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Hong Kong9135 Posts
It seems that the US State Department has begun to crack down on the esports industry’s reliance on visa waiver travel to facilitate the movement of players across the world to compete at events.
On Wednesday, Leffen was denied entry to the United States through the waiver, and he was sent back to Sweden. As a result, he shall not be in attendance at The Big House 5.
Visa waivers streamline the entry system for everyday tourists, but you legally are not allowed to work in the United States under the authorization to stay granted by the waiver. Such work authorization usually results from attaining various applicable visas for the stay, and apparently to the United States federal government, being a sponsored esports player is employment.
It will be interesting to see how this affects more people across not just Smash, but also esports as a whole.
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Aotearoa39261 Posts
Very interesting. Thanks for the explanation tank
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this will be critical in the 2016 election
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On October 01 2015 11:16 shindigs wrote: this will be critical in the 2016 election
LOL
In all seriousness though, this is really upsetting. He's always a force to be reckoned with, nowadays.
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51117 Posts
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On October 01 2015 16:17 GTR wrote: thanks riot! literally. lol
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I guess it makes sense if the premiss is that he "works" in america. Although,
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United States10327 Posts
too bad Leffen is Falco in the pic :'(
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This is a problem that could quite easily extend beyond Smash and be a serious issue for the entire industry in the near future due to the high demand for live esports events in the United States. What TSM does next could potentially have serious implications.
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Probably the gayest thing to have happened to tbh5. Wish he was there :\
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On October 02 2015 14:55 bo1b wrote: Probably the gayest thing to have happened to tbh5. Wish he was there :\
No, this is a sad thing. Not good at all.
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Aotearoa39261 Posts
On October 02 2015 14:55 bo1b wrote: Probably the gayest thing to have happened to tbh5. Wish he was there :\ "gayest" ... really? =/
But I think there is a positive coming out of this situation. It obviously sucks that this happened for TBH5, but it's better than it happens here than at EVO. But also industry wide this is a bit of a wake up and will hopefully prevent this happening in other esports. So while in this specific instance it sucks, in the grand scheme of things this is pretty minor and the best possible time for something like this to happen (and learn from it).
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France218 Posts
I'm only sad for the EU crew.
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Meh, this is really disappointing.
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I kinda wondered if this would happen eventually, given that they are technically coming to the US to work instead of tourism. Sucks though. Hope it doesn't have too many implications going forward for any pros of any games
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