On August 05 2013 01:27 Shellshock1122 wrote: just change region
Can't do it until 2014. Why he didn't change after getting his visa denied for Season 1, I have no idea.
I would be fine with an exception being made for a player that is consistently unable to play in the region selected or having him sit out season 3 instead of wasting a spot
On August 04 2013 23:44 tree.hugger wrote: This should surprise nobody. Last time the US let viOlet in, he abused his visa and overstayed. He broke the law. That's their perspective and it happens to be correct. I know online we're all one big happy family, but countries take this stuff seriously. viOlet and his management really screwed up. Honestly, viOlet should probably try to switch regions, because it's going to continue to be hard/impossible for him to get into the US for years.
Your information is just plain wrong. viOlet NEVER broke any US laws during any of his stays in the United States. "Their" perspective is that even though he did not break the law, and he was well within the technical rights to stay when and as long as he did, it was still suspicious that he stayed for the lengths of times he did. The US has the right to deny anyone at their own discretion, regardless of whether a law was actually broken or not. "Right to deny anyone service" applies to them as well as US businesses. To say viOlet broke the law without any actual facts is purely speculative and damages more than it helps. Sometimes it is better to not say anything at all.
No, he overstayed.
I remember thinking when he was living here, "How is he staying here so long on what's probably a visa-waiver that he used to get in?". I thought he might have signed up for an educational program and changed his status, but he hadn't. His rights were to stay in the US for 3 months. He stayed far longer than that. When you overstay your status, it becomes extremely difficult to get back in the country once you leave, which is what happened to him.
What first hand knowledge or facts of the situation do you know? He stayed on an ESTA waiver, which allows you to stay for 3 months at a time (you are correct there). However, the time resets when you leave the country for a certain amount of time. If you do your homework, you will realize that he always had a foreign (European or otherwise) event that reset the waiver to 90 days. Going to those events for that 5-7 days allowed him to come back to the USA and stay for a brand new 90 days before resetting the waiver again. In accordance to the laws and permissions granted to the ESTA, he was within his rights to stay the lengths of time he did.
ESTA waivers are denied all the time, even ones previously issued without problem. I am curious though, where are you getting the information that ESTA waivers renew indefinitely when one leaves the US? I'm almost certain that this is not true.
If what the guy you quoted said is true, that's a really, really stupid law.
On August 05 2013 02:35 JJH777 wrote: They need to have it in the rules for WCS (and have needed it in GSL for ages it's a joke that they haven't added it) that if someone forfeits the group changes to a 3player group with round robin format. Keeping the same format and giving walkovers is so ridiculous dumb.
On August 05 2013 01:27 Shellshock1122 wrote: just change region
Can't do it until 2014. Why he didn't change after getting his visa denied for Season 1, I have no idea.
I would be fine with an exception being made for a player that is consistently unable to play in the region selected or having him sit out season 3 instead of wasting a spot
Agreed. It's a shame that a player is being denied the ability to play as well as a tournament having a blank slot, whatever the cause may be.
On August 04 2013 23:44 tree.hugger wrote: This should surprise nobody. Last time the US let viOlet in, he abused his visa and overstayed. He broke the law. That's their perspective and it happens to be correct. I know online we're all one big happy family, but countries take this stuff seriously. viOlet and his management really screwed up. Honestly, viOlet should probably try to switch regions, because it's going to continue to be hard/impossible for him to get into the US for years.
Your information is just plain wrong. viOlet NEVER broke any US laws during any of his stays in the United States. "Their" perspective is that even though he did not break the law, and he was well within the technical rights to stay when and as long as he did, it was still suspicious that he stayed for the lengths of times he did. The US has the right to deny anyone at their own discretion, regardless of whether a law was actually broken or not. "Right to deny anyone service" applies to them as well as US businesses. To say viOlet broke the law without any actual facts is purely speculative and damages more than it helps. Sometimes it is better to not say anything at all.
No, he overstayed.
I remember thinking when he was living here, "How is he staying here so long on what's probably a visa-waiver that he used to get in?". I thought he might have signed up for an educational program and changed his status, but he hadn't. His rights were to stay in the US for 3 months. He stayed far longer than that. When you overstay your status, it becomes extremely difficult to get back in the country once you leave, which is what happened to him.
What first hand knowledge or facts of the situation do you know? He stayed on an ESTA waiver, which allows you to stay for 3 months at a time (you are correct there). However, the time resets when you leave the country for a certain amount of time. If you do your homework, you will realize that he always had a foreign (European or otherwise) event that reset the waiver to 90 days. Going to those events for that 5-7 days allowed him to come back to the USA and stay for a brand new 90 days before resetting the waiver again. In accordance to the laws and permissions granted to the ESTA, he was within his rights to stay the lengths of time he did.
ESTA waivers are denied all the time, even ones previously issued without problem. I am curious though, where are you getting the information that ESTA waivers renew indefinitely when one leaves the US? I'm almost certain that this is not true.
If what the guy you quoted said is true, that's a really, really stupid law.
On August 05 2013 02:35 JJH777 wrote: They need to have it in the rules for WCS (and have needed it in GSL for ages it's a joke that they haven't added it) that if someone forfeits the group changes to a 3player group with round robin format. Keeping the same format and giving walkovers is so ridiculous dumb.
On August 05 2013 01:27 Shellshock1122 wrote: just change region
Can't do it until 2014. Why he didn't change after getting his visa denied for Season 1, I have no idea.
I would be fine with an exception being made for a player that is consistently unable to play in the region selected or having him sit out season 3 instead of wasting a spot
Agreed. It's a shame that a player is being denied the ability to play as well as a tournament having a blank slot, whatever the cause may be.
