timbermen fall on their own axe in an embarrassing outburst of rage

Anyone who knows anything about the ESL Challenger League level of competition in North America knows of the infamous Timbermen lineup. A litany of bans has been imposed on different members over the years for toxic behavior such as racism and threats made to their opponents.

In their IEM Dallas Open Qualifier matchup against Vendetta, that toxicity appeared to be aimed at fellow teammates, with Derek "dare" Brown killing Wyatt "snav" Phillippi in T-spawn after the latter apparently accidentally (or purposely!) knifed the former. With the intentional teamkill occurring at 7-1 down, Timbermen would not even complete the fixture as they forfeited while down 13-2 in a pathetic display.

Up 2-0 in the swiss format of the most recent closed qualifier for the BLAST.tv Paris Major Amercias RMR, Timbermen was a bo3 victory away from representing NA at a Major qualifier. With the team's history of toxicity in mind, many in the community have questioned whether or not the squad should be allowed to continue competing given their prior transgressions. In early 2021, the core of snav, dare, and Shane "shane" Dressler all had year-long bans imposed on them for inappropriate behavior by ESEA.

Many other incidents relating to the actions of this roster have led to many in the community questioning why this team is allowed to continue competing. Renowned commentator and NACS advocate Jason "Moses" O'Toole remarked that the teamkill incident makes it difficult to advocate for the NA scene in general when this is happening at the ECL level.

In response to this tweet, former Splyce player David "DAVEY" Stafford questioned when it would be appropriate to just ban the players, rather than continue to give them chance upon chance. For now, the squad have been on a streak of good behavior with no major complaints coming out of the community, but we have seen them apologize and continue to act out afterward in the past.

The question and concern regarding the timbermen roster appears to have the community wondering why a team of this statue continues to be at the highest level, despite their antics. With NA striving to be taken seriously again as a competitive region, Timbermen acting the way that they do on such a regular basis makes this an increasingly difficult task.