1WIN's withdrawal from ESL One Birmingham 2024: 1WIN's official statement
Today it was revealed that 1WIN will not participate in ESL One Birmingham 2024 due to visa issues. The management of the organization commented on the situation.
The team representatives detailed the chronology of events: from 1WIN's victory at the regional qualifiers to the notification of the team's disqualification from the tournament. From the post, it follows that the organization failed to print visas in time to submit them to ESL, 1WIN was four hour late.
First. The qualification for ESL One Birmingham 2024 for the Eastern Europe region took place from January 26 to 28. We began preparing for visa applications the next day after the qualifiers ended.
Second. On February 15, after gathering the documents, receiving the final invitation from ESL, and meeting other requirements, the players and staff arrived in Moscow and submitted their applications at the consulate.
Third. ESL set the deadline for visa information submission by April 5 inclusive. The decision-making period for the British visa is six weeks. The decision was to be announced on March 28.
Fourth. On March 27, the British consulate contacted ESL to receive additional confirmation of 1win's participation in the upcoming tournament. According to the consul and the TO representative, the call was disconnected during the conversation, and at that moment, the dialogue ended. Only a week later, the British side was able to get the final confirmation of 1win's participation.
Fifth. On April 5, ESL extended the deadline to April 8, 13:00 MSK.
1win received visa confirmation for Timur Ahilles Kulmukhambetov on the evening of the 5th at 21:00 MSK and immediately notified ESL about it.
On the morning of April 8, our visa agent asked ESL to delay the deadline to the evening or the next morning, as the visas were ready but not yet printed.
It is important to consider that the final deadline set by ESL fell on the weekend, during which no official consulate works. We are thankful to ESL for the extra time but ask to consider this fact — the allocated time was not enough. Not because of 1win or ESL, but due to bureaucratic rules.
April 8, 12:55 MSK — we inform ESL that we have a response and ask for time until the evening to provide confirmation.
April 8, 14:13 MSK — ESL asks to provide confirmation. We asked for a couple more hours but were ready to provide the coach's visa. Considering that we applied as a group, the other visas in ready form were already on the way.
April 8, 15:19 MSK — we were notified of our exclusion from the tournament.
April 8, 17:00 MSK — we received the visas.
ESL One Birmingham 2024 is a LAN tournament that will take place in the British city of Birmingham from April 22 to 28. The event will feature 12 teams. Direct invitations have been given to: Gaimin Gladiators, BetBoom Team, Xtreme Gaming, and Team Liquid. The remaining 8 participants will be determined by the results of a closed qualifier. The tournament's prize pool will be 1 million dollars and 26,640 EPT rating points.
As previously reported by Cyberscore.live, OG will play at ESL One Birmingham 2024 instead of 1WIN.
