Ospreay on Verso’s withdrawal from the MSC: “It’s disappointing, but under no circumstances should the organization, the players, or anyone else be blamed.”

So, let me explain this one more time for everyone to avoid any misunderstandings, rumors, and all that.

I’ll explain the timing and what happened behind the scenes.

On the 20th, the tournament was moved from Riyadh—where there wouldn’t have been any flight issues—to Paris due to the war in the Strait of Hormuz.

On the 7th, we qualified for Paris, and a few days later we learned about the wildcard schedule, which the EWC had moved up by a week from the originally announced date.

We immediately reached out to Muntun, saying, “Guys, Paris—we have players with 5-year passports; we might not be able to go. How should we proceed?”

At the same time, we’re waiting for the good news from the ETC. Please note that the ETC and Muntun are two different entities.

Of course, our organization is also waiting for a response from EVTS regarding this situation, because we need to understand whether we need to apply for passports in this situation—and if so, quickly and at a cost.

On June 12, we received confirmation (yet another confirmation) from the ETC that, yes, they are aware such passports exist, and they will resolve everything. All relevant authorities have confirmed this; we’re leaving on the 29th, so we’re preparing the documents for the visa and filling out the information for the ETC.

Having received this confirmation directly from the tournament organizers, who are affiliated with the French government, we decided not to apply for new passports based on this information. Not everyone on our team has a military ID, and applying for a new international passport right now through the Ministry of Internal Affairs takes a very long time, because we all know what the situation is like in the country.

On June 24, with a complete set of documents and information confirmed several times by the French Consulate in the Russian Federation, we went to the visa center and were told that they do not accept 5-year passports, but might accept them if they receive the go-ahead from higher up. We waited for that go-ahead until the deadline, while the players who had 10-year passports received their visas in just two days.

Yesterday, during LAN, we received a final statement from the EVC stating that non-biometric passports are not acceptable.

And now, once again. It took the organizers 16 days to get to the bottom of the problem and inform everyone—not just us, but also a huge number of players across various disciplines—that only 10-year passports are valid, even though completely different information had been provided previously.

Guys, please—I understand this is frustrating, but under no circumstances should you blame the organization, the players, or anyone else for the current situation, because we were following the information provided directly by the tournament organizer.

As for Verso, all the guys and I have nothing but respect and gratitude for him, for being the sole supporter of our project for two years, with a budget of around $10k—or even more—every month. And it stands to reason that the issue here isn’t the club’s financial capacity, but rather misinformation from the tournament organizer, as well as very tight deadlines.

As for the search for a new organization, the roster remains the same, and the decision to leave our current club was made a long time ago—and absolutely not because of visa issues, but due to circumstances unrelated to esports. Please stop trying to figure out who is right and who is wrong—just like that.