Unresolved dilemma

Visas have always been a problem for Esports athletes, and when it comes to Dota 2, it doesn’t get any better. This year, when The International changes to Canada, let’s take a look at the TI and Dota events

Since the professionalization of Dota 2, with the appearance of The International, visa issues have always been an obstacle for the development of this Esports sport and the careers of many players. The first TI was held in Seattle – The International 2012 – with MUFC, the Malaysian team was invited directly, but could not make it to Seattle and was replaced by MousEsportss. Even MousEsportss, at the same event, was unable to obtain a visa for Romanian Alexandru ‘ComeWithMe’ Craciunescu and Kuro ‘KuroKy’ Salehi Takhasomi was forced to replace him. After that, the entire Chinese CIS team, except for Dominik ‘Black^’ Reitmeier – a holder of a German passport, was also denied a visa during an interview at the US consulate in 2014, and had to appeal to be accepted.

Then the visa crisis hit at The International 2015: Natus Vincere’s Akbar ‘SoNNeikO’ Butaev, EHOME’s Chen ‘Cty’ Tianyu, Vega Squadron’s Semion ‘CemaTheSlayeR’ Krivulya, and Team Empire’s Maxim ‘yoky’ Kim. All of them were refused visas at least once. The story continued at TI6 when two Southeast Asian teams – TNC and Execration – both squads were denied visas to the US, but were eventually able to get through with the help of Valve and Philippine senator Bam Aquino. Last year, safelaner Vladimir ‘Chappie’ Kuzmenko of Team Empire was unable to receive his passport in time, nor did Henrik ‘AdmiralBulldog’ Ahnberg, despite his “needs”, make it through customs when he arrived in the US.

Sweet TI8 is in Canada, i can go there now

— Henrik Ahnberg (@AdmiralBulldog) 16 March 2018

Obviously the visa problem causes a lot of inconvenience to players around the world, but those from developing countries have the most difficulty. One example is Pakistan.

Not having much presence in the international arena, the Hassan brothers: Sumail ‘SumaiL’ Hassan and Yawar ‘YawaR’ Hassan had difficulty getting visas. YawaR was unable to obtain a Taiwan Visa to attend the ZOTAC Cup in Taiwan, and as a result his team, GG, had to withdraw from the event. SumaiL had more luck, but it could have turned out to be a disaster if Pakistan had been on President Donald Trump’s list of banned immigration to the US.

Of course China added another hurdle for Sumail’s visa process. Soon he’s gonna need an encyclopedic knowledge of the Han dynasty to get in.

— Phillip Aram (@Phillip_Aram) 10 March 2017

Pakistan didn’t make Trump’s list for political reasons, but if it had it would have ruined @SumaaaaiL ‘s career

— Phillip Aram (@Phillip_Aram) January 28, 2017

With the World Electronic Sports Games (WESG) just over, we see the Russian team become the champion. However, the representative of Pakistan, Eximious Esportss, could not attend this international tournament for the first time. They made it through to the national qualifiers and then defeated the Lebanese team in the LAN final to secure a spot in the main event but were unable to make it due to visa issues.

Eximious Esportss mid laner Shiraz ‘Sh1zzY’ Akhtar shared his thoughts on the matter with GosuGamers:

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Ahead of WESG, this is our first time participating in a big LAN tournament, so everyone is very excited and well prepared. I have lived with the team for a long time and I can say that everyone is ready. From climbing the leaderboards in just 2 weeks to endless scrims. The team’s first reaction to being denied a visa was clearly pessimistic. After a while, when we think about how the team worked so hard to achieve this and what more the members could gain by continuing to work like that. People are more optimistic now. I have to say, everyone is quite disappointed and bitter about this. We try to move on and not think about it. But thoughts of “what if…then” and “maybe…” also affect my mind sometimes. For those of you supporting us, calm down, we’ll be back soon!

[/penci_blockquote]

With TI now moving from Vancouver to Seattle, a lot of people expect visa problems to be less likely. On the other hand, all players who have obtained a ‘multi-year visa’ to the US must now apply for a Canadian visa again. While the visa process may be easier, no one can say for sure.

On the TI8 Visa front: Canada tourist and work visas (for non-US citizens) is NOT easier than the US. Expect similar application procedures.

— Nikki Elise (@Sajedene) 16 March 2018

The question now is what should we do? Some countries are starting to try to legalize Esports as a mainstream sport. At the Asian Games 2020 in China, Esports will also have an official sports medal, as well as the Russian sports ministry that also acknowledges this as a sport. Perhaps, the world will start to recognize Esports as a sport, to bring the game to the Olympics and make visa applications easier for the players? But for now, this is still a long way to go.

Source: gosugamer