EG ImAPet says BnTeT’s visa issues would’ve taken “a year” to fix

While Gen.G has officially completed its first Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster with the addition of Hansel “BnTeT” Ferdinand, there’s one more hurdle to clear.

The move confirmed a month’s worth of rumors that Gen.G was targeting Chinese CSGO organization TYLOO’s BnTeT for its fifth and final roster spot on its first CSGO roster. The organization officially announced the move on December 22 and made the announcement welcoming BnTeT in a tweet from its official Twitter account.

BnTeT has spent the last two and a half years playing for China’s top CSGO organization, TYLOO. Over that time, the 24-year-old pro has proven to be a standout player in the face of TYLOO’s underwhelming performances.

The move confirms rumors that Gen.G was targeting BnTeT for its fifth roster spot. The team previously bought out four players from two different teams that are currently in a state of flux. Cloud9 sent Major winner Timothy “autimatic” Ta along with teammates Damian “daps” Steele and Kenneth “koosta” Suen to Gen.G on December 7.

ImAPet, NRG avoided BnTeT due to visa issues

In a tweet that does not bode well for BnTeT and Gen.G, daps took to Twitter to welcome his new teammate and reveal that his former organization, NRG, had explored signing the Indonesian player before it acquired Tarik “tarik” Celek. daps told fans that BnTeT would join up with the rest of Gen.G in late January “pending certain things.” 

According to current Evil Geniuses coach and former NRG coach Chet “ImAPet” Singh, those problems could be related to the new player’s visa. Singh corrected inaccuracies regarding BnTeT and NRG inside a Reddit thread concerning daps’ tweet, specifically mentioning visa issues as the culprit. 

Singh confirmed to WIN.gg that, at the time, whatever the issues were with BnTeT’s visa process were going to take a very long time to fix:

“It was going to take a year or so to figure out the [visa] issues, so it wouldn’t work with the timeline we had,” Singh said.

NRG eventually managed to sign tarik away from MiBR in February 2019.

Players can come to the United States under one of two different kinds of visas. A P1 visa is given to athletes that come to the US to compete. The first P-1 visa was handed out to Danny “Shiptur” Le in 2013.

P1 visas can be hard to come by. Unlike a court case, there is no set precedent when the government decides on whether or not to grant a visa to an esports player. If the team importing the player isn’t large enough or the government determines that the player doesn’t meet the P1 requirements, the visa can be denied.

Visas have caused several impactful incidents in the Counter-Strike scene recently, including forcing Finn “karrigan” Andersen to leave in the middle of the CS Summit 5 grand finals. Another visa snag kept Evil Geniuses’ Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte out for part of EPICENTER 2019.

These documents can be a ton of trouble for international esports organizations and their players. As of now, no one knows where Gen.G will set up home base, but if BnTeT is having visa issues, viewers might see autimatic and company competing in the Asia or Oceania regions if this team is to be completed.

Gen.G’s roster looks strong after BnTeT addition

BnTeT has spent the last two and a half years playing for the Chinese organization TYLOO. Over that time, the 24-year-old pro has proven to be a standout player despite TYLOO’s underwhelming performance overall. 

The move end confirms rumors that Gen.G was targeting BnTeT for its fifth roster spot. The team previously bought out four players from two different teams that are currently in a state of flux. Cloud9 sent Major winner Timothy “autimatic” Ta along with teammates Damian “daps” Steele and Kenneth “koosta” Suen to Gen.G on December 7.

After the addition of the Cloud9 core, Gen.G looked to Team Envy and teenage CS prodigy Sam “s0m” Oh to fill the fourth slot on the organization’s first Counter-Strike roster. s0m’s addition to Gen.G was officially announced on December 9. 

With four out of five spots filled, rumors began to circulate that BnTeT was Gen.G’s next target. Counter-Strike reporter Jarek “DeKay” Lewis tweeted on December 19 that the move was a done deal.

With the BnTeT signing, Gen.G has acquired a competent rifler and a backup in-game leader to daps. BnTeT is known for his skill with a rifle and has a knack for keeping his cool in chaotic situations.

Recently, Gen.G had a tough run to secure a spot at the 2020 IEM Katowice closed qualifiers. Playing with Hunter “SicK” Mims, the team bombed out of the initial North American Katowice open qualifier after losing to Just for Fun, a team of professional CSGO free agents and ex-pro players featuring names like Tyson “TenZ” Ngo and Yassine “Subroza“ Taoufik.

The second open qualifier for IEM was a different story as Gen.G faced Just for Fun once again, avenging their earlier loss by taking the best-of-three series 2-0 and securing a spot in the Katowice 2020 closed qualifiers.

With the announcement, Gen.G now has a full complement of players on their roster just weeks ahead of what will be the team’s first big test with all five players secured. Gen.G is scheduled to compete in the IEM Katowice 2020 closed qualifiers that start on January 7 and run through January 9.