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On 2nd December, Rushindra Sinha, founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Global Esports, addressed some of the issues faced by the Valorant team on his YouTube livestream. The title of his livestream was “Change in plans..... Hurdles.” In this livestream, Sinha revealed that Global Esports’ professional Valorant players are facing issues with South Korean visas and that the organization is currently looking for other viable bootcamp options. Following this, he spoke to his audience and answered questions, and revealed Global Esports’ next course of action.
Global Esports on the hunt for bootcamp locations
In September, Riot Games revealed the list of 30 teams that will be competing in the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) 2023. Global Esports is the only team from South Asia/India to have secured a Valorant Franchise spot on this list. After the franchise team list was made public, Sinha went live on YouTube and spoke about this announcement, and revealed that the team will move to South Korea for the VCT 2023. In another livestream at the start of November, Sinha revealed that the organization had planned that it would move to its South Korean bootcamp by early December.
In the 2nd December livestream, Sinha stated, “As of the last meeting, we have been told once we apply for the E-6 Visa, which is the Korean work visa, the players will not be able to leave the country for six to eight weeks. It is similar to the USA’s (United State America) work visa H1B. Once you are done with stamping, you can’t leave or enter the country.”
Following this, Sinha said due to the travel restrictions, the organization is exploring its bootcamp options at a visa-neutral location so that it will be easy for them to travel to without worry. This way players would not have to fret about a work visa or anything while they practice for the kick-off tournament in Brazil. He also mentioned that the organization will most likely move to its South Korean bootcamp after the VCT 2023 Kick-Off Tournament in São Paulo, Brazil.
A Twitter user named Sangwan Shares posted a clip of Sinha talking about this on his Twitter account. Shiva “Marvel” Nandy, founder and CEO of Skyesports, replied to this tweet and said, “Hey Rushindra Sinha, I would like to reveal. Can I?”
Notably, earlier in October, Skyesports partnered with Ampverse to expand into the Southeast Asian region with an office in Bangkok, Thailand. Based on Marvel’s reply, Twitter users are speculating that Global Esports might move to Thailand until the South Korean visa issues are solved.
Recently, Skyesports concluded the Skyesports SEA Championship, which had a humongous prize pool of $22,500 USD. The grand finals of the tournament featured two Indian teams, GodSquad and Velocity Gaming, and two Southeast Asian teams, Bleed Esports and Made in Thailand. Skyesports flew GodSquad and Velocity Gaming from India to Thailand so that the teams could play on equal ground. Therefore, it is safe to say that Skyesports has the infrastructure to accommodate Global Esports' pro Valorant roster in Thailand to practice for the upcoming Kick-Off Tournament, if at all the team decides to move its bootcamp.
