When Riot Games officially approved the law allowing LPL representatives participating in Worlds 2021 to borrow players from other teams in case some members face VISA issues, a heated wave of controversy erupted within the League of Legends community regarding the validity of this law.
However, a recent development from the Oceania region may serve as an example to demonstrate the effectiveness of the player borrowing law, as Worlds 2021 has reluctantly recorded the first case of a player “dropping out” due to VISA issues, that being top laner Yao “Apii” Jian-Jing from PEACH – the team that just crowned the champion of the League of Legends Oceania tournament.
According to Apii’s statement, he officially cannot participate in the Worlds 2021 tournament starting this October, due to being unable to obtain a VISA to Iceland. Currently, the Icelandic embassy in Sydney has closed due to a surge in COVID-19 cases with 2000 new infections. Therefore, this player cannot apply for a VISA from Australia to Iceland. The only remaining option is to return to China (Apii holds Chinese nationality) to apply for a VISA, but if he does that, Apii will have to undergo a 14+7 day quarantine, and thus will not have enough time to arrive in Iceland for the tournament (as he would have to go through another quarantine period).
During the recent summer season, Apii and PEACH created a miracle by defeating Pentanet.GG and winning the LCO championship. However, this player ultimately cannot attend his first Worlds with his teammates.
Currently, PEACH has not provided any response regarding how to handle this personnel shortage issue. Some information suggests that this team will be approved by Riot to borrow players from other teams (similar to PCS or LPL), and the name to replace Apii may be BioPanther from Pentanet.GG. However, there is also a possibility that PEACH will fill Apii’s position with available personnel from their roster.