Dota 2: China's Xtreme Gaming to skip Arlington Major due to visa issues
The upcoming Dota 2 PGL Arlington Major in Texas, the United States continues to present issues for the teams trying to attend the tournament.
Xtreme Gaming, one of the four teams from China, have decided to skip the Arlington Major entirely due to being unable to secure a visa for their carry player Lou "lou" Zhen.
The team first announced their decision on their official Weibo account on Wednesday (27 July).
Arlington Major organisers PGL later confirmed Xtreme Gaming's withdrawal from the tournament and clarified that the team's slot will not be replaced, leaving the number of participating teams in the event at just 17.
Xtreme Gaming withdrew from PGL Arlington Major 2022. One player's USA visa was denied several times, and the team decided not to attend the Major.
No other team will take Xtreme's slot.#PGLMajor pic.twitter.com/CrWqaOwMwX— PGL (@pglesports) July 27, 2022
Difficult DPC season for Xtreme Gaming
Xtreme Gaming started the 2021-2022 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) season in Division II and had to claw their way up to Division I in China, one of the most competitive Dota 2 regions.
Xtreme Gaming and Team MagMa were the best two performing Chinese Division II teams in the Winter Tour and earned their spot in Division I.
The team continued to impress in the Spring Tour, securing second place in Division I, and booked their ticket to the ESL One Stockholm Major.
Unfortunately for Xtreme Gaming and Chinese Dota 2 teams in general, they couldn't attend the first DPC Major of the year and had to forfeit their spot.
Dota 2 developer Valve Software decided to give Chinese teams a chance to earn some DPC points in a Regional Finals in order to make up for their absence in Stockholm.
There were 750 DPC points on the line, far less than the 3,530 up for grabs in Stockholm. Another issue was that only the top two teams in the Regional Finals earn DPC points, and Xtreme Gaming were unlucky enough to play against PSG.LGD, arguably the strongest team in China.
Things started to look up for Xtreme Gaming in the Summer Tour, as they placed third in the league and became one of the four teams representing China in Arlington. Xtreme needed to place at least Top 4 in the Major in order to have a shot at attending The International 11 (TI11).
With lou unable to compete with the team at the Major, and the fact that Xtreme need to have an extremely good tournament to qualify for TI11, the team decided to forfeit their spot and focus instead on the tournament's upcoming Chinese Qualifier.
Xtreme Gaming aren't the only team that had its spot in the Arlington Major jeopardized by visa issues.
Southeast Asia's Fnatic will be playing in the Major with three stand-ins after three of their players failed to acquire visas.
With a little over a week left before the Major starts, it remains to be seen whether any other teams will also have difficulties in the tournament competing due to visa issues.
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.
Xtreme Gaming Dota 2 roster:
Lou "lou" Zhen
Zhang "Paparazi灬" Chengjun
Ren "old eLeVeN" Yangwei
Xiong "Pyw" Jiahan
Ding "Dy" Cong
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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