Rito and visas

T RexHasTinyArms·Jul 27, 2015·2 votes·502 views

So I think everyone would agree that after watching TDK play this weekend it's kinda sad they didn't have their starting roster to practice with or 2/3rds of the season. There have been a ton of issues across numerous teams dealing with visa issues. Not sure if they have a policy, but I think especially with new teams coming up from CS Rito should try to help out and make sure they know the things to do and to not do during the process. Also I'm not sure what the visas people play on are, but I wonder if Rito could better organize work visas because the players are paid a salary for being in the LCS so maybe that makes them Riot employees in terms of visas? I don't know, it's not an area I'm educated on, so if anyone knows how it works I'd love to know :D

9 Comments

Tentacle LoveJul 27, 20152 votes

As sad as it is, Riot isn't bigger than the US Government (yet).

ZhuganJul 27, 20151 votes

That is 100% a US government thing and not a Riot thing. Asking Riot to do more to help with that is about as helpful as asking me to help with that. And I don't work for the immigration offices in Cali, so...

T RexHasTinyArmsJul 27, 20151 votes

Yeah, except that, at least for newer teams with less infrastructure, having someone to help guide them so they don't mess it up might really help them. From the little I've looked into moving to countries other than the U.S. long term visas are usually a multi step process to attain, and making sure all the right forms are filled out and that they are submitted by players and organizations at the right time, in the right order, all the right signatures, etc can be a big pain. Riot having a liaison who knows the process and can walk new teams/new players (if the team doesn't have someone for that) through the process might legitimately be much more useful than asking you to help with it. Unless you have a back ground in social services work and can help the teams navigate the system appropriately.

ZhuganJul 27, 20151 votes

Except there is no incentive for Riot to do that. Most teams and most players who have transferred from one region to another haven't had issues. The few that have were almost entirely because of issues that were 100% outside of everyone's control.

Case in point: Ninja and Emperor had big issues with coming over not because they were wrong but because the physical office that they needed to work with was closed. Which caused the delay. So, even in the best example of the problem that you are talking about the issue wasn't with them not getting the process, it was that they couldn't actually file the forms and get the approval because the office they needed to work with was closed.

T RexHasTinyArmsJul 28, 20151 votes

Oh god that's actually hilarious. Legitimately California just closed the office needed to process visas for like 6 weeks or something I guess? Lol guess their state debt really is as bad as people make jokes about it being.

ZhuganJul 28, 20151 votes

I don't think it was a debt issue, but basically yeah. They closed right before the start of the split because of a fire or significant water damage or something (its been several weeks since I read about it) and that stopped them from being able to get Ninja and Emperor. No amount of Riot helping would've fixed that problem.

SlappybiscuitJul 27, 20151 votes

Well if they were actually from the region they are playing in, it wouldn't have been much of a problem, would it?

T RexHasTinyArmsJul 27, 20151 votes

I suppose, but then it would make e-sports even less respected than they are now in comparison to traditional sports. Can you imagine if the NFL or NBA suddenly told teams they couldn't hire the best players. The person who put the proposal forward would be laughed out of the room.

Riot put a cap on how many people can be from another region, and even that is kind of funny, because you would never need that in any real sport. Personally I think that they'll remove it some day. Hopefully when e-sports starts to have enough money in it for players that kids are as obsessed about practicing and getting to pro level as they are with other sports. Then there will be more parity in the skill of players across regions and no need to restrict hiring practices to give bad players a competitive edge on job applications.