di^ to stand in for ML at ESEA S23 GC

5-1-2017 10:59

Diane "di^" Tran will play for Muffin Lightning at the ESEA Season 23 Global Challenge as Jack "arKimonday" Kastner was a no-show.

The tournament which is taking place in Burbank, California is set to begin today and Muffin Lightning are one of the two teams who were invited to the tournament after BigGods and VG.CyberZen had visa issues and couldn't travel to the US.

Muffin Lightning has had their own share of trouble as they learned Jack "⁠arKimonday⁠" Kastner wouldn't show up for the event and the team had to find a quick replacement for him. Consequently arKimonday has received a 100-year ban on ESEA.

di^ will play for Muffin Lightning

Diane "⁠di^⁠" Tran of CLG Red will be the substitute player for the North American team and Samuel "⁠SileNt⁠" Portillo has released a statement regarding the matter:

"First off, this is just a regular event for us; so thankfully ESEA allowed us to get a stand-in since four of us were already here at the hotel. I'm sure if it was a chance (at qualifiying for) the pro league we were f*cked." SileNt said in his statement.

"Second, obviously we couldn't get any kind of pros or current premier players who played last season. So we had a few options to pick from and we decided to go with Diane.

Finally to explain a bit of him dodging, arKimonday clearly wanted to attend the LAN when we first got invited since he signed all the stuff ESEA gave us to book his flight. A week before the LAN he started acting a bit sketchy saying he didn't want to go to the LAN and he might dodge. This worried us a bit but we didn't think he would actually dodge since he did similar things before our LAN at the Minor.

At the end of the day arKimonday is a loser for dodging but it's best for the team. He was a huge problem for a long time but we wanted to give him another shot. Besides let's be honest we won't be losing much firepower with him gone; if anything we'll have more"

Muffin Lightning will have the following lineup in Burbank:

Samuel "⁠SileNt⁠" Portillo
Joshua "⁠sancz⁠" Ballenger
Adam "⁠aKis⁠" Kisseberth
Ryan "⁠ichibaNNN⁠" Colucci
Diane "⁠di^⁠" Tran

The ESEA Season 23 Global Challenge kicks off today with the match between Kinguin and LDLC. To see the full schedule and groups, check out our viewer's guide.

BenjaCS is a staff writer at HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter.

nice

2017-01-05 10:59

35 replies

Cheating = 2 years Landodging = 100 years Wtf u want

2017-01-05 11:04

34 replies

throwing = permanent

2017-01-05 11:13

28 replies

It's Valve's ban, they perma ban cheaters. But anyway DaZeD, fxy0 should be unbanned after 2 years.

2017-01-05 11:15

24 replies

no they should not

2017-01-05 11:29

16 replies

nt butthurt reddit user

2017-01-05 11:45

15 replies

not butthurt; no reddit user nt anyway

2017-01-05 12:15

14 replies

2 replies

Hi stinx <3

2017-01-05 20:07

1 reply

Hi Killer2gud =DDD

2017-01-05 20:19

Definitely butthurt though.

2017-01-05 12:25

not really

2017-01-05 17:58

Okay.

2017-01-05 18:15

di^ - 1.04 rating All the males - under 0.98 I feel like something just died inside of me...

2017-01-05 14:04

7 replies

What problems do you have? Do you think that female dont deserve to be pro?

2017-01-05 14:08

4 replies

Y u so offended? I didn't say that grills don't deserve to be pro

2017-01-05 14:11

females aren't as good

2017-01-05 15:48

*just hanging on ur post m8; i dont know the story here, and they dont accuse him of cheating... so what if he has some mental illness holding him from going to the Lan? alot of ppl that age suffers from social anxiety/other factors that might make it completely understandable that he wouldnt attend.. just seems a bit unprofessional, and unsensitive to write silent3ms statement and the esea ban... my 0.02 $

2017-01-05 16:57

he went to previous lan/lans

she has that rating while playing 90% of her matches against other women.. use your brain before typing..

2017-01-05 17:45

That rating is not from playing pro cs. It's from the female scene I think

2017-01-05 19:28

s1mple was banned for cheating, he seems to still be around. Admittedly it was an ESL only ban but still.

2017-01-05 13:58

6 replies

VAC BANNED != ESL BAN

5 replies

cheating is cheating

2017-01-05 15:02

You are retarded, I never said that it's fair. Go back to your cave.

