posted by Olucaron,
A lack of top-tier DPC talent
Only six teams will head to the BTS mansion for the most chilled-out Dota tournament on the circuit. Five of those are direct invites — Evil Geniuses, Forward Gaming, Fnatic, OpTic Gaming and paiN Gaming* will be joined by BTS Summer Cup qualifiers Let's Do It.
However, the line-up could have been vastly different had GoDz had his way. “We set out to run an 8-team event and also include the top DPC teams such as Virtus.pro, Team Liquid, Team Secret and PSG.LGD,” he said in an interview with Esportsheaven. “Almost all the teams we contacted wanted to come to LA for The Summit but many were prevented due to visa processes for TI8.”
Of the six teams who are attending, OpTic are the highest ranked in the DPC, in ninth. VGJ come in tenth, EG 11th, Fnatic 12th and paiN down in 16th. All five are attending The International 2018, but does this lack of top tier DPC talent harm the event? Parker doesn’t think so, stating that he is still ‘excited’ about the teams he does have competing.
After a painfully lengthy process, I'm delighted to confirm that we (@TeamSecret) have finally secured the last visa required for The International 2018. Vancouver awaits. 🙌 #SecretDota
— Matthew Bailey (@Cyborgmatt) July 23, 2018
Visa issues are nothing new
With Valve’s premier event taking place in Canada this time, we can see how this would affect matters, especially with tournaments needing to be planned further in advance. Parker stated that all the teams had approved visas, but ultimately had to wait to get their passports back from the Canadian embassies and thus rendering participation impossible.
Obviously, the issue of visas is a complicated subject that goes beyond esports. However, teams are still only just confirming their participation in TI8, despite it being just round the corner, and this is something that has been going on for as long as esports have. In Dota alone we have seen several instances of players not being able to attend the biggest event on the calendar.
Ad Finem’ Romanian support Alex. 'ComeWithMe' Craciunescu was unable to attend TI2 thanks to a last-minute invite complicating things, leading to him being replaced by future winner Kuro S. 'KuroKy' Takhasomi. At TI6, both Xue 'September' Zhichuan of LGD and Zhou 'Yang' Haiyang of Vici Gaming Reborn* faced the same issues, being replaced by Wang 'Banana' Jiao and Tong 'Mikasa' Junjie respectively. And TI7 went ahead without Vladimir 'Chappie' Kuzmenko, leading to the Russian star being replaced by Roman 'Resolut1on' Fominok on Team Empire.
More support needed from tournament organisers?
While this is undoubtedly a huge blow to the hopes and dreams of the players affected by these visa issues, it is not only limited to players. Talent too has been affected, often more so than players. Henrik 'AdmiralBulldog' Ahnberg was last year denied entry to the US for TI7, claiming that US Customs deemed his visa to be the wrong type and leading to him being instantly deported.
This leaves us with two issues — the first being the classification of esports athletes on the visa spectrum, the second being the support given by tournament organisers to ensure all players and staff can attend. Are professional gamers ‘athletes’? Are organisers doing enough?
With regards to the former, there is precedent. In the US the P-1 visa covers athletes entering to compete in a specific event, and most countries have a similar provision. After long discussions, Riot Games fought to have their North American League of Legends players recognised as athletes in the traditional sense.
However, AdmiralBulldog also hinted at a lack of support from Valve with regards to which visa he needed, leading to the confusion in the first place. Should tournament organisers help with player and talent welfare more when preparing for their events?
The future of esports travel
Currently many countries’ legislation is struggling to keep up with the Information Age, and this is having a major effect on ‘new’ categories of athlete. More clear rules and regulations need to be written to accommodate what is a rapidly growing scene with millions of followers.
We have seen countries waive visas for spectators to attend sports events such as this summer’s World Cup in Russia, so why are there still issues getting our top players and talent to events? Ultimately it appears to just come down to the speed of change, which at best is glacial. It’s impossible to say when these difficulties will be resolved.
Regardless of these visa issues, The Summit will go ahead this weekend, and it will likely be an awesome event filled with great content as always. With $100,000 on the line, we’re sure to see some top quality Dota. However, perhaps there’s a slight feeling among the community that it could have been something more.
Do you think The Summit 9 suffers from a lack of top teams? Should our pro players be classified as ‘athletes’ in the eyes of the authorities?
Header image copyright: Valve
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