HellRaisers to seek a stand-in for the Red Bull Battle Grounds in Santa Monica, California, after Artyom “Artes” Gorobey’s visa was denied. A replacement has not been named with the tournament drawing near, playoffs take place May 5-7.
Something went wrong. ARTES' visa is rejected, stand-in for the RedBullBG inc. It hurts, because he's a big part of our open-hearted family.
— HellRaisers Dota 2 (@HRdota2) April 29, 2015
HellRaisers surprised everyone with their qualification into Red Bull Battle Grounds 2015 LAN, being the underdogs in the short list of four invited teams to be the CIS representatives in California. The team emerged victorious after a difficult start. Falling to the Lower Brackets in the first round to Na’Vi after just 31 minutes, they then pushed past Virtus.Pro and then Team Empire in the Lower Brackets to face Na’Vi again in the grand finals. HR went on to best Na’Vi, 2:1, and secure their place in the LAN playoffs.
However, for Artyom“Artes” Gorobey, the journey stops here. Unable to secure his visa, the player will not attend the LAN playoffs in Santa Monica, California, May 5-7. The team is on the hunt for a stand-in. This unfortunate event is even more painful as HR withdrew from their participation in the D2CL playoffs, in order to have time to work on and secure their visas for Red Bull Battle Grounds 2015.
Wanted: Stand-in
It has not been determined as of yet who will be the stand-in for the team, however the list of potentials could be short, considering the LAN starts in only 6 days and the amount of time one would need to secure their visa is typically a longer process. Additionally, schedules are tight for many players in the month of May and as The International 5 qualifier invites are expected to be at the end of May, teams will be looking to bootcamp and prepare.
HellRaisers will be competing alongside Team Malaysia, Invictus Gaming, Summoner’s Rift and Team Secret in the offline playoffs in Santa Monica, California, between May 5-7. The finals will be held in San Francisco, on May 10, with a base prize pool of $75,000.
Hell Raisers roster
Artyom “Artes” Gorobey
Andrey “Afoninje” Afonin
Ivan “Gorec” Kartankov
Dulat “goddam” Seidimomyn
Andrey “Dread” Golubev
History repeats itself
Team Rave
This is the same situation that Team Rave has faced recently, when they were forced to withdraw from StarLadder Season XII, in order to obtain their visas for the MLG Championships. The team was then unable to participate in Columbus when they failed to secure their visas on time. Rave had Philippino Senator Bam Aquino step in as an advocate and supporter to coordinate with the team, the media and various government agencies, shedding light and bring attention to the matter and the impact it has on both the players and the community. Rave was able to finally solve the issues for the time being.
Team Empire
Team Empire player Maxim “Yoky” Kim had his visa to the United States denied for the second time on March 31st, preventing him from being able to attend the MLG LAN finals with the team. Team Empire was able to recruit Gleb “Funn1k” Lipatnikov to stand in for the event. The team went on to become the MLG Champions, a vindicating end to the saga.
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