2017-01-05 15:04

nt oskar

2017-01-05 15:06

lol programming syntax

ye so he was ban by eslwire, where vac cannot fucking detect him? he should ve been ban for life anyway but he is enjoy the money now, worth.

2017-01-05 15:23

if valve changes the bans from permanent to 100 years do you really think it would make a difference? come on..

2017-01-05 14:13

Yes Brax can live 150-200 years more

2017-01-05 14:24

ridiculous its just like getting jail for life for a robbery and 25 years for a murder

2017-01-05 19:44

Jonathan E must have given the ban

2017-01-05 11:27

LOL

2017-01-05 11:52

hahahah

Ayyy

2017-01-05 13:39

hyehehehehe

2017-01-05 17:21

2017-01-05 11:00

expected

wow

this is awesome

why tho

PogChamp

wow cool, looking forward to see her play

LMAOO that interview remember guys: these people are PAID PRO PLAYERS LMFAOOOOOOOO

2017-01-05 11:01

25 replies

That wasn't an interview, look more carefully.

2017-01-05 11:02

3 replies

statement. whatever. doesnt change the point.

2017-01-05 11:11

muffin lightning = paid pro players lmao ok

2017-01-05 16:29

they competed in a minor with that roster xD

2017-01-05 16:42

No lol

2017-01-05 11:03

Muffin Lightning aren't paid they are just a group of mates

17 replies

So did ALLIN and Fluffy Gangsters and they weren't paid teams either until afterwards

2017-01-05 11:14

thats not the point. the point is: they are going to fairly big tournaments. where organizers pay for ur flights and hotels and all, not just some shit local byoc lans. and look how serious they are about it xD only in NA CS, the most priviliged scene ever.

2017-01-05 11:17

So fucking what, he said an honest statement. What his team mate did was scummy.

2017-01-05 12:32

13 replies

the main problem is obviously the teammate, even though the statement isnt exactly professional either.

2017-01-05 13:12

12 replies

God forbid people put out statements in the heat of the moment when their team mate fucks them over? Do you not understand that for these guys this LAN is a chance at pro league but also for a decent prize purse for their level. Not sure why you're trying to be a massive cunt

2017-01-05 13:18

11 replies

so suck it the fuck up, take a breather and put out a professional statement that gets the point across without shittalking? also they look like idiots having a fucking lan dodger on the team when there are dozens of people in the NA scene who would be just as good as that guy or better who would play for that team.

2017-01-05 13:50

10 replies

Jack part of me gets your point, it was unprofessional. Another part of me says that the truth often stings. Was anything he said untrue? Nope. He certainly couldve left some things out of that statement, but it is what it is. In the mean time, Di^ is LAN tested and will bring something to the table that wasn't there before. Get em di^!

2017-01-05 16:35

9 replies

di is lan tested at female lans. big difference.

2017-01-05 16:43

8 replies

Just shut the fuck up already, reading your replays here gave me the cringe of the month.

2017-01-05 21:06

well.... lets see how di will do xD

2017-01-05 21:28

im not talking about di^ being able to do shit or not, she's obviosly miles behind the competition even in the MDL, I'm talking about you shit talking the team for their statement about arki and them being unprofessional, they're not.. being in MDL doesn't make em PRO, being in the minor qualifier for a main qualifier for a main major event doesn't make them PRO either... if they were representing a brand and getting paid for it... your argument would hold some weight, but guess what? THEY DON'T!

2017-01-05 23:16

u have to realize that the term 'pro player' is really not that clear in esports. twitter.com/SileNtCSGO there it says professional csgo. yeah he doesnt currently get paid by an org. go 3 years back when no team apart from nip pretty much got a salary. u gonna go back on the forums here and rekt everyone for calling the top players back then pros? get real. they were playing in a valve sponsored event. this crap is ridiculous.

2017-01-05 23:42

today or 3 years ago, if playing CS is or was your main income activity, yeah you are PRO by definition of the word professional however, it is pretty obvious silent gets more income from streaming than from playing for his team, be that salary or prize money... He can call himself whatever he wants... I could link you a couple of twitter profiles of shitty open/im players claiming they are "Professional CSGO Players" but that doesn't make em one, does it ? Get real, pal.

