IT'S A SAD DAY for Blacklist Dota 2 fans as the SEA contenders only secured their visas after the PGL's deadline for the PGL Wallachia Season 1 tournament which will happen in Bucharest, Romania.
The tournament will take place from May 10 until the 19th, and will feature household names like Team Liquid, Team Spirit, Team Secret, etc.
To shed more light on what exactly happened, team manager Nathaniel "NaTaN" Wicks, explained that there were things that the team couldn't control.
Tournament schedule
In his Facebook post, Wicks narrated what happened to Blacklist for the past couple of months, where the team's schedule has been stacked.
"Aside from the Elite League and DreamLeague qualifiers in March, we played the Open Qualifiers and Closed Qualifiers for PGL. We qualified for PGL Wallachia (March 28) and then we flew the day after (March 29) to compete in the Elite League," he started.
Yet despite the busy sched, the team managed to fulfill their requirements and apply for their visas.
"On the evening of our last Group Stage match from Elite League (April 10), we arrived back in the Philippines (April 11), secured all requirements, and applied for a Romanian Schengen Visa."
The Romanian holiday
Despite their efforts, there were other concerns that persisted.
"The Romanian Embassy was on holiday from April 29 - May 6. One whole week + 1 day deducted from the visa processing period," as stated by Wicks.
These issues that Blacklist endured have also plagued other SEA based teams. In the end, Blacklist couldn't fly to Bucharest for a chance to showcase their prowess.
"Even other SEA teams tried to process their visas for PGL to replace teams that can not attend (Tundra are not able to attend due to similar issues as us)."
"A very busy Qualifier Period in March, SEA passport nerf, Romanian Holidays (among plenty of other things). Despite all our best efforts, we're very disappointed that we will not be able to compete against the best teams in the world."
While this is certainly a setback for the SEA Dota 2 squad, the team is hoping for their redemption arc in the Riyadh Masters 2024.
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