Russian Players May Face Travel Issues for the Dota 2 PGL Arlington Major

Russian Dota 2 players may have difficulties getting to the United States for the upcoming PGL Arlington Dota 2 Major. Entity's position five player Dzmitry "Fishman" Palishchuk, who is from Belarus, stated in a video, for the cyberslovo channel on Telegram, that interviews with Russian Dota 2 players from Eastern Europe and other parts of the continent had been canceled.

While Fishman did not specify the purpose of the interviews, it is probable that they were for visa purposes in preparation for the trip to the Arlington Dota 2 Major. Fishman also mentioned the issues of unvaccinated players traveling to the Major, adding that they were looking for assistance from PGL, the event's organizer.

The PGL Arlington Dota 2 Major is scheduled to take place from 4th to 14th August.

PGL Arlington Dota 2 Major might not feature all 18 teams and their players

Fishman stated that because many Russian players, from both Western and Eastern Europe, playing in the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) had their interviews canceled, Entity's travel to the Major seems uncertain at this moment if it manages to qualify for the event.

“There's a little bit of news. As you know, the next Major will be held in August in the United States. Today I found out that many Russian players in the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) and Europe had their interviews canceled. Accordingly, the likelihood that Entity will go to the Major if it qualifies for it, is not very high.”

Entity currently participates in the Western Europe (WEU) DPC 2021-22 Tour 3: Division 1 and features two Russian players, Ivan "Pure" Moskalenko and Vladislav "Kataomi'" (also known as "Suzuya"). The squad is now tied for second place with two other teams and has a fair chance of qualifying for the Major.

During the last Major, which was held in Stockholm, issues emerged with teams who had players or bases in Russia. Mind Games, an Eastern Europe (EEU) team, was also unable to obtain visas in time for the Stockholm Major in May and had to withdraw from the event. OG was also missing captain Mikhail "Misha" Agatov and coach Evgenii "Chuvash" Makarov, who were unable to get visas for the competition.

In addition to the issues of obtaining visas, Fishman discussed the difficulty to travel to the United States without being vaccinated.

“There is also the problem of vaccines. We need a vaccine, without it, they won't let us into the United States. But we can't get vaccinated, because we don't have any paperwork. We can't get it in Poland [where the team is likely bootcamping currently] either. And we have to get vaccinated soon, because the difference [between vaccine doses] should be two weeks, and the Major is in August. All in all, it's very complicated and sad so far. We're hoping for help from PGL.”

[transcriptions via cybersports.ru, translations via DeepL Translate]

Aside from the aforementioned concerns, it is unclear whether Chinese teams will be able to travel to the Major, given that all of them were forced to skip the Stockholm Major due to stringent lockdown restrictions in Shanghai, where many teams bootcamp.

The Arlington Dota 2 Major is the most significant Major in the DPC 2021-22 since it gives the most DPC points and it is also the final stop for teams to gain DPC points in order to receive a direct invite to The International 11.