Dallas Fuel of the Overwatch League, was suspended for four games and fined $2,000 for making a homophobic comment.

It is reassuring to see that esports organizations are not standing for this kind of behavior and punishing it in order to deter their players from engaging in it in the future. It is disappointing to see a talented player like kNgV jeopardize his career with poor choices on social media and hopefully he will be able to learn from his past mistakes and utilize his potential to the fullest.