CLG’s Xmithie Might Not Go to Worlds Because of Visa Trouble – but the Filipino Community Is Fighting to Get Him There
CLG’s jungler Jake “Xmithie” Puchero may not be going to the Worlds 2015 LCS Championship.
After a stunning sweep of the NA Summer Split LCS that put Counter Logic Gaming as the top seed for North America , CLG announced that due to ” unresolvable VISA issues” Xmithie will not be able to compete with the rest of the winning roster.
Instead, he will be replaced by Jae-Hyun “Huhi” Choi, who has trained with CLG for the past couple of months. Xmithie himself will be staying in Korea with the team to coach Huhi, backed up by the rest of CLG and their Korean support staff.
After the announcement of the roster change, a tweet by one of CLG’s coaches Chris “Blurred Limes” Ehrenreich assured the fans that despite this roster change, the team will still perform their best in the upcoming Championship.
We’re a TEAM. Different names, same expectations. We didn’t get here by backing away from challenges. #clgfighting pic.twitter.com/YpIqmGJjO0
— Blurred Limes (@BlurredLimesLoL) September 11, 2015
The situation is eerily similar to the visa issue that Filipino Dota 2 team Rave faced when they encountered Visa issues that threatened their participation in the Major League Gaming (MLG) Pro League that was held April this year.
Faith
However, it may not yet be the final word for Xmithie’s participation in the upcoming championship. After a reddit post on /r/CLG about a fan’s potential idea that may help the situation, the Filipino community reached out to the Philippine eSports Organization (PESO) and the newly-launched Philippine eSports Association (PeSPA) for help to solve Xmithie’s visa issue.
One of PeSPA’s members is Senator Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino, who had resolved the previously-cited Rave Visa issue shortly after it was brought to his attention.
ESports Inquirer staff have already pinged Senator Bam’s office and are currently in touch with PeSPA president Joebert Yu, who has alerted the associated legal partners.
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