More Dota 2 teams are hiring mercenaries as visa issues hit OG, Berlin Major

Dota 2’s Berlin Major has been marred by visa issues plaguing several teams. Due to being unable to bring some of their starting players to Germany, multiple organizations are competing in the event with stand-ins, including OG.

In an announcement today, OG stated two of its members, Evgenii “Chu” Makarov and Dmitry “DM” Dorokhin, weren’t able to obtain visas in time. Despite on-going appeal attempts, OG sorted out its stand-ins prior to the event, Ivan “MinD_ContRoL” Ivanov from Nigma Galaxy and Kartik “Kitrak” Rathi from Old G.

MinD_ContRoL will be the second Nigma players who will attend the Berlin Major, as Syed “SumaiL” Hassan was snatched by Team Aster, another team having visa issues. After being relegated to the second division, Nigma ended up sending two of its players to the Major.

In addition to Aster and OG, BetBoom Team and 9pandas have also been struggling with visa issues. 

BetBoom’s Ivan “Pure” Moskalenko visa application was denied, and the team added Roman “Resolut1on” Fomynok to its roster for the tournament. 9pandas, on the other hand, is still actively dealing with the situation, but the organization said Alexey “Solo” Berezin could miss the beginning of the tournament. If that happens to be the case Vladimir “Rodjer” Nikogosyan will be ready to fill his spot.

The Berlin Major will be the first Valve offline event that will be played on Patch 7.33. Considering the teams present at the Berlin Major clashed in DreamLeague Season 19 prior to the event, fans will be excited to watch how the best in the world will be able to hold their ground when faced with an unknown patch alongside visa issues.