Because of visa issues, OG will play at least the first few games of the ESL One Berlin Major with Mind_Control and Kitrak as standins.
Visa issues are such an old part of the Dota 2 scene that if were to go a season without them, it would feel like there was something missing. The most recent team to deal with it is Western European outfit OG, who had the applications of two of their players and the coach declined for Germany as the team prepares to travel for the Berlin Major.
Offlaner Dmitry “DM” Dorokhin, position 5 support Evgenii "Chu" Makarov and coach Mikhail "Misha" Agatov both had their applications declined. OG put out a statement saying they were filing appeals and hope to secure the visas before next week.
It doesn’t take a mastermind to connect the dots between the three declined visa applications. DM, Chu and Misha all hail from Russia, and with Russia waging a war on Ukraine for the past year, the relations between the Eastern European nation and a lot of the other countries have soured. While the exact reason for the declined applications is not known, one could guess that it is a factor.
But while the appeals process goes on, OG have found two players to fill the void left by DM and Chu. Nigma Galaxy’s offlaner Ivan “Mind_Control” Ivanov will be stepping in for DM, while Old G’s position 5 player, Kartik “Kitrak” Rathi will help hold down the fort in place of Chu.
OG started the WEU Division I League of the 2023 DPC Spring Tour with a number of losses, and were facing relegation. But a 180 degree flip in their form meant they took the most unlikely path to qualify for the Berlin Major. It will be a shame that the team that put up the fight won’t be able to try and recreate that magic in Berlin. But hopefully the appeals are successful, and the three OG team members can join the rest of the team in Berlin, as long as the team makes it out of the group stages.
