Astralis will go to IEM Dallas 2022 without a head coach
/Danish esports organization Astralis has announced that trace will not be able to travel with the team to the upcoming IEM Dallas 2022. It is reported that the 31-year-old Danish specialist was unable to obtain the necessary documents to visit the United States. Thus, Astralis will go to IEM Dallas 2022 without a head coach.
On Friday morning we were informed that the ESTA application from trace was rejected. We're working on a fix for this issue, but unfortunately it won't be available for players in Dallas. At this tournament, trace will work with the team in a remote format.
According to trace itself, the system rejected the specialist's application due to a promotional trip to Iran with Fnatic in 2012. It was this trip that caused the specialist to need a visa, which takes several months to process.
Note that these are not the first difficulties that IEM Dallas 2022 presented to players and teams. Previously, NAVI and Entropiq failed to enter the championship, while Spinx was denied a visa. As a result, teams BIG and Movistar Riders were invited to the championship, while ENCE will compete with snax.
trace has been leading Astralis since March this year. In two and a half months, the 31-year-old Danish specialist helped the team take second place in BLAST Premier: Spring European Showdown 2022, reach the playoffs of ESL Pro League Season 15, and also play at PGL Major Antwerp 2022.
IEM Dallas 2022 will take place from May 30 to June 5 in Dallas at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. Sixteen teams will compete for a prize pool of $250,000, as well as ranking points in the EPT and BLAST Premier tables.
The Danish team will start their performances with a match against Vitality. Astralis also got into the same group with FaZe Clan, G2 Esports, MOUZ, Astralis, LookingForOrg and Movistar Riders.
Astralis' roster at IEM Dallas 2022 is as follows:
- Xyp9x.
- gla1ve.
- k0nfig.
- blameF.
- farlig.