Ninjas in Pyjamas players João “Kamikaze” Gomes and Julio Giacomelli have been officially ruled out for the Rainbow Six Pro League Finals in Japan due to visa issues.
But NiP managed to find two substitutes ahead of the tournament, which will be played from Nov. 9 to 10. The Swedish org will use Spanish players Álvaro “baroz” Valero and David “p0Lo” Gómez. NiP won’t have their coach Arthur “Ar7thur” Schubert, however, since he also faced visa issues. Instead, he’ll help the team from Brazil.
Although there will be communication issues since the rest of NiP’s squad is Brazilian, baroz and p0lo played together for Giants Gaming throughout 2019 and are both experienced Rainbow Six players. One of NiP’s stars, Gustavo “Psycho” Rigal, said they haven’t practiced with the substitutes, who will also play without resting from the flight to Japan.
P0lo, however, is excited to play at the Pro League Finals and embrace the opportunity. “Let’s show to the world where we are from, even if the conditions are very difficult,” P0lo said.
NiP aren’t the only Latin American team that qualified for the Tokoname Finals to suffer from visa issues. Last week, FaZe’s Ronaldo “ion” Osawa was denied a visa and the org will use Nino “ninexT” Pavolini as a stand-in. ESL was allegedly in charge of securing player visas until it left the responsibility to the teams just a few days before they had to begin traveling to Japan for the finals.
NiP will play against REC tomorrow in the Pro League Finals’ opening round at 2am CT.
