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United Kingdom50293 Posts
Unable to resolve visa issues with Jake “Xmithie” Puchero for worlds Counter Logic Gaming's jungle role will be filled by their substitute Jae-Hyun “Huhi” Choi. Xmithie will be a part of the bootcamp but he will be unavailable for the actual tournament.
Due to unresolvable VISA issues, Jake “Xmithie” Puchero will not be able to join our LCS team for the Worlds 2015 LCS Championship. Xmithie will stay in Korea with the team to prepare himself for next Season.
We will be fielding Jae-Hyun “Huhi” Choi as our starting jungler for the World Championship tournament. Huhi has trained with our team extensively for the last 4 months. A vast network supports Huhi in his transition to jungle. This includes Xmithie himself, our coaching staff, a Korean support staff, and several professional junglers.
We’re training day and night in Korea to get the team ready for Worlds. Scrims are proceeding at an equal or greater level to our training at Madison Square Garden. The team improves daily and we’re looking forward to an even stronger performance than for NA LCS Finals.
Source
UPDATE:
Xmithie has acquired a schengen area visa and will be playing for the group stages. UK visa application is yet to be confirmed.
Source
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Midlaner in the jungle? Easy worlds win for CLG.
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While I don't rate Xmithie very highly this still sucks really badly. I haven't heard of people from first world countries getting denied visa's to Europe in quite some time. Wonder what went wrong. Does he not have American citizenship by now?
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The land of freedom23126 Posts
On September 12 2015 03:17 krndandaman wrote:
holy shit I feel so bad for CLG fans
I mean who knows huhi might do well, but still. damn.
At least, fanbase will get cleansed again because CLG won't advance from groups and therefore, isn't worth cheering for. ^_^
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Australia18228 Posts
This is so bad. Xmithie is pretty crucial to CLG's playstyle
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he cant be worse than xmithie right? right??
Still sucks considering that Xmithie had synergy with Zion and Pobelter.
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More faith is going to be needed. A lot more faith.
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On September 12 2015 03:22 oo_Wonderful_oo wrote:Show nested quote +On September 12 2015 03:17 krndandaman wrote:
holy shit I feel so bad for CLG fans
I mean who knows huhi might do well, but still. damn. At least, fanbase will get cleansed again because CLG won't advance from groups and therefore, isn't worth cheering for. ^_^
CLG can still advance. But it will be very difficult and requires a good group.
Also keep in mind Huhi has like a month to prepare. Let's give him some credits. He just needs to not suck too much.
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I am very curious why his visa got denied. Didn't think it was possible for someone from america lol
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Bearded Elder29903 Posts
I have a strange feeling it might actually work.
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IIRC Xmithie is still a citizen of the Philippines, so maybe that has something to do with it.
Still pretty shitty that it was false hope all along. I thought maybe this time was different.
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On September 12 2015 03:36 nafta wrote:
I am very curious why his visa got denied. Didn't think it was possible for someone from america lol
He only moved to America when he was a kid so maybe he just hasn't gotten citizenship yet? Don't know why you wouldn't but that's the only way I can figure it out. Even then if he was carrying his Philippines passport he'd still have a record of living in the States for last 10/15 years?
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On September 12 2015 03:37 739 wrote:
I have a strange feeling it might actually work.
At least Huhi has been in the house and knows how the players work. Hopefully he's been acting the way we want subs to be like and not just "been there" and done nothing.
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This is at least a better excuse than being purple side.
Xmithie had visa issues for EU at IEM though, seems pretty absurd that nothing could resolve this in the 9 months they knew about it.
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Couldn't Riot do what Valve did and get some politician to help out? Idk how EU stuff works since I got EU passport.
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Esportspedia says he moved to the US when he was 16, and he's 24 now. So, 8 years.
However, naturalization isn't automatic. One still has to apply and go through the process. For example, my parents lived in the US for 30+ years before deciding to go through the process to become citizens.
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On September 12 2015 03:41 Numy wrote:Show nested quote +On September 12 2015 03:36 nafta wrote:
I am very curious why his visa got denied. Didn't think it was possible for someone from america lol He only moved to America when he was a kid so maybe he just hasn't gotten citizenship yet? Don't know why you wouldn't but that's the only way I can figure it out. Even then if he was carrying his Philippines passport he'd still have a record of living in the States for last 10/15 years?
