Another one bites the dust: Team Empire withdraws from MLG due to visa issues
Tournaments

Another one bites the dust: Team Empire withdraws from MLG due to visa issues

May 27th, 2015 Tournaments 0 comments

Team Empire has withdrawn from the MLG Pro League LAN finals to be hosted at X-Games in Austin, Texas, between June 5-7. This is the second team to withdraw from the event in less than a week, due to the inability to secure US visas.

MLG has announced that Ninjas in Pyjamas will replace Team Empire at the MLG Pro League LAN finals.

Vega Squadron were left with too little time to secure their US visas and were therefore forced to withdraw from the competition, on May 22. London Conspiracy – qualifier finals runners-up, will take Vega’s place in the LAN finals.

Neither London Conspiracy nor Ninjas in Pyjamas will have any issues traveling to the US, as both teams benefit from a 10-minute long simplified visa process, due to the Visa Waiver Program.

Team Empire’s visa issues

Team Empire’s recent success as MLG Columbus Pro League Champions had earned them a direct invite to the MLG Pro League to be held in partnership with ESPN X-Games. The team had grabbed their first 2015 championship title after defeating Evil Geniuses at the MLG Pro League in Columbus Ohio.

Empire were forced to enlist the help of Gleb “Funn1k” Lipatnikov to stand in at the MLG Pro League Championships, when Maxim “Yoky” Kim had his US visa denied for the second time.

Team Empire, who are currently bootcamping in Kiev, Ukraine, have already been affected by visa issues this week, when Maxim “Yoky” Kim was turned back at the Ukrainian border.

Dota 2 visa issues in 2015

  • Virtus.Pro member, Ilya “lil-_-HarRDy” Ilyuk was unable to obtain a visa in time for the Dota 2 League Season 5 LAN finals in Las Vegas.
  • Rave started having visa issues a few months ago. The Filipino team was forced to withdraw from StarSeries Season XII, in order to secure their visas for MLG Columbus. Ironically, they could not obtain the visas on time and were forced to withdraw from that tournament as well. After additional issues regarding their “employment” in South Korea, the team received national media attention and the backing of a senator. For Rave though, the story had a happy ending, as they eventually managed to get visas for The Summit 3 in LA.
  • Invictus Gaming’s arrival to Bucharest, Romania, for the StarSeries XII DreamHack Bucharest LAN finals was delayed after the team was held up at the Frankfurt Airport due to Schengen Visa issues. Frankurt airport police had detained Wong “ChuaN” Hock Chuan for twelve hours and the team were delayed, taking a flight that arrived in Romania shortly before they had to compete.
  • HellRaisers had to withdraw from the D2CL playoffs, to open up enough time to secure their visas for the Red Bull Battle Grounds LAN, in May. Balkan Bears Corleone replaced them in the Dota 2 Champions League playoffs.
  • HellRaisers had to seek a stand-in for the Red Bull Battle Grounds in Santa Monica, California, after Artes “Artyom” Gorobey’s visa was denied. This unfortunate event was even more painful, as HR had already withdrawn from the D2CL playoffs, in order to have time to work on their visas for Red Bull Battle Grounds 2015.
  • Vega Squadron earned the third and last European spot for the MLG Pro League Season 2 LAN finals on May 19, when they took down London Conspiracy, 2:0, in the qualifier finals. However, were left with too little time to secure their US visas and were therefore forced to withdraw from the event. London Conspiracy – qualifier finals runners-up, will take Vega’s place in the LAN finals.

    • Teams attending the MLG Pro League LAN finals

    • Ninjas in Pyjamas
    • Evil Geniuses
    • Team Malaysia
    • Alliance
    • Virtus.Pro
    • London Conspiracy
    • Mousesports
    • Summer’s Rift

    MLG Pro League Season 2 prize pool and tickets

    Back in March, ESPN and MLG announced plans to bring Dota 2 to X-Games for the first time.

    The $75,000 base prize pool for Season 2 has already been brought to a total of over $141,000, through community contributions. In-game tickets are available for $9.99. The bundle grants the Devilish Conjurer Witch Doctor item set, the Devilish Conjurer loading screen, and the Grimsneer courier. 20% of the proceeds of each sale goes towards the MLG Pro League Season 2 prize pool, while 5% of the proceeds adds up to the World Championship prize pool at the end of 2015.

    X-Games 2015

    X-Games 2015 will take place in Austin, Texas, from June 4 to 7. Visitors should be prepared for a jam-packed few days of Skateboarding, BMX, Moto X, Rally Racing, eSports, and music. This year’s event will feature Grammy-nominated hip hop superstar Nicki Minaj as one of the headliners performing on the new Super Stage. Tickets for the X-Games 2015 are available for purchase on Ticketmaster.com, for prices ranging from $59 to $1,300. Fans will be able to watch the games on MLG.tv or through various MLG apps on smartphones and Xbox consoles. The event will also feature Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.

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