posted by Malystryx.GDS,
Xiao8 on missing Boston Major: "It is a massive shame... sigh"
Although direct invite Newbee shared they were all clear to attend the Boston Major following the successful visa application of Song 'Sccc' Chun and Xu 'Moogy' Han, the Regionals winners LGD.Forever Young were not so fortunate.
According to captain Zhang 'xiao8' Ning's Weibo LGD.FY will be unable to attend due to being two players short. Du 'Monet' Peng and Luo 'Lpc' Puchao's visas were rejected, and the TI4 winning captain's Weibo simply said it was a "massive shame". The Boston Major would have been his team's first international LAN.
Xiao8's former team LGD Gaming also suffered visa issues in the summer, and ended up playing with their coach Wang 'Banana' Jiao at The International 6 after Xue 'September' Zhichuan could not obtain the necessary visa.
Valve rules for the Boston Major stipulate that a team may only sub-in one player for the Major - in LGD.FY's case Yao 'Somnus' Lu- which eliminates any hopes of LGD.FY's attending the tournament should the rules remain the same.
Update: 23rd November 2016: Valve has made an exception according to LGD Gaming's Weibo post, and will allow LGD.FY to compete with two substitutes. (More information)
Real-life friends and team-mates Xiao8 and Yao formed LGD.Forever Young post-TI6
iG.Vitality have one shot left
Xiao8 also commented on his Weibo that should iG.Vitality fail they would be replaced by PSG.LGD, who finished 3rd in the China Regional Qualifiers, which appears to indicate LGD.FY's place has already been given to a runner-up from another region. The 3rd place finishers in the other 3 regions were Mineski, Team Liquid and Infamous.
iG.Vitality's first attempt on the 16th November to get their visas was unsuccessful and according to their CEO will have made their final application today, the result of which at time of writing is unknown. IG.Vitality registered Xu 'BurNIng' Zhilei as a substitute a fortnight ago, which does give them the option of bringing him in should only one player get their visa rejected.
The Boston Major groupstage is less than 2 weeks away, but it could potentially have two new additions in order to maintain 16 participating teams.
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