With ESL Pro League Season 22 drawing to a close, we have finalised our investigation into the recent last-minute withdrawals of Lynn Vision and Virtus.pro.
Lynn Vision
On the day of the travel to the event, Lynn Vision informed us that several of their players were unable to check-in for their flight, as their visas had expired. This news came as a surprise, given that the team had repeatedly confirmed throughout the invitation and booking process that all necessary visas were in place. If unintentional, this oversight remains entirely unacceptable and does not fall under any of our exceptional circumstances (either medical emergency or visa complications). Please see relevant rules below:
2.14.1 Withdrawing from the event
Participants are considered to have withdrawn from the event if they leave during the ongoing stage, between the two stages of the event, including its qualifying stage (e.g., qualifier and main event), or if they leave after accepting the invitation. In such cases, the participants will forfeit all prize money accumulated for the event and will be penalised with a ban from the next event of the same tier (e.g. if a team withdraws from a Tier 1 event, they will be banned from the next Tier 1 event they would have been invited to). The team that withdraws will also be fined to cover the cost of their replacement (including, but not limited to, flight expenses for the replacement team and any additional costs incurred). If ESL is unable to find a replacement, the original matches assigned to the team will be forfeited.
Additionally, in exceptional cases, tournament administration will waive penalties in the event of a medical emergency or visa complications. To qualify for an exemption:
- For medical emergencies, the team must provide a letter from a licensed doctor explicitly stating that the participant is unable to travel to the event.
- For visa complications, the team must provide official documentation confirming that the visa was denied for reasons outside the participant’s control (e.g., not due to an incorrectly submitted or incomplete application).
For this reason, we have no choice but to impose a penalty on Lynn Vision, consisting of a ban from the next Tier 1 event for which they would have received a VRS invitation. The earliest possible event where this would apply for would be IEM Kraków, should they be high enough in the ranking for an invite.
Virtus.pro
Following our review of the Virtus.pro case, we confirmed that all required travel documents were in order. However, three players were denied entry into Sweden, which qualifies as a visa complication under our exceptional circumstances clause. Therefore, no penalty will be applied.
Both teams, however, will be required to cover the costs associated with securing their replacements, in line with our standard practice.
Outro
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