FunPlus Phoenix player Ardis ‘ardiis’ Svarenieks confirmed that Dmitry ‘SUYGETSU’ Ilyushin, the team’s Sentinel player, will not play for FPX for the group stage at VCT Masters Copenhagen due to visa issues in a pre-event press conference. Alliance player Mathias ‘SEIDER’ Seider will stand in for him according to ardiis.
ardiis also said that SUYGETSU could return for the playoff stage if FPX manages to make it through their group, but it would depend on when he can get his visa approved.
“We’re hoping that he can get to get his visa approved by then,” the FPX player said. “It could happen beforehand, could happen later, but hopefully going into the playoffs we will have our full roster available. But for groups, we will play with one stand-in,”
FPX is the second seed out of EMEA and previously could not attend VCT Stage 1 Masters Reykjavík due to travel restrictions and visa issues born from the Russia and Ukraine conflict. The team has two Russian players – SUYGETSU being one of them – and one Ukrainian player.
For the Stage 1 tournament, Team Liquid went in their place and FPX was awarded 200 circuit points for their qualification.
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FPX had a plan in place before the tournament
The squad’s coach, Erik ‘d00mbr0’ Sandgren, said in an interview with Valorant caster Tom ‘Tombizz’ Bissmire before the EMEA Stage 2 Challengers playoffs that he had three substitute players lined up in case FPX qualified for VCT Masters Copenhagen and the majority of their roster could not travel.
Those three players were potentially SEIDER, Mikkel ‘Masked’ Fuglsang, another Danish player, and Polish player Przemysław ‘KEREME’ Bogdanowicz as previously reported by Dexerto.
FPX will go into the group stage with a roster consisting of ardiis, SEIDER, Pontus ‘Zyppan’ Eek, Andrey ‘Shao’ Kiprsky, and Kyrylo ‘ANGE1’ Karasov.
FPX is in Group B at VCT Masters Copenhagen and will start the event by facing off against XERSIA Esports on July 11. They will have to also potentially battle through South Korean squad DRX and the Japanese team NORTHEPTION to qualify for playoffs.