I know they don't. I said they have needed it in GSL for ages.
On August 04 2013 23:44 tree.hugger wrote: This should surprise nobody. Last time the US let viOlet in, he abused his visa and overstayed. He broke the law. That's their perspective and it happens to be correct. I know online we're all one big happy family, but countries take this stuff seriously. viOlet and his management really screwed up. Honestly, viOlet should probably try to switch regions, because it's going to continue to be hard/impossible for him to get into the US for years.
Your information is just plain wrong. viOlet NEVER broke any US laws during any of his stays in the United States. "Their" perspective is that even though he did not break the law, and he was well within the technical rights to stay when and as long as he did, it was still suspicious that he stayed for the lengths of times he did. The US has the right to deny anyone at their own discretion, regardless of whether a law was actually broken or not. "Right to deny anyone service" applies to them as well as US businesses. To say viOlet broke the law without any actual facts is purely speculative and damages more than it helps. Sometimes it is better to not say anything at all.
No, he overstayed.
I remember thinking when he was living here, "How is he staying here so long on what's probably a visa-waiver that he used to get in?". I thought he might have signed up for an educational program and changed his status, but he hadn't. His rights were to stay in the US for 3 months. He stayed far longer than that. When you overstay your status, it becomes extremely difficult to get back in the country once you leave, which is what happened to him.
What first hand knowledge or facts of the situation do you know? He stayed on an ESTA waiver, which allows you to stay for 3 months at a time (you are correct there). However, the time resets when you leave the country for a certain amount of time. If you do your homework, you will realize that he always had a foreign (European or otherwise) event that reset the waiver to 90 days. Going to those events for that 5-7 days allowed him to come back to the USA and stay for a brand new 90 days before resetting the waiver again. In accordance to the laws and permissions granted to the ESTA, he was within his rights to stay the lengths of time he did.
ESTA waivers are denied all the time, even ones previously issued without problem. I am curious though, where are you getting the information that ESTA waivers renew indefinitely when one leaves the US? I'm almost certain that this is not true.
If what the guy you quoted said is true, that's a really, really stupid law.
On August 05 2013 02:35 JJH777 wrote: They need to have it in the rules for WCS (and have needed it in GSL for ages it's a joke that they haven't added it) that if someone forfeits the group changes to a 3player group with round robin format. Keeping the same format and giving walkovers is so ridiculous dumb.
On August 05 2013 01:27 Shellshock1122 wrote: just change region
Can't do it until 2014. Why he didn't change after getting his visa denied for Season 1, I have no idea.
I would be fine with an exception being made for a player that is consistently unable to play in the region selected or having him sit out season 3 instead of wasting a spot
Agreed. It's a shame that a player is being denied the ability to play as well as a tournament having a blank slot, whatever the cause may be.
I know they don't. I said they have needed it in GSL for ages.
Sorry about that, I read it as "have had it in GSL for ages." My apologies.
And I agree. It's silly to give an advantage to one out of three based upon one of them dropping at random.
They told the visa people to watch the wcs finals next week to see the passion of the fans and players and reconsider the denial for next season, but they said they were going to watch the international next week.
On August 04 2013 22:48 Spectralx wrote: Region Lock for heavens sake please.
What region do you lock Chinese players into? Or Australians? Or South Africans? Or Euros in the US, or Americans in Europe? Or Koreans in Europe or the US?
Saying "region lock" is the most pointless thing in the world and IMO should be something that there's a rule against.
China, it has it's own scene, give it the support it deserves.
Blizzard is a business that is interested in money only. If supporting the chinese sc2 scene will get them financial benefits, they will do it. Until then they dont give a shit.
And to make this clear, i totally agree with you, they deserve way more support than they are getting.
On August 04 2013 20:13 Kyselin wrote: Is it easier to get a visa for Canada or the US ? Guess if that's the case Canada should host the NA finals.
It has less to do with US policies and more to do with Violet staying in the US way longer than he should have last time he was here......
haha, so it's 100% Violet's fault to begin with? Maybe let the players do a blind vote to see if he can play the rest of his tournament online? Elsewise just kick him from WCS AM for good, this is the 2nd straight season he ruined a group.
This is fucking bullshit. Almost exactly a month ago, LoL got recognition for being a sport, therefore making it extremely easy to get a visa in Violet's situation for his needs. This is fucking bullshit that LoL is the only game that has gotten this treatment. As far as I know, LoL players haven't had nearly as many visa issues as SC2 players. (They've had more issues of players getting drunk, oversleeping, or having other obligations.) I'm not going to get into arguments of games, numbers, viewership, etc, but I'm a bit pissed when a game that has has very little issue with visas gets recognized when the game that has been around longer and has had plenty of visa issues gets ignored. If at least HoN was recognized as a sport, I'd be less pissed because that's been around longer too.
On August 05 2013 04:45 RyLai wrote: This is fucking bullshit. Almost exactly a month ago, LoL got recognition for being a sport, therefore making it extremely easy to get a visa in Violet's situation for his needs. This is fucking bullshit that LoL is the only game that has gotten this treatment. As far as I know, LoL players haven't had nearly as many visa issues as SC2 players. (They've had more issues of players getting drunk, oversleeping, or having other obligations.) I'm not going to get into arguments of games, numbers, viewership, etc, but I'm a bit pissed when a game that has has very little issue with visas gets recognized when the game that has been around longer and has had plenty of visa issues gets ignored. If at least HoN was recognized as a sport, I'd be less pissed because that's been around longer too.
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