EPTOne of the most successful StarCraft 2 players of all time is now officially recognized as an athlete by the United States government.
Choi "P0lt" Seong Hun, a 25 year old South Korean who is the number three ranked player in the world according to Aligulac rankings, was just granted a P-1A visa, a document reserved for “internationally recognized athletes.”
Fellow-StarCraft pro Kim “Violet” Dong Hwan became the first ever StarCraft 2 player granted such a visa in December.
Both players are represented by Cyber Solutions Agency, which put the majority of legwork into securing the visas. Both took about six months to procure. The CSA produced 500 pages of paperwork and spent $5,000 on lawyers’ and immigration fees for each application.
Kim and Choi’s visas are symbolic of eSports' movement towards mainstream acceptance, even as they also demonstrate the serious roadblocks still facing the industry. In the comments section of every article covering Kim's visa, discussion focused largely on the semantic question of whether eSports players should be considered “athletes.”
Choi "P0lt" Seong Hun, a 25 year old South Korean who is the number three ranked player in the world according to Aligulac rankings, was just granted a P-1A visa, a document reserved for “internationally recognized athletes.”
Fellow-StarCraft pro Kim “Violet” Dong Hwan became the first ever StarCraft 2 player granted such a visa in December.
Both players are represented by Cyber Solutions Agency, which put the majority of legwork into securing the visas. Both took about six months to procure. The CSA produced 500 pages of paperwork and spent $5,000 on lawyers’ and immigration fees for each application.
Kim and Choi’s visas are symbolic of eSports' movement towards mainstream acceptance, even as they also demonstrate the serious roadblocks still facing the industry. In the comments section of every article covering Kim's visa, discussion focused largely on the semantic question of whether eSports players should be considered “athletes.”
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