Dota 2: Ceb, ana to stand-in at Arlington Major after more teams face visa issues

Visa issues and the Dota 2 PGL Arlington Major, name a more iconic duo.

The upcoming Arlington Major may as well be called the 'Stand-in Major' as almost half of the participating teams in the tournament will have to field substitutes due to visa issues with their players.

Seven out of the 17 teams in the Major will compete with at least one stand-in.

The tournament also originally had 18 participating teams, but China's Xtreme Gaming withdrew from the Major entirely after they found out carry player Lou "lou" Zhen couldn't compete due to, you guessed it, visa issues.

Here's a rundown of all the teams having to field stand-ins for the Arlington Major due to visa issues:

Ceb will be OG's stand-in at a Major again, can he win another title?

OG announced on Saturday (31 July) that two-time The International (TI) champion and former OG offlaner, Sébastien "Ceb" Debs, will be standing-in for the team once again, replacing team captain Mikhail "Misha" Agatov for the second time in a Major.

Misha isn't the only one on OG who won't attend the Arlington Major. Team coach Evgenii "Chuvash" Makarov will also miss out on the tournament as well and will be replaced by two-time TI champion and team founder Johan "N0tail" Sundstein.

OG encountered a similar scenario during the ESL One Stockholm Major back in May, where Misha and Chuvash also couldn't attend the tournament due to visa issues and were replaced by Ceb and N0tail.

OG became the champions of the Stockholm Major and a Ceb was a major factor in their victory. The two-time TI winner brings a wealth of experience, leadership, and arguably the strongest Windranger performance to his team.

Ceb isn't the only former OG to play at the Arlington Major, as Anathan "ana" Pham will also be playing at the Major for Chinese team Royal Never Give Up (RNG) as a stand-in for Daniel "Ghost" Chan Kok Hong.

Ana's last competitive performance was during the Riyadh Masters 2022 as a stand-in for Team Liquid.

Almost all South American and Southeast Asian teams hit by visa issues

Both South American teams in the Arlington Major will miss one of their members.

Thunder Awaken midlaner Herrera "Darkmago" Gonzalo won't be able to attend, with both his stand-in and the rest of the team's status in the tournament still to be determined.

The coach of Beastcoast, Thomas Jaulis "Valqui" Romero, will also miss out on the Major and will be replaced by Christian "Accel" Cruz.

The situation is even worse for Southeast Asia, as Talon Esports will be playing with T1's Kenny "Xepher" Deo instead of Worawit "Q" Mekchai.

Their regional rivals, Fnatic, have been the team with the most stand-ins reported with only two members of the original roster competing in the upcoming Major.

Out of the three Southeast Asian teams headed to Arlington, only BOOM Esports will be competing in the Major with a complete roster.

Misha and Chuvash also aren't the only Russian players struggling with traveling to Arlington.

Ivan "Pure" Moskalenko, the carry player for Entity couldn't secure a visa to America and will miss out on the Major as well. TSM FTX offlaner Jonáš "SabeRLight-" Volek will stand-in for Entity.

With just over four days left before the Arlington Major kicks off, hopefully there will be no more issues announced for the teams attending the tournament. With so many stand-ins for teams, the winner of the Arlington Major might be the team who can adjust the fastest to playing with newcomers.

The Arlington Major will be hosted in the Esports Stadium Arlington in Texas, the United States from 4 to 14 August.

The tournament will feature 17 of the best teams from all across the DPC competing for their cut of a US$500,000 prize pool and, most importantly, the 4,570 DPC point pool to go towards securing an all-important direct invite to TI11.

Otomo is a long-time gaming enthusiast and caster. He has been playing games since he was 10 and is the biggest Dota 2 fan.

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