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@Riot: Visa issues in the LCS

Amuq the Native·1/28/2016, 10:36:09 AM·5 votes·6,208 views

I'm writing this in hopes that someone in the E-sports section of Riot reads this and can provide some answers.

Last season, there already were some visa issues. I can't remember any precise examples right now, but it happened several times that players were unable to compete and had to be replaced for a week or two. Korean players in the NA LCS had to go back to Korea for one week or two while their visa was being renewed or something. Ah, and Xmithie almost didn't make it to Worlds.

We are now week 3 of the Spring Split of Season 6, and things are not getting better at all. If anything, they are worse. Last week, at least Froggen and Freeze couldn't play due to visa issues. And this week, it's reaching Europe too: Ryu, Edward and Diamondprox will not play. Because visas.

This situation is bad for everyone. It's certainly bad for players, who must feel a lot of stress and pressure. It's obviously bad for teams, who have to play with substitute. It's bad for fans, who expect to see their favourite players on stage and are disappointed time and time again. It's bad for fantasy players, who can't reliably draft their compositions. And it's bad for you, Riot, because it looks very unprofessional. When I see that the same problem, which should be well-known by now, is happening again and again and is still as disruptive as ever, I can't help but feel that this is handled in a very amateurish way, and that E-sports are far from being mature yet.

I realize that the visa issue is intrinsically difficult. There are a lot of laws with a lot of countries, and the very concept of not being able to freely travel and work anywhere sucks. I also realize that it's ultimately on the teams to fix these issues for players, and if they can't, and can't provide adequate substitutes, they have to forfeit - but nobody wants this. So, since it seems to be such a common problem occurring to so many teams, I think that you, Riot, should step in and do something about it.

What? I don't know. You know better than I do. But I would suggest something like:

  • Establish a "help with visas" section, with international visa law experts, that would centralize all the regularization procedures, and that would be the place for players and teams to go to get their issues solved quickly.

  • Establish stricter regulations so that teams have to address work permit issues in advance, with lots of forewarning. Yeah, that means earlier deadlines. That means the offseason is locked in earlier. That probably means that Echo Fox wouldn't have made it into this season. Honestly, as much as I like Rick Fox and Froggen, I'll take more stable rosters any day over a team barely making it into the LCS.

  • Put on stricter penalties for visa issues if they are not being handled by your centralized section. A team tried to be smart and import a player without going through you, and now the player is being detained in local Ellis Island ? Put a black mark on their record, something that will not forfeit the match (because we want to see matches, even with substitutes!) but that will somehow hurt their ratings at the end of the split. Or a fine, so Nick Allen knows he's not forgotten.

Anyway, please do something. Think of something. I know you can. I know it's hard, but the status quo is definitely not good. And worst case, please acknowledge this and give us some transparency. If you can't do anything because it would be worse than doing nothing, please say it, and if you can, please explain what you thought of and why it wouldn't be a good idea. At least we will know, and we will endure.

Sincerely,

-- Amuq, an enthusiastic - but a bit annoyed - LCS fan.

17 Comments

RiotGG Hunter1/30/2016, 2:01:41 AM7 votes

First of all, thanks for taking the time to give us your thoughts. It goes without saying that this has been a disruptive - and in some cases really disappointing - stretch for fans of the NA and EU LCS.

You raise some great questions - here are a few thoughts on some of the issues, at least from an NA perspective. We’re working closely with the EU team on these issues to ensure that collectively we’re raising the bar across the board.

We agree with you that it’s a really crappy situation when players are held back by visa issues - both for them and for fans hoping to see them. Having to bench a player in the middle of the split due to circumstances out of their control is the worst case scenario for teams.

Gaining visas for international players, as you say, is a complex process - made even more complex when it comes to multiple organizations taking responsibility for the process and players of several nationalities.

One of our major realizations moving forward is that we need to draw a much harder line, with teams proving that their players are fully work eligible before getting into a competitive split. In the past, as we said in the Echo Fox competitive ruling, we relied on guarantees from teams and high-level spot checks: it’s clear that isn’t enough. We’ll be taking a close look at this within this split and will enter the mid-season break with a stricter process that guarantees each starting roster is fully eligible for the LCS. This will place additional pressure on teams to lock down a roster far earlier than they might have in previous splits, but we will also be providing additional resources and structure to support them.

Behind the scenes we already offer help with visa resources, including access to law experts, but I think the points you make here are valid. There’s more that we can do to get newer team owners the resources they need before they reach crisis stage - and we’ll be looking into ways to beef us that support. Legally this burden is on the teams, they employ the players. But practically this burden is shared between us, teams and players. We will be stepping up our support to ensure that players aren’t getting left behind in the rush to start the season.

Finally, when it comes to stricter penalties, we’re certainly establishing a zero-tolerance policy for any non-eligible players within the LCS moving forward. Our goal is for there to be no surprises about whether or not a player can legally play within the country they’re competing in at the beginning of the split. Some of this will come with new definitions and structure around what a roster is, possibly with a Reserve and Active roster allowing for more fluid states (signed but not eligible yet). We know that setting clearer expectations and regulations will hopefully put this right in the future.

Stillname1/28/2016, 7:43:15 PM2 votes

The only thing riot could do about it is move the EU LCS to a country that is more visa friendly for league players. France has been suggested as they recognize e-sports as an official job as opposed to Berlin, where it currently is, does not.

They already offer help for teams to get their players visa's and it is definitely not just on the individual player to get one. The teams offer a lot of help for players, but there isn't much they can do if the country just won't give them one.

I think they have to seriously consider moving out of Germany though if they can't get visa's for players there.

MAGA MAN X 20201/29/2016, 10:59:32 AM1 votes

Yea I agree it's kinda BS that this is happening. This is an issue I could understand in the LCS's infancy but we're 6 seasons deep, this shouldn't be an issue at this point. I still don't understand how it's possible that an established player like Ryu could be scrutinized while people like Gamsu and Emperor are totally legit. Whatever it is that those two did differently, why the fuck hasn't Ryu done the same? It's understandable in DP's case as Russia isn't one of America's sideho's, but shouldn't all Korean players be in the same boat?

Kabraxis1/31/2016, 12:23:52 AM1 votes

I don't understand why you are addressing Riot for this. Froggen is NOT A NEW PLAYER and should know better, he has played internationally before as well. This should be on the players themselves and the teams. Riot as I understand already offers help to the teams/players but the brunt of the blame lies mainly on the player.

Again using Froggen as the example for him to not know he needed a work visa by now is just simply silly and ignorant.