The ESWC has commented to HLTV.org on the issue of 12-year-old Bogdan "penguin" Marchenko being used by PinG.

Marchenko's appearance at the ESWC world finals clashes with the ESWC eligibility rule which states that every player "must be at least 16 years old on 30th June 2010" to participate in a tournament.

The ESWC justifies Marchenko's go-ahead to play with the fact that the French law says nothing on the matter, and has indicated that exceptions like this have been granted before.

"The ESWC has made exceptions in the past for certain WarCraft 3 and Quake players, such as av3k, and since the law does not force us to set an age limit, like in Germany, where there is a limit, we have decided to let him play and there will be no further actions," ESWC head referee Camille Versteeg told HLTV.org.

PinG are currently playing against Fair Frag for survival in the competition after losing their opening match 21-9 to Evil Geniuses.