Photo courtesy of EPICENTER 2017
One of LGD's squads - LFY are tackling visa issues concerning two of their players - Du "Monet" Peng and He "Inflame" Yongzheng. Denied once, the organization has already made arrangements for a second round of interviews.
According to an official LGD weibo post that was translated and posted on Reddit - including photos of the official documents and letters provided to the embassy, the two players were denied entrance to the US in a matter of only minutes.
photo courtesy of LGD weibo
While visa issues have a history of complicating LAN attendance in the US by foreign teams, in the case of Inflame the denial is even more shocking as he already was in possession of a current visa but requested a replacement after losing his passport. Being turned down is even more painful as he missed The Boston Major due to denial in the first place. Following that unfortunate situation, LGD took steps to obtain a longer term visa for Chinese midplayer to ensure they would avoid denial issues in the future. Monet has already been to the United States three times without so much of a problem since obtaining the original visa after missing Boston.
With the event kicking off two weeks from now, LGD is already pursuing a second interview and making arrangements to continue their visa process. The organization are no strangers to the intricacies and subjective nature of the US visa process. For TI6 LGD Gaming’s Xue “September” Zhichuan had been denied his visa after trying for a fourth time and was not able attend the event. He was replaced by coach/substitute Wang “Banana” Jiao. For the Boston Major LFY played with two substitutes with Monet and Luo "Lpc" Puchao missing out due to visa issues.
These are the first but most likely not the last visa reports that will start trickling in as the teams are preparing for their United States travel. Just this past June, Clutch Gamers missed the Dota Summit 7 when the team was denied visas.
For the last two years Valve relied on US Senator Maria Cantwell to step in and assist struggling teams trying to get to The International. Senator Cantwell was able to step in and help both TnC and Execration obtain their visas in the witching hours before The International 2016. The teams were able to arrive in Seattle with only moments to spare - approximately three days before the group stage kicked off.
Both September and Zhou “Yang” Haiyang from ViCi Gaming Reborn were not as lucky and missed the opportunity of a lifetime being denied access to TI6.
The International 2017
The International 2017 will take place at KeyArena, Seattle Washington. Eighteen teams from around the world will compete starting August 2nd in the group stage. Sixteen teams will advance to the main event scheduled to take place August 7-12th. The prize pool for TI7 is already over a record shattering $21 million.
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