2017-01-05 23:47

not sure silent streams. if he does, its not a very successful stream. im pretty sure ppl call themselves pro players when they play full time. not everyone needs to make money every month to survive, especially not some of these 19 year old nerd kids who live in moms basement.

2017-01-05 23:49

people might call themselves pro players because they invest a good amount of hours in the game, that doesn't make you a pro tho, don't you get that?

2017-01-06 02:20

He probably just didn't change that. Silent played for method and NRG pro teams which were in pro league and paid a salary. Currently I don't think many people would consider Muffin Lightning a "Pro" team. Semi-pro or something like that would probably be more accurate. Silent has played professionally for sure though.

2017-01-06 07:10

but they are NA, one one takes them seriously anyway

2017-01-05 11:21

apart from orgs that pay loads of money for them, tourment orgs that pay money to fly them in, league orgs that create leagues just as big as leagues in EU for them and give them equally as many LAN spots as EU etc etc.

2017-01-05 11:23

actually read the post, lol silent fking rekt arki feelsbadman

arkimonday lol

Lmao

27 year old dodger

2017-01-05 11:05

2017-01-05 11:07

"we won't be losing much firepower with him gone" replaced by a girl lul Silent the god hahaha Nice choice to pick di^

2017-01-05 11:08

rofl Edit:joelz don't play esea!!

You get less for murder

2017-01-06 00:46

Girl player=rip team

>arKimonday has received a 100-year ban on ESEA

HAHAH 100 year ban?? Really??

2017-01-05 11:19

100-year ban LUL

See ya in 100 years

arkimonday dodged because he is setting up a new dedicated LAN team with jOELZ and didn't want to make himself ineligible at future events. You heard it here first.

2017-01-05 11:30

is ko1n the coach by any chance?

2017-01-05 12:17

he top1 gamesense bra

2017-01-05 17:39

arKimonday ez top 1 of 2117

2017-01-05 11:33

+1 lol

2017-01-05 17:17

see ya in 100 years rofl, nice ban haha

2017-01-05 11:34

''professional'' e: esport is a joke btw

2017-01-05 11:35

Cya in 100 years

I guess chivalry ain't dead

2017-01-05 11:37

who the fuck bans people for dodging lans? XDDD and for 100 years? XDDD

18 replies

probably cos ESEA paid for his flight?

2017-01-05 11:47

so they couldnt ask him to return the money, need to straight up ban LUL

2017-01-05 11:49

or they just wanted to show people that you don't pull a dick move like that with them without a good reason :)

or they are just retarded, like Valve with their updates

2017-01-05 11:50

Why? They paid for someone to come play at their tournament, and then he doesn't show up for no reason, seems fair to me

2017-01-05 11:51

I'm pretty sure they didn't even ask him to find out a reason

why do you assume that? And judging by silent's statement there isn't a good reason

2017-01-05 11:53

there are good solutions to this anyway, other than banning people like that. inb4 ban gets either removed or reduced

2017-01-05 11:55

So you don't think it's fair of them to ban him after they have paid him for him to come and play and he just goes "yeah no, i'm not feeling it" right before it starts?

2017-01-05 11:57

Yes, simple solution is a team forfeit. The guy didn't ruin the whole tournament because of dodging, so there is no reason for ESEA to ban him. If they banned him because of money, which he can probably return, then its a fucking shame

2017-01-05 11:58

team forfeit, what the hell? If you actually read their statement they're not happy with him either, why should they punish the team and not him? Are you his fanboy, er better yet, are you him? :D

2017-01-05 12:00

Do you see my fucking flag? So just because someone doesnt like another person that person must be banned? NA logic LUL

2017-01-05 12:03

cos it would be so hard to change your flag, right? Where did i say that? I'm saying it's fair of them to punish him and not the team when ESEA paid for his flights to come and play and he just bails out for no fucking reason. If he just had to pay back the money they gave for the ticket then others are more likely to do the same in the future. However, no one will pull shit like this again knowing they'll get banned for it

2017-01-05 12:06

The ban will likely be reduced after talking to him tbh but i do feel that some type of discipline is necessary.

2017-01-06 04:40

Yeah probably, but a ban of some sort is definitely needed in order to prevent others from doing the same thing

2017-01-06 09:32

agreed

2017-01-07 01:04

nt arKimonday

2017-01-05 13:26

Esea stated a while ago that they would not tolerate this behavior, here they are... setting an example.

