The CS:GO scene was baffled over the fact that Playing Ducks had managed to gather 35 teams for their female only tournament.
Questions arose as to why LGB Esports received a direct invite to the playoffs while all other teams had to qualify for the main tournament in which only four team will be able to compete.
Games4u pressured Playing Ducks for an explanation – and got disqualified for ”bad behavior”.
– I did not really care about the invite in the end, I cared about why they ignored the question, Games4u player Michaela ”mimimicheater” Lintrup tells Aftonbladet Esport.

Monday the 5th of October the groups of the online qualifier for Playing Ducks Female Masters 2015 were drawn. The organizers had managed to gather 35 teams to play in the tournament. Games4u, one of the strongest teams in the female scene, were set to compete and their chances to qualify for the main tourney seemed high.

Disqualified for ”misbehavior”

Games4u’s dreams of winning the German tournament eventually would turn to dust. Shortly after the groups were drawn Plying Ducks had an other announcement:
”Sadly we have to announce that the team Games4u has to be disqualified for misbehavior, not only tonight. Ladies, we give you a chance to have a great tournament, but we don’t appreciate people, who don’t respect our decisions”

Exactly what they mean by ”misbehavior” is not elaborated on. Nor when Aftonbladet Esport contacts the organization of Games4u an answer is given. The only thing that seems to be crystal clear is that Playing Duck’s decision of giving LGB Esports a direct invite to the main tournament has sparked the debacle.

In the comment section of ”Official CS:GO Ladies” on Facebook the Russian G4U player Ksenia” vilga” Kluenkova says:
”We asked several times why LGB was invited and never got a reply, and then we are disqualified”
Playing Ducks admin Christina Kaiser quickly responded:
”Again, that u may understand sometime: It’s not what you say, but how you say it.”

”It felt like a paid invite”

Aftonbladet Esport gets in touch with the Danish G4U player Michaela ”mimimicheater” Lintrup. She explains how multiple teams tried to clarify why LGB received an invitation but no one else – and that Playing Ducks never responded.

After a while she spammed the question in Twitch chat – together with players from around ten other teams – until they received a first warning. She says she stopped after being warned, but the team still got disqualified ten minutes later. No other team was disqualified.
– I did not really care about the invite in the end, I cared about why they ignored the question. It felt like a paid invite, or an invite based on friendship or that LGB would be the best team to promote their tournament. It was very clear that the invite wasn’t based on getting the best tournament, mimimicheater tells Aftonbladet Esport.
– Since the female scene has very few events throughout a year, we in the female scene don’t think you should invite teams based on what PR they can do for your tournament. Plus it’s a 4 slots tournament, which means it should be the very best teams going there. You won’t get that if you invite the teams to play.

Why only Games4u were disqualified when other teams asked the same question is unclear. A former Games4u manager spoke badly about other teams in the chat and that may have influenced the decision, according to the manager himself. However, this person has for some time not been involved in G4U, but in the heat of the moment Playing Ducks may have coupled him together with the team.

”We are under no obligation to justify the invitation”

Why LGB were invited remains a mystery. In a Facebook group exclusive for female gamers the Playing Ducks admin Christina Kaiser says it was a random pick and simply who they wanted for their ”party”. When Aftonbladet Esport contacts Playing Ducks we receive this answer from the board of directors:
– In the last few hours, we’ve got heavily attacked from players who play in one of the teams. A normal mode of expression has not been respected and the club (also the managers behind the project) has been offended. It’s a tournament of the organization Playing-Ducks and we create the rules. We are under no obligation to justify the invitation of ”LGB”.
– If somebody has problems with the rules or the invitation of ”LGB”, the team can gladly leave the Masters. Any other offense against the management or against the association, will disqualify the entire team. The Playing-Ducks have no problems to completely cancel the Female Masters.

Aftonbladet Esport has contacted Playing Ducks for further information, but without results.