OG will once again be without the services of its captain and coach at a Dota 2 Major, with Mikhail “Misha” Agatov and Evgenii “Chuvash” Makarov both being denied travel visas to enter the United States for the Arlington Dota Pro Circuit Major.
Due to this issue popping up for a second-straight Major, Ceb is returning to the team’s roster to fill the void with hopes of leading the team to yet another victory. According to OG’s head of esports Mike Schwartz, they completed and received multiple visas for the event ahead of time, but arrangements for both Misha and Chu were unable to be finalized.
“Although we completed and received both B and P visa approvals for the entire team in a timely manner, we were unable to secure the required appointments to finalize the process with Misha and Chu,” Schwartz said. “Unfortunately, this was an issue facing many of the teams that are having stand-ins at the event due to the current immigration climate and USCIS backlog. We are grateful, however, that Ceb can once again step into the roster and hopefully guide the team once more to a Major victory.”
The last time Ceb came out of retirement was to fill in for Misha at the Stockholm Major in May, where his excellent play and leadership helped OG win its fifth Major despite it being several of their players’ first big LAN event.
Regardless of results at the Arlington Major, OG has already qualified directly for The International 2022 and will be traveling to Singapore in October as one of the early favorites out of Europe. But at least now we will get more old man Ceb memes for the Major, too.
This is also not the only instance of visa issues causing problems for teams at this event, as Fnatic is going to be playing with three stand-ins, Xtreme Gaming pulled out of the Major entirely, and other players ran into similar travel issues. More last-minute changes to rosters could still be announced ahead of the Major kicking off on Aug. 4.
