Home Gaming The Captain of Astralis was denied a VISA for North America’s biggest tournament

The Captain of Astralis was denied a VISA for North America’s biggest tournament

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This is becoming somewhat of a “broken record,” the news of yet another player being denied entry into the United States over VISA issues. This time it was unfortunately a new law passed in 2015 by the Electronic System for Travel Authorization which prohibits entry to people who have traveled to Iraq, Syria, Sudan, or Iran in the past five years. This new law, known as the “Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015” disallows any person who has traveled to one of the aforementioned countries – and led to the VISA waiver being denied for Astralis captain Finn “Karrigan” Anderson who had traveled to Iran.

According to the Daily Dot, the new act went into effect on April 1st, and even though Anderson has traveled to the United States countless times under the Visa Waiver Program, which allows people of certain countries to waive the Visa process, this time around he will have to apply for an emergency Visa, or undergo the Visa process which could take weeks. The process is infuriating, as you can imagine, as Anderson was in the United States two months ago for the $1 million Valve Major at Columbus Ohio.

Karrigan Visa cover

It’s unfortunate since Astralis are one of the stronger teams in the International CS:GO scene, and it would be a huge loss to the international community if Astralis had to forfeit their spot. No comment has been released by ELEAUGE, Turner, or Astralis at the moment, but we can only hope they have undergone the necessary process for nonimmigrant Visa applications.

As I mentioned this is not the first Visa issues we’ve seen the past few months. It has affected eSports of all shapes and sizes, no matter how big the tournament is. Chinese team TyLoo were also affected by the Visa process, and they were perhaps one of the most interesting additions to the international CS:GO scene after their performance last month. It’s unfortunate that we’ve come to this, that under the threat of terrorism certain laws have to be put in place. It’s also a bit concerning that Astralis (and other teams) did not take the necessary precautions knowing that this rule came into action on April 1st leaving them ample time. Were teams not made aware? It’s unfortunate, but I felt there may have been ample time to sort the Visa issues out prior to the competition.

 

Last Updated: June 6, 2016

19 Comments

  1. Alien Emperor Trevor

    June 6, 2016 at 13:35

    Goddamnit Kyle. visa. Not Visa or VISA. It’s not a proper name or a credit card, it’s just a visa. ;P

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0

      June 6, 2016 at 13:40

      But visa gets you places… or is it VISA?

      Reply

      • Ottokie

        June 6, 2016 at 13:44

        For everything else, there is MasterCard

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief Protector

          June 6, 2016 at 13:57

          Oh you

          Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        June 6, 2016 at 13:51

        VISA takes you places, visa lets you in. 😀

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0

          June 6, 2016 at 13:57

          XD

          Reply

        • Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0

          June 6, 2016 at 13:58

          This is gold!

          Reply

    • Admiral Chief Protector

      June 6, 2016 at 13:43

      Corner of shame for him

      Reply

    • BakedBagel

      June 6, 2016 at 13:48

      lol

      Reply

  2. Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0

    June 6, 2016 at 13:35

    Captain Astralis?
    *Hail ISIS

    Reply

    • BakedBagel

      June 6, 2016 at 13:59

      Finally a reason to share 😀

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0

        June 6, 2016 at 14:33

        XD

        Reply

  3. VampyreSquirrel

    June 6, 2016 at 13:44

    Wow, that’s stupid.

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0

      June 6, 2016 at 13:49

      Very, but that’s one way how they control their people. Keeping them constantly in fear of attack

      Reply

      • BakedBagel

        June 6, 2016 at 14:05

        Meh, i see the need for this type of control. Who knows who you saw or spoke to while in one of these war ravaged places.

        War time is weird time. Lots of laws that dont make sense to people like you or I. Oh well.

        Edit: Yes Iran is not war ravaged. but scary middle east countries etc

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn_hates_Raid0

          June 6, 2016 at 14:33

          True, but look at the man. How is he remotely a threat? Then again… maybe that’s how they are recruited

          Reply

          • BakedBagel

            June 6, 2016 at 14:50

            I would put my money on the system auto-flagging the dude because of Iran. lmao nothing else looked at. Flagged and denied.

            But i agree its retarded lmao. If the guy can prove he is with an organisation etc etc. then what is the problem lmao?

  4. Jeremy Andrews

    June 6, 2016 at 16:59

    Well, they have to flag terrorists somehow. And since they don’t want to take race or religion into account, simply flagging every person that’s been in that country is the only other option. This way, if a Muslim/Arab individual cries “racism” when he gets stopped at the airport and searched, we can point to this guy and rightly say that we’re applying the rules to everyone equally. Kind of dumb because a Finnish gamer with no criminal background is highly unlikely to be a terrorist, but that’s the way it goes.

    Reply

    • quinney_david

      June 16, 2016 at 08:24

      Whats Iran got to do with Terrorism? They are ranked number 39 on the global terrorism index. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Terrorism_Index

      Afghanistan is ranked number two for terrorism, but you can visit Afghanistan and still visit the USA, no problem at all as they arent on the ESTA “Bad” list. Even though the terrorist who murdered 50 people recently was of Afghan descent..

      The list of countries chosen is political, no other reason. It doesn’t do squat to combat terrorism. I am in the same situation, I visited Iran as a tourist three years ago and it took me two months to get a USA visa, even though I had visited the USA many time before then using my ESTA that go revoked.

      Reply

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