A Canadian Counter-Strike Player Accused of “LAN-Dodging” Due to Visa Issue
A Canadian Counter-Strike player is facing accusations of “LAN-dodging” after failing to secure a visa for the World Electronic Sports Games (WESG) in China next week.
Warren “hades” Rettich, who was supposed to represent the Canadian team subtLe in the finals, has withdrawn from the event because he did not apply for his visa in time. His teammates believe he did this intentionally.
Teammate Ellis “els” Clay posted a Twitlonger, which included screenshots of messages from hades claiming to have applied for the visa as early as December 20. However, it turned out that he hadn’t, and once the groups were announced, pitting subtLe against strong teams like Virtus Pro and EnVyUs, hades had second thoughts about participating.
Leaving it until the very last minute to apply, hades cited an unspecified issue with his application that would prevent him from attending the tournament.
Els strongly believes that hades intentionally chose to miss the tournament, greatly impacting the chances of his teammates.
SubtLe had already faced difficulties in their preparation after Paul “Nerdy” Gill received a VAC ban two weeks ago. As a replacement, the team brought in David “DAVEY” Stafford, formerly of Splyce.
This controversy has sparked anger among many in the North American Counter-Strike community.
SubtLe qualified for WESG by finishing second in the Americas qualifier. They will be the only Canadian representatives, as another Canadian squad featuring DAVEY, Jason “jasonR” Ruchelski, and Damian “daps” Steele couldn’t obtain visas for the qualifier.
They will face a tough challenge in what many consider the group of death, competing against Virtus Pro, EnVyUs, Team Epsilon, Russia, and Team One of Brazil.