OG Clarifies Misha’s Visa Situation Ahead of TI11

Earlier today, OG clarified the situation regarding its captain Mikhail "Misha" Agatov as he will miss out on ESL One Malaysia 2022, after previously being unable to attend the Arlington Major as well. OG released a blog on its official website, explaining Misha’s difficulties with obtaining a valid visa following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war. OG also revealed that Misha will voluntarily miss out on ESL One Malaysia 2022 as he returns to Russia, awaiting his new passport and visa application for TI11.

OG clarifies Misha’s situation ahead of TI11

Earlier today, before its match against Team Liquid at ESL One Malaysia 2022, OG released a blogpost on its official website, where the team goes into detail about the current situation regarding its captain. Misha has missed out on multiple LAN tournaments due to his inability to secure a valid visa with the exception of Riyadh Masters 2022.

“During the inaugural DPC of 2022, Misha was on a short term visa to bootcamp with the team and was unsuccessful in securing a full Schengen visa on multiple occasions. Knowing the difficult road ahead, we decided to move on two concurrent pathways (1) applying for extensions to maintain his valid residence in Portugal while (2) also applying for Portuguese temporary residency and staying at the Sunflower House, in order to give him an option to stay outside of Russia” said OG when explaining Misha’s struggles on obtaining a valid visa for every tournament.

Following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, OG explained that to ensure Misha’s safe return to the team house in Portugal, they have exhausted every viable option to help Misha during the season. “Misha, however, needed to constantly file extension appointments to ensure his legal status was still valid – but the second he stepped out of the country, his ability to return would be in jeopardy. Therefore, any travel would have to ensure his safe return to Portugal, which was our first obstacle for tournaments,” said OG as they explained the summary of Misha’s situation when the war started.

OG also explained that Misha applied for a Schengen visa as well as a Swedish visa around the time of the Stockholm Major, however OG revealed that Misha’s Schengen visa application was rejected, and his Swedish visa application was lost by the Swedish consulate which caused OG to ask former captain Sébastien "Ceb" Debs to stand-in for Misha during the major.

For the Arlington Major, OG clarified that it tried to help Misha to attend the tournament. “We began applying for both B (business) and P (international athletics) visas simultaneously to secure our team in the US (these were done prior to Stockholm and immediately after, respectively). The entire team secured both visa approvals and subsequently went to book appointments.”

However, OG added on to the statement by saying that “However, given COVID backlogs and the war – many countries are only accepting their own citizens for applications. We applied to multiple countries for Misha, and could not secure an appointment through normal or emergency processes. Many teams also faced this issue – and regardless of the amount of resources you spend, it does come down to luck in many cases to get an appointment slot. Again, Ceb managed to come save the day for us.”

Finally, OG clarified the main reason for Misha’s absence from ESL One Malaysia. “Now we come to the present situation of ESL One Genting. To give Misha the best chance to make it to bootcamp and TI, we are finalizing a new passport and visa application for him to Singapore. Unfortunately, this was done after he returned to Russia, and he will miss Malaysia as a result, awaiting his new passport. Again, we are fortunate to have members of the team step up, and Chuvash will stand-in for this event. But it is in the interest of solidifying Misha’s position to attend TI, which is what the team has worked so hard for across this entire year.” said OG as the team explains the primary reason for Misha’s absence in Malaysia.

You can read more about Misha’s situation on OG's official website:

While Misha finalizes his visa application ahead of TI11, OG will be playing in ESL One Malaysia with their coach, Evgenii "Chuvash" Makarov standing in for Misha for the duration of the whole tournament.