The Pittsburgh Knights were in some hot water yesterday following the disqualification (DQ) of BuiltByGamers (BBG) from their “Knights Before Christmas” tournament.

Team @BuiltByGamers are disqualified due to an on-going investigation. @Ninja's team will be moving forward to play against @GenG for the Quarter-Finals at 1:00PM ET in the Knights Before Christmas $10K Invitational.

🎄 @eBay#KnightsXmas pic.twitter.com/I7KRoPjpwq

— Pittsburgh Knights (@KnightsGG) December 20, 2020

The Reason for the Pittsburgh Knights DQ

Pittsburgh Knights announced on Twitter that BBG would be disqualified due to an on-going investigation. This prompted a TwitLonger from Rob “rob-wiz“ Kennedy, a player on BBG, who explained that they were disqualified due to a cheating allegation towards Tristan “Critical” Trinacty. The allegation was put forward by Time In, the team BBG defeated 2-0.

Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, who plays under the Time In banner, tweeted out the clips in question with the caption “This was the clip that was flagged by the admins and was also brought to our teams attention after the fact. GGs to all the teams we played today, we play tomorrow at noon vs GEN G.” The tweet was since deleted.

After reviewing the clips I made the final call to DQ the team. With the tournament continuing tomorrow and us putting competitive integrity first, we suggested BBG decline to play and they agreed. Riot is currently reviewing his 4th cheating accusation in the past few months.

— James O'Connor (@jamesoconnor) December 20, 2020

O’Connor later made public the clip that led to this decision.

https://t.co/VeUxTiqQiu

— James O'Connor (@jamesoconnor) December 20, 2020

The president of the Pittsburgh Knights, James O’Connor, defended his questionable decision. After reviewing those clips, BBG was disqualified in order to keep “competitive integrity first.” Riot was also not around to confirm the allegation due to their holiday break. He reportedly also suggested that BBG decline to play and the team agreed. That latter part might not have been so true.

"we suggested BBG decline to play and they agreed" – This is not true, we wanted to play, we were NOT okay with bowing out of this tournament over suspicion of a twitch clip.

— BBG rob-wiz (@robwiztv) December 20, 2020

Rob-wiz fired back at O’Connor, claiming that the team never agreed to leave the tournament to which O’Connor responded with “I spoke to your ownership Rob.” Rob-wiz replied that he also spoke with the owners who also confirmed nobody on BBG agreed to forfeit the tournament.

I just spoke with them as well and confirmed that neither them nor us agreed to bowing out of this tournament, why would we agree to that?

— BBG rob-wiz (@robwiztv) December 20, 2020

The Backlash

The community was up in arms, with important figures like Rod “Slasher” Breslau and Dustin “dusT” Mouret expressing their disapproval of disqualifying a team solely based on Twitch clips.

ya everyone thought niesow and leaf cheated too. the only people that can decide if someone is cheating is riot, not us armchair analysts going over 15 second clips like we're flushaholics trying to chase our next high. seems like a hasty decision

— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) December 20, 2020

So the team gets punished before the conclusion of the investigation? Based on clips alone?

— dusT ➐ (@followdusT) December 20, 2020

Following this backlash, O’Connor decided to reinstate BBG into the tournament. He quoted a statement made by the Twitter account “AntiCheatPD” as leading to his decision. It’s important to note that AntiCheatPD is a community account and not an official anti-cheat resource.

.@AntiCheatPD did not detect anything so we are reinstating the team whether they chose to play or not. Ninja's team will not move forward. Thanks for the fast response during the holiday. https://t.co/mq0ndxRN88

— James O'Connor (@jamesoconnor) December 20, 2020

Despite being admitted back to the tournament, BBG decided to forgo the tournament to train for upcoming events.

While we were disappointed in the initial DQ, we are grateful for the quick resolution and invitation to remain in the tournament. That said, the team has elected to forgo the remainder of the tournament as we prepare for upcoming events.

— BBG (@builtbygamers) December 20, 2020

How do you feel about the decision the Pittsburgh Knights made? As usual, remember to follow us at Run it Back and join our Discord for all your latest news, extensive guides, and exclusive interviews in the world of Valorant.