The Russian squad has announced that they have been unable to attain visas on time to attend the LAN Finals in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is unknown if the runners-up, Virtus.Pro.Polar, will be able to attend in their stead.
Empire have announced that they will be unable to attend the LAN finals on 5th and 6th January 2015, at the famed Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. The Russian team are facing visa issues given that only three of their five members had played at TI4 - Silent, Resolut1ion and Alwayswannafly. As for the other two players, Yoky's visa application was rejected, while Aloha's visa would only have arrived on the 5th of January itself.
Empire had qualified after coming in 4th in the Western division group stage, and sweeping the entire bubble race to earn their place at the LAN finals. Having swept Team Tinker, Sneaky Nyx Assassins and then Virtus.Pro.Polar in succession, their likely replacements will be Virtus.Pro.Polar if they are able to get visas. Failing which, the North American SNA squad would be the next choice.
The application for a visa to America can be a particularly gruelling process, as two successive rejections will result in the person being unable too get a visa for a long time. Within eSports history, there have been multiple cases of visa rejections, with one of the most notable being bOne7 being unable to attend MLG Columbus back in 2013, as well as Monster Energy Invitational earlier this year. Due to the nature of the Dota 2 competitive scene, teams are understandable reluctant to gather two successive rejections and possibly miss out on the largest tournament of them all: The International.
Source: Team-Empire.org