Entity’s Watson Clarifies Visa Situation Ahead of the Lima Major
During a recent livestream, Entity’s newest recruit Alimzhan "watson" Islambekov talked about his ongoing visa application for his upcoming trip to the Lima Major. While the Major will only begin in two weeks' time, the location of the Major causes concern with visa applications expected to be the primary problem for some of the teams attending.
While the majority of the teams had already secured their visa after their previous visit to North America for the Arlington Major, newcomers such as watson must apply for a visa if he wishes to compete in the upcoming Major in Peru.
Watson remains optimistic that he will be able to obtain his visa in time
During a recent livestream on his Twitch channel, according to dota2.ru, watson talked about his upcoming trip to the Major in Peru along with his new team. However, like other first-timers visiting the South American continent, watson must undergo the process of obtaining a visa before he joins his team at the LAN event.
The visa application process has always been a major issue for players, as many are unable to secure a visa in time for competitions which in turn prompts teams to recruit stand-ins. The last time visa applications became a massive issue was last year at the Arlington Major, where seven teams had to recruit stand-ins to be able to compete in the tournament.
Watson noted that he is still awaiting the final documents needed for a visa application before scheduling an interview. While time is of the essence for watson to get his visa approved in time, he noted that he remained optimistic about his chances to attend his first ever Major LAN tournament.
“What about the visa? Well, I'm... I'm waiting for the last document to be sent to me. Then I have to send it to the post office and I have to schedule an interview. I have 10 days to get my visa done, so hopefully I'll make it in time. I'm the only one from the team that needs a visa for Peru, the others don't.”
[transcriptions via dota2.ru, translation via DeepL]
While watson will most likely be able to travel to Peru with his team, the same cannot be said for PSG.LGD’s offlaner Li "项羽" Longwu who is unable to join his team at the upcoming Major due to visa issues. PSG.LGD have already announced that former Xtreme Gaming offlaner Ren "old eLeVeN" Yangwei will be standing in for the player.
Entity will be representing the Western Europe (WEU) region for the upcoming Major, along with TI11 (The International 2022) champion Tundra Esports, Team Liquid and Gaimin Gladiators.