1win has responded with shocking information after the Dota 2 team was disqualified from ESL One Birmingham over Visa issues.
On April 9, ESL One Birmingham shared an official team update after 1win was unable to field an eligible roster in time for the tournament due to Visa issues. Even more shocking to fans, the next EEU team that qualified for that slot were also unable to attend over Visa problems.
The next eligible team invited to ESL One Birmingham was OG, who already confirmed that they had the ability to travel to the UK for the tournament. While it seemed like things were fixed on the side of the tournament, teams were still reeling about the situation behind the scenes and have now spoken out.
1win responds to Visa issues at ESL One Birmingham
In response to 1win being removed from ESL One Birmingham, fans showed support and disappointment on X. A lot were sad to hear that 1win was removed, sharing suspicion over the tournament’s decision to invite an WEU team instead of another EEU team. Another fan pointed out that 1win should have been given the slot because they have all their Visas.
On Telegram, 1win claimed that they did indeed have all their Visas and had missed the deadline by just a few hours.
“It is unfortunate that we did not make it in time as per the ESL rules. We had our players go through rigorous qualification process with full support from the organization; media was ready to fly with boys for content creations. However, we are going to fail it for just a small thing like four hours,” the team wrote.
1win also shared a detailed timeline of what had gone down on their end with the Visas and dealing with ESL. This included a long waiting period at the embassy and ESL refusing to prolong the submission time a second time. The team was visibly frustrated at not just practicing for months but dealing with Visa problems just to be denied last minute.
1win coach Timur “Ahilles” Kulmukhametov also fed into the suspicions of fans, claiming that someone at ESL must have been biased. He mentioned them choosing OG to attend despite them being from a different Dota 2 region as 1win.
Olivia Richman
About Olivia Richman
Olivia has worked in media ever since graduating from college, with her coverage ranging from traditional newspaper reporting to digital coverage of all things gaming, online betting, and nerd culture. She has traveled around the world pursuing that coverage, from the far coasts of the United States to the busy downtown core of Tokyo, Japan. Olivia’s favorite games include Overwatch and Super Smash Smash Bros, and she has been published at Esports Illustrated, Inven Global, EsportsInsider, Upcomer, and elsewhere.
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