I guess maybe that would explain why quakecon gets featured on twitch every single time in years past despite having had almost no current playerbase and a tiny prizepool. LUL.
Although I usually take the "fuck america" position by default, so far all I've come across is nonsensical bitching and whining by prominent russian players, pillars of the community one might say, about bullshit issues and how they are upset that they have to actually do anything - in the style of "wtf is this bullshit, never seen such disrespect, they actually expect me to start and play the game in order to get something".
People who qualified can't go to qcon because they can't acquire visa in time (agent, cypher,...). They need to have a good reason to get it granted (like qualifying to the tournament) and now that they have it its probably too late to apply
That does blow goats, the US visa system or lack of is stupid and useless we all know that, but shit happens.
They should have put in more effort to set it up so that they maximize their chances, file the paperwork before hand or whatever (maybe they did it, haven't really read all the cooller/agent minute by minute activity blogs) and if it doesn't work too bad.
Zero4 and id have no real part in it, unless they had written contracts before hand with preapproved visas from the state department or whatnot.
These things happen all the time too all kinds of people, a few are even sent back from the arrival destination for no reason, because they don't need to provide the latter.
p.s. of course I do to some extent agree that id should have had a small qualifier for the US one for Europe and one for Russia/CIS and held the latter one earlier or tried to add blank "write name here" visas, if that is possible.
"...file the paperwork before hand or whatever (maybe they did it..."
They did.
"Zero4 and id have no real part in it"
z4 is responsible for at least proper invitations in proper time.
but first he 'lost' all docs from Agent, sent a few months ago, and also fucked up the invitation procedure after a repeated sending.
Also, keep in mind that sudden stealthy 'runners up' tourney, just in time when all eyes are on the major qualification contest.
like they have planned for some players (read CIS) to stay back home, no matter if they have qualified.
This is a clear view, EU guys - as we don't see any troubles with US visas for any EU player.
They really seem to have been planning ahead this runners-up shit, but NOT THE DAMN PROPER INVITATIONS, with tickets and everything to speed up application procedures, priority visas or just at least ANYTHING to get the cis players be there in Dallas.
Agent makes a living from sport betting... that was a real opportunity for the guy... he is one of the best QC players... I watched almost every demo out there... I don't like him, but I am still sorry for the guy... if Cypher also doesn't go, I will not watch a second of QuakeCon... it is not rapha's fault, but if he wins, it will have a very bitter taste...
someone whose only income is sports betting while living in a cis country (or worse) can't possibly hope to get a visa to any normal country.
so not really justifying esl, don't even have a good opinion about them, but even if they didn't lose his papers he still probably wouldn't get a visa.
so if you're unemployed or just have large amounts of savings or are a student or have no money but are visiting with parents then you're frowned upon and might not be able to come in?
there's too many factors.
I had a slight problem when entering America and was resolved in the airport by just declaring and confirming the hotel I was staying at for the duration of my stay, they were perfectly reasonable tbh.
You're not frowned upon. The chances of you being allowed in are just reduced. Those factors are what they consider in processing the application. The entire purpose is to establish your trustworthiness that you will not overstay and not cause a problem while you're there, so it is a good idea to mention stuff that indicates you have things like wife, children, dependants, job, quality of life, etc you wanna return for.
I know people who have been rejected from entering Australia on these exact grounds.
We all know that Australia are super tight in regards to anything that can potentially fuck with their way of living.
All countries need to be like Australia imho.
I have a hard time travelling due to have multiple passports (4) which when you're not carrying all of them whilst travelling can be a pain in the ass, usually I just use my British one and I've never really had any issues.
Sometimes the odd interview for wanting to visit and what not but nothing a little time could have sorted.
Regarding America, they're also pretty tight, however - EVERY quake player who wants to play, especially at QCON could've made preperations well in advance to apply for a different type of visa. Yes it's nice to have a solid piece of document stating the nature of your visit but if you're not full of shit then it's down to the actual players lack of common sense to take the actions needed to.
b1 visa's for example are not as difficult to obtain and they can have a very long period of expiration as well.
true, since Agent is sitting in Germany and the whole visa thing was just a joke... sorry... but this topic is not really funny... so, I assume that you are a 12 year old kid... I don't particularly like Agent... but guess what, there are some people out there who would still speak up out of principle even if they don't like the respective person... I also didn't really find funny what strenx did in his video... applying for a visa in Agent's name... it must be hard for you or him to understand this, but there are some people out there who don't find it funny to make jokes of others that (for no reason, just b/c life is a f****** lottery) happen to be in a worse position... so yeah: "High Agent :P"... why don't you put on a red nose and travel to quakecon.
Right, that clears things up a bit.
"Fuck america" stance by default almost never fails.
Still no matter the fuck ups intentional (probably) or unintentional (n+1 times is not that likely) the russian blokes should still have seen it coming. The past 2 decades of Quakecons have been intentional clusterfucks without exception.
Guys, just imagine a sigh of relief from former z4's trainee, upon hearing all these news. No Agent, no Cypher, and, most probably, no Evil.. Our 'fairplay champions couple' is really dedicated in it's road to win.
step one - clash the best EU and CIS players in the so-called 'random seedings', so that the strongest eliminate each other, and the weaker ones will have no trouble to occupy at least half of the qualified pool;
step two - delay invitations and tickets to CIS pros as much as possible, so that the invites themselves play no role anymore;
step three - fuck up at least one invite in such a way, so that it seems undeliberate, but yet eliminates any sense in applying for visa with it.
We all agree upon Agent being a manchild, but the guy at least pinged every way posible for him to make it in time. He's bitter now about all this shit, but when you get invtite just 3 weeks before the event, when the known practice for visas is a month or two, and also get your surename misspelled, and also get no tickets and supportive info from orgs... you know.
To say the truth - we are all bitter with this qcon org shitter. To say the least - Cyfa was the man for the ultimate challenge to Raffer. It's like announcing Rocky vs Drago, but without Drago. Make place for Medvedik and Poodledooi instead - they are more important, y'know...