Saudi Arabian esports organisation Team Falcons were missing one of their players at the start of ESL One Birmingham 2024.
Russian player Stanislav ‘Malr1ne’ Potorak wasn’t competing at the start of the tournament – which kicked off yesterday due to visa issues.
Instead, Pakistani and American player Sumail ‘SumaiL’ Hassan was standing in for the start of the tournament, courtesy of Nigma Galaxy.
However, Malr1ne will be playing today, as he landed in the UK last night.
Falcons said in a statement yesterday:
“Unfortunately, Malr1ne won’t be able to compete from the start of ESL One Birmingham due to visa issues – however following recently received approval, we hope to have him available for later in the group stage.”
Team Falcons
“Huge thanks to Nigma Galaxy for lending us Sumail as our stand-in for the start of the tournament. Let’s give it our all with him on board.”
Esports News UK understands that while other Falcons players got to go home and rest after Dreamleague, Malr1ne was stuck in Jordan for a month by himself, where Falcons had a gaming house. This was due to his passport being taken away and Falcons being left without an answer from government as their application was ignored.
The situation was rectified somewhat following a personal contact made within government – this shows the UK still has serious issues when it comes to visas for esports players and talent.
‘We knew this was always going to be tough due to the geopolitical climate’ – Grant Rousseau
Falcons’ UK-based global director of esports and EU operations, Grant Rousseau, added: “We applied with ample time for Malr1ne’s visa to the UK with all required documents, around 1.5 months before the event. We also did the fast processing addition even though wasn’t needed, just to be sure.
“We knew this was always going to be tough due to the geopolitical climate and we planned for him not to attend for that reason, but nonetheless fully applied just to try. The deadline for both the fast processing time and the ‘standard wait’ went by over 25+ working days.
“We were unable to get any response other than to ‘keep waiting’, but not given a no. We kept on waiting with little info given. Eventually after a lot of sent emails, we did get a positive response. It was received on this past Saturday afternoon, giving Malr1ne little time to get to the event.
“We had planned to us Sumail for the full event but pivoted upon getting this info. We have managed to fly Malrine over and look forward to the full team playing once again, huge thanks to Sumail for stepping in and understanding the situation.
“I could comment on the UK’s visa system towards esports but perhaps that should be saved for another day.”
Stay tuned to Esports News UK for more coverage around ESL One Birmingham, and from the event live this weekend for the playoffs.
Related article: ESL One Birmingham 2024: Dates, Schedule, Prize Pool, Teams, Talent and all you need to know about the Dota 2 UK event
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
