Today we are happy to announce that we have secured yet another set of P-1 athletic visas, this time for Swedish Dota players Rasmus ‘Chessie’ Blomdin, Linus ‘Limmp’ Blomdin, and Simon ‘Handsken’ Haag. The three members of coL.Dota are, to our knowledge, the first players to receive P-1 visas for Dota 2. They also join a list of six total compLexity members that have been granted P-1 status over the last three months, adding Dota 2 to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 as games in which we have had visa success.
We are very proud to once more be on the cutting edge of US visa issues and hope to provide inspiration for other organizations and players to pursue the same P-1 visas for their internationally recognized eSports players.
compLexity General Manager Kyle ‘Beef’ Bautista had the following to say:
“Ironically, our Dota players were the first of our recent six to be approved for P-1 status, but the last to actually get their paperwork. Petitions were approved in April, but due to a strenuous travel schedule we were never able to have them return to Sweden long enough to get their visas completed. With the TI6 qualifiers completed they were quickly able to return and get the process finished, and now we will have a solid month of bootcamp before heading to Seattle. We’re proud to have helped the guys become the first Dota 2 players with P-1A internationally recognized athlete status, and I hope that this will allow for more continuous training, more focus on the game, and better results for our fans!”
Simon ‘Handsken’ Haag of coL.Dota had this to say:
“I’m very grateful to have the opportunity to receive this visa as a Dota 2 player. Being recognized as an international athlete is not only a good step for me and my teammates, but also a good step for eSports as a whole. Thanks to Beef, Jeptha (McCown and Evans LLP) and compLexity for making this possible.”
Chessie, Limmp, and Handsken will return to the team’s Florida based training facility this weekend and will next appear at The International 2016 Wildcard in early August.
Thank you for your continued support of coL.Dota and compLexity Gaming!