Each Chinese team has dropped from Pokemon World Championship

This year's Pokemon World Championship series will start tomorrow in Anaheim, California. There will be thousands of people to meet and compete to become world champion for four main games: Pokemon TCG, Pokemon VGC, Pokemon Go and Pokemon Unite. The World Cup is the most prestigious tournament of the year, where the best of the best competes to determine the best players in the world.

That is the whole point of a world championship at least, but because of travel limits we cannot see all Of the world's best players compete this year. Among the four games presented at the tournament, Pokemon Unite took the biggest hit. So far, there are four teams that will not compete – the notorious game, Nova Esports, Champion Road and Team TC – everything, is alleged due to visa issues. In addition, three of these teams are Chinese, which means that China will not be represented in Pokemon Unite at all. Is it really a world championship if the whole world cannot participate?

Travel restrictions damage esports

This will be a recurring question for Pokemon Unite. At last year's WCS in Hawaii, at least four teams withdrew from the tournament due to visa issues. This has a huge effect on the championship. Each year, only 32 teams from all over the world qualify, and these teams are divided into eight sets of four during the group step. These outlets leave four groups under a team, which changes matchups and potentially affects the result of the entire tournament.

These teams have trained, competed and earned their place at the World Cup, but they are denied their opportunity to compete from forces beyond their control. We do not know the details in each individual visa issue. The can be the result of automated clerk problems or a failure to submit the right paperwork on the part of the players, but I find it hard to believe that any of these Pokemon Unite players pose a legitimate risk of national security. More than likely, these visa issues are the result of the overwhelming immigration policy.

When Pokemon Company International was reached for comments shared this statement:

“During the process of completing our competitors and teams before the Pokémon World Championship, it is not uncommon for the last minute logistical challenges outside both the game! “

We have at least one example of this. Last year, Youtuber Moist CR1TIAL bumped into this issue with its Apex Legends Global Series Team Moist Esports, as the Australian team was denied a visa to enter the United States. Moist struggled to solve the problem and find out why they were not allowed to enter the country, but in the end, according to Youtuber, was the best answer he could find that the immigration manager who was awarded the team just did not like the word damp. Moist was forced to release the players from his team so that they would have a chance to compete as free agents for other teams.

A world championship without the whole world

17-Pokemon World Champions Leaving Explain One change united needs the most

It is obvious that this issue is not specific to Pokémon. Fans have asked the Pokemon company to go in to help qualified players get their visas, but in humid esports cases, even gone to beat for them did not help the team to secure a visa. It seems that the only thing that Pokémon, or any Esports organization, could do to prevent this problem would be to stop hosting tournaments in the United States.

It sounds like an unmatched proposal, but for the integrity of these games it may be necessary. Since the Chinese version of Pokemon Unite was launched last year, China has become one of, if not the largest market for the game. How can we have a world championship without a single Chinese team? They can play a completely different version of Unite from the rest of the world, but the players and their fans deserve to see them stand Axel against Axel on the world stage.

Until immigration policy, it does not change fairly for the rest of the world to continue to host global tournaments in the United States. This applies to Esports as well as TCGs, or honestly some other world -wide competitive event. If tournament organizers cannot guarantee a fair and competitive world championship for each qualification, these events must be held in a country where they can.