Photo: LoL Esports
The Worlds of League of Legends brings together teams from all over the world. For enthusiasts, this is an opportunity to attend memorable confrontations while discovering new talents. Europeans, North Americans, Chinese, Koreans… Summoner’s Rift knows no borders. Finally, this is only the case in theory, since the 2022 edition will take place in Mexico and the United States. To get there, you have to obtain a visa and two teams could stay on the floor… The news would be very sad, given that these are two highly anticipated competitors.
GAM Esports, victim of a curse?
The first team that is in difficulty is GAM Sportss, the champions of Vietnam. The team has dominated its region for several years but has missed the last international tournaments (Worlds and MSI) because of the coronavirus. For the MSI 2022, the yellow submarine could finally have regained center stage… But national duty obliges, the team was sent to play in a South East Asian tournament. The deadline was certainly important for the government of the country, but on the esport scene it was only a second-rate tournament.
Once again dominating at home, the team qualified directly for the Main Event which will begin on October 7 in New York. But local media reported that the US embassy had refused to give the team a visa. We do not know the precise reasons, but without a visa, it is impossible to go to the Worlds. According to the networks, a new application can be filed, but it would have to wait 14 days... the race against time has begun!
The Saigon Buffalo are in the same turmoil
The other Vietnamese team, the Saigon Buffalos, are in a similar situation. Qualified for the Play-In, she has still not received her visa to go to Mexico City… The situation is all the more critical as this preliminary phase begins on September 29! Beyond the start date, not being able to arrive in advance is penalizing for the teams. When we are not there, we cannot scrim with opponents and you can’t get used to the jet lag. Vietnam is not yet totally out of the competition, but we have seen better conditions.
We had thought of the Worlds 2022 as the theater of the great return of Vietnam, a promising region, on the international scene. But maybe we spoke a little too soon…