I would not be surprised that there is something else.
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biggest letdown from the press release is where they say Xmithe will return as the spring split jungler.
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The land of freedom23126 Posts
On September 12 2015 03:33 Sufficiency wrote:Show nested quote +On September 12 2015 03:22 oo_Wonderful_oo wrote:On September 12 2015 03:17 krndandaman wrote:
holy shit I feel so bad for CLG fans
I mean who knows huhi might do well, but still. damn. At least, fanbase will get cleansed again because CLG won't advance from groups and therefore, isn't worth cheering for. ^_^ CLG can still advance. But it will be very difficult and requires a good group. Also keep in mind Huhi has like a month to prepare. Let's give him some credits. He just needs to not suck too much.
Advance from what, rofl.
H2K/Flash Wolves/paiN group? What a sick achievement.
Not like anything changed though, we'll see how it goes. Not like it's first time CLG mid is going for jungle stint ever.
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Maybe CLG will perform better with a sub again 
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Well C9 has had a mid whose nickname starts with 'H' go to jungle and work. Maybe it can work for CLG too.
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CLG golden age just ended lol.
Damn I feel bad for them, this looked like the season where CLG could really try for best in the west (Fnatic seems better, but who knows).
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I'm not super optimistic, but Huhi has better mechanics than Xmithie at least. Learning jungle in one month is a huge ask, but what's a bit more faith at this point.
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On September 12 2015 03:48 Slusher wrote:
biggest letdown from the press release is where they say Xmithe will return as the spring split jungler.
Well he can not be benched for bad performance if he doesnt even play at worlds. So good for him :D
But seriously, this sucks. Maybe Huhi will be better than we think though, the shoes he has to fill are not that big after all.
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This is great for CLG fans, now they will have another "Purple Side" to cling to for the next two years.
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WTF is this, horrible news, CLG is rip and so is Zion's dream
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I'm actually pretty optimistic. Huhi is really good mechanically, is fluent in english so there won't be any communication issues, and he's been scrimming with CLG the whole split. Unlike Stixxay, Huhi still lives in the house and actively plays and practices with the team, so it's not like he's starting from 0 in regards to synergy. Also, Unlike Hai who kinda had to figure it out himself Huhi will also have Xmithie teaching him the ropes along with the support staff. Beesin (who coached Fusion, Huhi's old challenger team) said Huhi also used to be a jungler and was good at it. Lots of people who have experience with Huhi (Scarra, various challenger players, etc.) are all vouching that Huhi has a fantastic work ethic and great communication. This won't be as bad as most people think imo.
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On September 12 2015 03:49 oo_Wonderful_oo wrote:Show nested quote +On September 12 2015 03:33 Sufficiency wrote:On September 12 2015 03:22 oo_Wonderful_oo wrote:On September 12 2015 03:17 krndandaman wrote:
holy shit I feel so bad for CLG fans
I mean who knows huhi might do well, but still. damn. At least, fanbase will get cleansed again because CLG won't advance from groups and therefore, isn't worth cheering for. ^_^ CLG can still advance. But it will be very difficult and requires a good group. Also keep in mind Huhi has like a month to prepare. Let's give him some credits. He just needs to not suck too much. Advance from what, rofl. H2K/Flash Wolves/paiN group? What a sick achievement. Not like anything changed though, we'll see how it goes. Not like it's first time CLG mid is going for jungle stint ever.
H2K/FW/PaiN is still an achievement, like it or not.
Let's just hope next year they get a better jungler.
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Holy crap when I saw this title I thought it was satire...T_T
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Next step of this business:
A representative from the Phillippine eSports Organization is in contact with CLG management. Guess the goal would be to get it up to honorary member Senator Bam Aquino and hope he can flex some political muscle to move this along.
(oh wow, he's a really young senator)
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I thought Riot had a rule or something that visas will not matter anymore because they are athletes.
