Two teams at ALGS Champs have been plagued by visa issues and must now use substitute players at the world championships.
Another Apex Legends Global Series LAN is set to start and teams are yet again dealing with visa issues. The Battle Royale esport seemingly has some sort of player travel issue for every international tournament and ALGS Champs 2023 has been no different.
This time around, Alliance and Aurora are the two teams to be hit with the visa plague.
Alliance is one of the top seeds out of the EMEA region, having placed first in the second split of the Pro League and ninth at the Split 2 Playoff LAN back in July. At their previous ALGS LAN, Alliance was able to field its entire roster and had no issues with its current lineup of John ‘Hakis’ Håkansson, Oscar ‘Yuki’ Jiang and Miron ‘Effect’ Novikov.
Short #ALGS update🔹 Mande will start the group stage as our sub🔸 Effect will come if we get VISA news before Friday🔹 A prize cut split is already in agreement between Effect/MandeThe squad is confident no matter who plays, time to bring it home! 🏆 #LongLiveAlliance pic.twitter.com/Ni08LLZChI
— Alliance | Pontus 🏌🏼♂️ (@chefPontus) September 4, 2023
For this tournament, however, Effect was not able to secure his visa in time and the organization announced on September 4 that their substitute player, TSM content creator Mikkel ‘Mande’ Hestbek, will compete in his place.
ALGS Champs teams hit with more visa problems
Aurora, on the other hand, has been hit even harder with visa issues at this event as they will have to potentially field two substitute players.
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The organization announced on September 5 that both its IGL Kiryl ‘9impulse’ Kostsiu and Lev ‘taskmast33r’ Grigoriev had not yet secured visas for the tournament. Keenan ‘Tax’ Mackey, a young British player, and Entropiq player Jose ‘Uxako’ Llosa will be playing in their stead.
Welcome to ALGS: Championship 2023 😎Due to visa issues, we had to invite substitutes to participate in the Champs. Thanks to @Taxington and @UxakoTTV for help.Important note: if @9impu1se & @taskmast33r can get a visa before/during ALGS, they will arrive and play. pic.twitter.com/YEIqGTvOlm
— Aurora Apex (@AuroraApex_GG) September 5, 2023
9impulse and taskmast33r could make an appearance at the tournament if they manage to secure a visa before its conclusion. However, seeing as the tournament starts on September 6, their chances of making an appearance on the Resorts World Arena stage are low.
The three players facing visa issues are Russian and Belarusian. Effect, however, has chosen not to be represented by the Russian flag on Liquipedia due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Esports players from Russia and Ukraine have been facing visa issues in traveling for major tournaments since the invasion began.
I GOT MY VISA BIRMINGHAM I COME LFGGGG
— Effect (@xEffecto) September 6, 2023
Update: Effect revealed on social media on September 6 that he has secured his visa and will compete with Alliance once he travels to the event.