2017-01-05 21:08

Besides let's be honest we won't be losing much firepower with him gone; if anything we'll have more looooool diane more firepower burrrrrnn

jOELZ approves

2017-01-05 11:56

100 years and he will be BACK!!

what kind of ban does joelz deserve then, he dodged fucking major

Can you explain the Joelz thing to me? I'm out of the loop

2017-01-05 16:54

I think this is an opertunity for all female gamers, to enter the scene of the male side, if she performs great the door is open :) Looking forward to the great american hope of female CS :D

good point

2017-01-05 13:52

PogChamp grill PogChamp

2017-01-05 12:10

ok 100 year is a bit too much ffs. Fucking Nazis ESEA

Well lets take a look at it... Throwing a game to win a bit of money before there was any rules about players betting on their own games gives permanent ban. Doding a LAN gives 100 years ban... Cheating which, lets be honest, is the worst crime you can do, only gives 2 years ban... ESEA and Valve are not only retarded in coming up with new rules, they also fail at recreate or modify the rules of those stupidly insane rules they make.

2017-01-05 12:14

I wouldn't say cheating is worse than match fixing.

2017-01-05 12:38

stealing retarded 13yo kids' skins < taking away 1000s of hours of people's hard work by cheating vs them obviously depends on the context of the cheating though. cheating in a major is obviously much worse than cheating in random pug

2017-01-05 13:56

At the time, there was no rules, although common sense would have told these guys to not do what they did, but cheating is by account far worse than fixing a game as the game can be replayed, where as the cheating is a programme that allows you to go from elo 0 to 2K+ in an instant. But then again it's all about peoples definition of opinions

rofl by cheating you are not only changing the outcome of the match (just this = matchfixing) but you are also shitting on esports and shitting on the other teams work

2017-01-05 16:50

Cheating = not worse haHAA. #1 stealing money from tournament providers, team salaries, sponsors, and at the same time getting fame and glory from playing/winning. Ya definitely not worse than a one time throw for $1000 dollars haHAA I'm retarded

2017-01-05 20:59

This is nice for all woman players.

2017-01-05 12:11

"let's be honest we won't be losing much firepower with him gone"

So if he is 127 YO we can see him again on esea lan. I will wait as his biggest fan

wow the amount of hate he is getting holy fuck. Gets called a Scumbag, Loser and gets a 100 year ban from a triggered esea admin. What is this? Maybe the loser bit is justified a bit but damn.

Also his former teammate really put him down with the 'we won't be losing much firepower with him gone; if anything we'll have more'. This arkiwhatever guy has been totally decimated in one single news post.

2017-01-05 12:54

As he should, letting your team down just because he "feels like it"? Fuck that piece of shit, he's not only wasting his time, but that of everyone else involved, especially his teammates who prac'd and played with him for 100s of hours

2017-01-05 21:12

H@H@H@H@H@h@h@h@h@h@h@

2017-01-05 12:22

wtf

Cya in the 22th century bro

2017-01-05 12:28

"22th" Twenty secoth

2017-01-05 12:46

Yeah my bad sorry, 22nd :D

2017-01-05 13:33

this is hltv m8, 22th is correct in here. nokappa

2017-01-05 17:16

what a cutie <3

2017-01-05 12:35

Consequently arKimonday has received a 100-year ban on ESEA

roasted

2017-01-05 12:43

LUL cya in 100 years

2017-01-05 12:47

100 year ban LMAO

2017-01-05 12:48

damn the BURN in this statement pure gold finally a grill in a male team!

2017-01-05 13:14

I want to see how she'll perform on the male team. If she does good, I dare to hope she might stick around. Imagine the absolute shit storm it would cause. And maybe, if the stars align, we'll get a female pro who actually wants to compete with males and she'll put in all the hours she's supposed to. Shit happens and next major will have mix gender teams. Ye I'm asking too much

2017-01-05 13:37

I remember masq, she was always playing with guys and she was pretty good too.

2017-01-05 16:04

+1 BUT lets dream

2017-01-05 16:13

She's not even one of the better female players. Will more than likely fail miserably. She's going to cop so much shit xD. But hey, at least we have newds.

