Renegades and their slot
As one of the teams likely to qualify, Renegades could potentially be a finalist at the event in Sao Paulo. Since the Asia Minor for the upcoming CS:GO Major was recently scheduled for the same weekend, Renegades informed us that they would go to the event instead of Pro League finals even if they qualified for it. For that reason, in the case that Renegades places 6th or higher at the end of the season, we are going to have the team that comes in 7th place in the NA division participate in the finals, and Renegades will be treated as if they had reached the 7th place.
Visa situation for US/CA players
To enter Brazil, players and talent from the USA and Canada need visa unlike most other nations on the planet. This affects Cloud9, Team Liquid, NRG, Echo Fox and Optic Gaming out of those who are qualified or can still qualify.
With the regular processing times for visa and the relatively complicated process behind it, which is additionally impacted by the recent strike at major consulates and the travel schedule of players and talent, getting visa in time has developed into a challenging task. Over the past week, we have worked with all the affected teams and players to make sure all documents are ready and the best route to getting visa is found. With the help of several agencies as well as direct support from Brazil, things are looking good to get everyone approved in time. We are providing support to the teams every day, and they are giving us status updates in return, so we are putting combined forces to work to get every player to Sao Paulo in time. As promised, we will also give regular public updates like this one as we move further through the process.
All of the teams from the EU division, as well as SK Gaming and Immortals, are not affected by this and are just waiting for the final results to find out who qualifies.
Alexander Nehr, Senior Product Manager ESL
