Photo courtesy of StarLadder
Vega Squadron was forced to withdraw from GESC: Thailand Minor merely days before the event due to visa issues for their two Kyrgyzstan players.
With the clock ticking and time running short, Vega Squadron was forced to withdraw from attending GESC: Thailand Minor. Bakyt "Zayac" Emilzhanov and Evgeniy "Blizzy" Ree both hail from Kyrgyzstan and have experienced delays in obtaining their visas for MDL Major in China. The late return of both of the player's identification from the Chinese embassy created a domino effect — delaying the return of their visas from the Thai embassy.
According to a statement from Georgy "drAmer" Faleev, Vega Squadron sports director, attending with stand-in players was not an option the team was willing to consider.
After Perfect World Masters bad experience, we started making Chinese visas right after we won MDL qualifiers, but it still took more than a month for Chinese part to do their part. For the last 10 days, we did everything we could to enhance the process, but they only delayed the interviews or declined our appeals. Looks like the visas will be right in the middle of GESC Minor.
Going to the Minor with 2 replacements right before the Major makes no sense at all: our team will not display the right performance in Thailand and won’t have time to prepare for one of the most important tournaments this season”
Vega is currently sitting at 18 in the DPC ranks with 90 points for their 3-4th place finish at StarLadder ImbaTV Invitational Season 5.
Thailand's biggest event is scheduled to kick off tomorrow, May 9th, with eight other teams already en route or on site. It does not appear any team will be replacing Vega on short notice. The tournament format is Round Robin group stage and would not require any additional adjustments to accommodate the difference in the number of teams.
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