Visa issues prevented Team Falcons from arriving in the full formula in the United Kingdom.
ESL One Birmingham 2024 is set to kick off later today, April 22 with 12 teams entering the competition for the title and a share of the $1,000,000 prize pool. However, for Russian players, the UK is not the easiest country to access. The tournament organisers had to replace 1Win with OG after the Russian team failed to meet two deadlines for visa confirmation.
A day before the tournament was bound to start, Team Falcons who have been the most dominant team in the scene so far this year, had to leave one player behind. The 19-year-old Russian prodigy Stanislav “Malr1ne” Potorakn will have to watch ESL One Birmingham 2024 from home after failing to receive his visa.
Team Falcons will be competing in the tournament with Nigma Galaxy’s Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan standing in for Malr1ne in the mid lane.
This will mark the first tournament where Team Falcons will have to play with a stand-in since the roster was formed back in November last year. Since their formation, Team Falcons have already claimed two tournament titles, at BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024 and DreamLeague Season 22. Just before ESL One Birmingham, they also reached the grand finals of Elite League but lost the championship title to Xtreme Gaming who took them down 3:1.
Team Falcons will start the competition seeded in Group A and have two series scheduled on the first day of the group stage.