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On September 12 2015 13:31 ffrozenfish wrote:
I thought Riot had a rule or something that visas will not matter anymore because they are athletes.
as big as they are, I don't think riot can overrule governments yet :p
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Bearded Elder29903 Posts
Yeah that Phillipine eSports organisation might actually help, wondering if they can get Xmithie a visa.
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On September 12 2015 03:44 Numy wrote:
Couldn't Riot do what Valve did and get some politician to help out? Idk how EU stuff works since I got EU passport.
He would need a Schengen visa for "Europe" and also a UK visa for the UK matches I would expect. I don't know if they would need to deal with all the relevant countries or whether they can get a single Schengen visa since I'm also from Europe, but having it split between countries probably doesn't help when trying to organise the visas.
Plus I assume it would need to be a work type visa and not a tourist one.
Does seem a bit weird through when places like China and Thailand will presumably have similar issues for their qualifying teams.
(From reading a post on Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/3km93p/why_xmithie_most_likely_doesnt_get_a_visa_and/), the issue is he would want to go from/to the US and not his home country, which complicates things. If he was going PH -> EU -> PH it might be easier, but going US -> EU -> US looks weird, apparently)
Remember Gambit couldn't play in the UK for the regular season matches because while they had the ability to play in other places, they didn't get UK visas sorted.
http://na.lolesports.com/articles/core-team-gambit-gaming-missing-lcs-london
The issue then becomes that even if you get a Schengen visa, that only covers 3 of the 4 rounds, and you have to decide whether you want to have Xmithie for rounds 1/3/4 in Schengen countries and Huhi for round 2 in the UK, or just use Huhi all the way through to try and keep consistency (assuming they make it through each stage)
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On September 12 2015 13:31 ffrozenfish wrote:
I thought Riot had a rule or something that visas will not matter anymore because they are athletes.
I think that related to the US only. Worlds is in Europe.
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Oops, hit quote not edit.
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On September 12 2015 03:42 Ansibled wrote:
Xmithie had visa issues for EU at IEM though, seems pretty absurd that nothing could resolve this in the 9 months they knew about it.
Yeah, I thought the same.
This is a CLG failure, they knew that could happen and apparently did nothing (or not as much as they could have since a redditor seem to be able to maybe help them).
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There's really no excuse for a supposedly professional organization failing to sort out his visa issues well ahead of time. Why does it seem like all of these organizations are waiting til the last minute to apply for visas?
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The land of freedom23126 Posts
On September 14 2015 00:45 Nemireck wrote:
There's really no excuse for a supposedly professional organization failing to sort out his visa issues well ahead of time. Why does it seem like all of these organizations are waiting til the last minute to apply for visas?
Do you even have an idea how councelor and visa centres work, lol.
It's not like they're getting tourist visas either, and not like Xmithie didn't suffer from visa issues to Europe before.
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Bearded Elder29903 Posts
On September 14 2015 01:32 oo_Wonderful_oo wrote:Show nested quote +On September 14 2015 00:45 Nemireck wrote:
There's really no excuse for a supposedly professional organization failing to sort out his visa issues well ahead of time. Why does it seem like all of these organizations are waiting til the last minute to apply for visas? Do you even have an idea how councelor and visa centres work, lol. It's not like they're getting tourist visas either, and not like Xmithie didn't suffer from visa issues to Europe before.
If CLG would be late with papers for visa, we could easily blame them. But there is no fault in CLG organisation that Xmithie was refused to get it. Getting visa in certain countries/to certain countries is pain in the ass, trust me.
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The group of life doe lol
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Why are visas an issue, can't he go and come back with a passport? idk, this type of stuff makes no sense to me.
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Bearded Elder29903 Posts
On September 14 2015 13:44 geript wrote:
Why are visas an issue, can't he go and come back with a passport? idk, this type of stuff makes no sense to me.
No. You can only go and come back with passport if you're in Schengen and you're travelling to Schengen area. So basically almost whole Europe. Otherwise you need a visa.
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United Kingdom50293 Posts
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Bearded Elder29903 Posts
Good shit. Well done to Philipoine orga for handling this.
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United Kingdom50293 Posts
UK is separate from schengen so they need a separate visa. It's like how Gambit had visas for Europe but got fucked when riot held a week in London.
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EPT
