Virtus.pro forced to play with a stand-in at the Los Angeles Major

After hearing about the Visa issues effecting Team Adroit’s
captain, now there is another as Virtus.pro player Zaur ‘Cooman’ Shakhmurzaev
has also been unable to acquire entrance into the United States.

Visa issues were thought to be a thing of the past in Dota 2
but unfortunately for many players and teams, it still seems to be the norm,
especially when trying to enter North America. Virtus.pro have had to find this
out the hard way as their current stand-in player, Zaur ‘Cooman’ Shakhmurzaev
has been unable to acquire his Visa for the Major. With only around five days
remaining until the event kicks off, and six days before VP get their Major
campaign underway, the player has no choice but to sit this tournament out.

Replacing him for the Major will be well-known CIS player Igor ‘iLTW’ Filatov, who will be traveling with the squad to LA in the coming days. VP’s tournament will hopefully not be negatively impacted by this, especially considering their poor results throughout the season this far, with the squad definitely hoping to improve at this Major.

“Unfortunately, Zaur has not got his US visa. We have applied multiple times and activated all our resources, yet the embassy stuck to its position on denying the visa. Considering the time until the Major left we are forced to make a temporary roster change.

The team has been quite successful in working on in-game connections recently, and we were sure the whole roster will compete in LA. Key player swap in such tight timings will most certainly impact our game,” said Sergey Glamazda, Virtus.pro General Manager in the official announcement.

Unfortunately for many players and teams from many areas around the world, acquiring a Visa for NA has always been an issue and with something as massive as a Major title on the line, we can only hope that the two players currently effected will remain the only two. For now, we will keep an eye on the situations for many teams as they start their journeys towards ESL One Los Angeles 2020 and the possibility of reaching The International 2020.

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