Update: Depth drop team following public backlash against players; KEL and reck leave
Depth have announced the release of their ESEA Premier Season 36 roster, consisting of Shane "shane" Dressler, Derek "dare" Brown, Wyatt "snav" Phillippi, Kyle "KEL" Murray, and Ethan "reck" Serrano. Additionally, shane, dare, snav, and Bryan "HavoK" Kuzawinski were all removed from FPL with "no foreseeable re-admission" following the conclusion of an investigation from FACEIT.
The controversy that led to the release of the roster and banning of players began early on Monday morning, with Rugratz player "sin" posting a Tweet containing an interaction he had with snav and HavoK in a FACEIT PUG. In the screenshot, snav says, "nice pic [sic] man" directed toward sin, following up by saying, "probably nto [sic] raped as a kid." HavoK then goes on to call sin a catboy and the opposing team "tranny losers", before snav echoes those words and repeats "girly boys catboys lol you guys were not raped as children".
Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski then spoke up about his experience in PUGs against the same players, replying to the initial tweet from sin saying, "all of the players that I’ve played against in pugs from Depth have been complete scum saying terrible shit. crazy any of them are at the level they are. Pretty much all of them so at least trash sticks together."
Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev later chimed in, making a brief but summative statement of "thats why they will always be trash."
Subsequent screenshots, stories, and clips were then posted by various players and community members, including Max "SolGoat" Wallace, a casual player who had run into some of the players in a PUG, and myself, who was sent screenshots from those wishing to remain anonymous. Max "TR1LL" Kesselhaut also referenced the team using Discord to stream their coach POV to Jake "eptima" Allen, who is still serving out a year-long ESEA ban.
As the community outpouring of screenshots continued, EliGE posted a Pastebin link that he was sent, which contained numerous screenshots from all of the aforementioned players repeatedly making homophobic, racist, and disparaging comments in a private Discord. Alongside the players, one of their former stand-ins, Jake "bddu" Gartin, was also implicated, with additional screenshots seeing snav insult Josiah "JoJo" Jimenez and his personal life.
An initial response from Amir "Am1racle" Khair in the instigating Twitter thread from sin was met with criticism, where he said, "what snav said is 100% hard stop unacceptable and will be dealt with in its own way; but you provoked him with with messages that aren't in this screenshot. I'd suggest not provoking people and then trying to only get them in trouble with no self repercussions."
As more information came to public knowledge however, FACEIT initially dealt snav a one week ban while continuing to conduct their investigation, with Am1racle making their final ruling known nearly two hours after EliGE's tweets and approximately 13 hours after the tweet from sin.
The players in question - shane, snav, dare, and HavoK - were all removed from FPL, with Am1racle stating that they have "no foreseeable re-admission." While ESEA have yet to publicly comment on any matters regarding the players and their ESEA Premier roster, Dust2.us knows that league operator will be discussing the matter among their admin team in short order.
Following the announcement of their FPL bans, the Depth organisation also announced the release of the roster, pointing towards "several behavioral issues" as the reason for parting ways.
It can only be hoped that, if similar situations arise in the future, concerns can be voiced to attempt to put a halt to it, or evidence of continued abuse can be forwarded to responsible parties sooner so that action can be taken.
ex-Depth, who will presumably resort to the name timbermen, consists of:
Wyatt "snav" Phillippi- Shane "shane" Dressler
- Derek "dare" Brown
- Kyle "KEL" Murray
- Ethan "reck" Serrano
Should a ruling from ESEA not come within the day, timbermen will face off against Mythic in ESEA Premier Season 36 at 6 PM EST.
Update: Following the initial publication of this article, Dust2.us were made aware that KEL and reck have left the team's ESEA roster. Additionally, reck has posted a TwitLonger in which he states that he was primarily on the team due to KEL, who he had gotten to know via Rank S.
Due to the state of NA CS right now there are not many teams I feel that are at the top of Premier or can compete with the top of Premier so there were not many teams I feel I had the option of joining or wanted to join so as a result, this team was the final decision I landed on for s36 after talking to KEL as I would definitely have a spot on the team.
With all this being said I knew that they had the sense of humor they have but, I do believe in the notion that what is said behind closed doors to your close friends should not be judged which is why I never judged them for having that sense of humor even though I don't partake in that kind of humor...
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