2017-01-05 17:06

Wow, very cool, but 100yr ban... Wtf? Its dumb

2017-01-05 13:20

i dont understand the 100 years ban , sure he should attend the lan he qualified for, but what if he dodged it because of irl stuff ? Silent already said he's not a cheater and ELIGE confirmed it, so what im, idk he's fat or for some other reason he didnt want to show his face on camera ? i remember when i was a kid i qualified for the orange ball (like degreees in tennislike the belt in karaté) and i didnt want to go to the ceremony because i didnt have a shirt (hey i was young) so what , i didnt get ban 100 years for playing tennis ..

the 100 year ban is a temporary and they will give a more reasonable ban after arki explains why he didn't show up to the lan

2017-01-05 16:34

If you don't wanna go because you're a fatfuck (or whatever other shitty excuse, just look at flamie for gods sake) just say so from the get go, don't be a scumbag and waste your teammates time playing with you and the organizations money paying for your accommodation and travel expenses... fairly simple

2017-01-05 21:17

LUL

2017-01-05 13:27

LOL that statement but nice for di^, I hope she does well

"At the end of the day arKimonday is a loser for dodging but it's best for the team. He was a huge problem for a long time but we wanted to give him another shot. Besides let's be honest we won't be losing much firepower with him gone; if anything we'll have more" Rip arKimonday LMAO

Ayyy LMAO was just going to copy/pasta this part of the article myself. Samuel "SileNt3m" Portillo = Savage

2017-01-05 14:15

NA CS and all dudes with below 1.0 rating.. lollerinos. GL di^, teach them how to shoot.

2017-01-05 14:14

Tbf grill has >1 Rating because she only played against other gillerinos.

2017-01-05 17:40

lan dodging = 100 years ban throwing for few asiimovs = permanent cheating = 2 years ban gg

2017-01-05 14:31

wat the hell did i just read 100 years ban for dodged a lan

2017-01-05 14:38

Watapak

2017-01-05 14:58

joelz 1000 year ban?

2017-01-05 15:58

hahahah xD

WAIT di GOT ZERO Z E R O ZERO hours past two weeks? steamcommunity.com/id/dianedianediane

2017-01-05 16:15

she dont need to play csgo everybody know shes good

2017-01-05 16:30

sucks on so many levels for the muffin lightning guys hope the best to them, they've been tearing NA up against all odds lately

2017-01-05 16:16

Consequently arKimonday has received a 100-year ban on ESEA.

2017-01-05 16:23

silent with the pew pew shots which were well in place & deserved

lululu

2017-01-05 17:10

This is the funniest news item I've seen on HLTV lmao

2017-01-05 17:24

OMG GRILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

2017-01-05 17:29

Give her the di^!

2017-01-05 17:34

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

2017-01-06 06:50

2017-01-07 02:56

xD you can cheat but you cant dodge lan

2017-01-05 17:42

2017-01-05 18:09

WHat a fucker, this ban was deserved.

2017-01-05 18:22

Congrats di^ go girl!

2017-01-05 19:24

Was di literally the last person left on earth who was allowed to ring for this team? How come they couldn't just find one pro or even premier skilled player to fill the spot? Muffin is throwing any chance they may have had. Gl hopefully sancz can carry hard

lex wanted to but di^ is a girl which means she gets privilege

2017-01-05 19:49

If that were true we'd see a lot more females standing in, shes not even one of the top female pros all the girls on secret are miles better. I'm not saying they should have rang instead, just that they never ring for any team so why should di?

2017-01-06 04:35

2017-01-05 19:59

EZ for di^ the qt3.14

2017-01-05 20:48

gl muffing!

2017-01-05 22:15

jOELZ ?

2017-01-06 02:24

haha 100 year ban, reminds me of when I got a 1 year ESEA ban for making one 9/11 joke but for real he is a complete scum to dodge without giving a valid reason, who the fuck cares how long the ban is when he fucked his team over that hard

2017-01-06 04:34

GO DI!

2017-01-06 04:46

please ban joelz too

2017-01-06 06:46

At the end of the day arKimonday is a loser for dodging but it's best for the team. He was a huge problem for a long time but we wanted to give him another shot. Besides let's be honest we won't be losing much firepower with him gone; if anything we'll have more" shots fired

2017-01-06 06:49