The Hearthstone Global Games are coming up on April 11, and 48 countries will have teams in the tournament that should run over the next few months. But already Team Germany has taken a few hits as two of its members have been banned over a feud stemming from an incident two years ago.

When popular Hearthstone streamer Mats “P4wnyhof” Kathage was named as member of the team in February by community vote, opponents raised a stink, pointing to an incident in 2014 where Kathage and been an admin and a player in a tournament that ended up giving his team a more favorable seeding and based on some weird tiebreaker rules. The machinations didn't sit well with peers, and the bad blood bubbled to the surface again with his official addition to the HGG team. Two potential teammates threatened to pull out if he was actually named after his nomination, with Sebastian “Forsen” Fors actually following through on the threat. He has since been replaced.

That was not the end of it as apparently both Kathage and new teammate Thomas “Sintolol” Zimmer got into it over Discord chat, with Kathage throwing around homophobic comments. Not to be outdone, Zimmer responded on one of his streams calling Kathage's backers “mentally handicapped.” He later threw in the dig that he can “see why people like Hitler exist when people like P4wny walk the streets.”

Blizzard finally had enough and removed both players from the team. "In the light of recent, inappropriate, and unsportsmanlike comments made by Thomas “Sintolol” Zimmer and Mats “P4wnyhof” Kathage, we have decided to rescind their invitation to represent Team Germany in the upcoming Hearthstone Global Games," Blizzard European Community Manager Valgrimasz said in a blog post. "We’re in the process of identifying replacement players, and will reach out to them privately."

Kathage was nonplussed by the removal, but vowed to keep streaming for his #family. He also called the removal a "witch hunt" and that his comments were taken "completely out of context."

Well Community, Seems like @Sintolol and i bantered too much. Its down to Inapropriate-behaviour/comments as a reason to rescind the invite. https://t.co/9NXhhQZQfY

— Mats P4wnyhof (@P4wnyhof) March 30, 2017

Seems to be just another example of another popular streamer getting too full of himself and not owning up to comments made. The internet's growing incivility seems to empower streamers, but when they're participating in a tourney, they have to understand that it reflects poorly. Hopefully, they can mature enough to rise above the juvenile antics that seem to be increasingly popular.