forZe risked missing PGL Major Antwerp 2022 — the team might not have had time to get visas

The forZe team risked missing the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 as they might not have time to get their visas. However, at the very last moment, the team managed to get documents for a flight to Belgium, as told by team manager Dmitry Veko.

Life is a very interesting and strange thing, sometimes it presents very strong trials that definitely make us all stronger. To tell the whole story in full, it will probably take about 20 minutes on video to fully explain the situation, but to be honest, yesterday we were already burying our chances for a trip and all our attempts were like death convulsions.

The problem is that the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs approved our application for visas, but the consulate in Russia on the weekend until May 11 and before this date, unfortunately they cannot print visas and issue passports. That's all, the Major is essentially over, but if you fight to the end, even when everyone already says that there is no chance, you can achieve a result.

I went to the embassy, bowed to the guards and begged them to call someone from the consulate, when there was a refusal, I just stood in front of the gate and waited for the duty worker at the consulate to go home to intercept him and try to establish contact and ask for help. And what else to do when the consulate said that they can’t do anything until May 11, and you have the most important tournament in your life ahead of you and for you and for the young guys?

You need to hit all the walls, definitely! Even when I waited for the consular worker and heard that they could not do anything, but they would definitely try, I still tried to look for options. And what to do when the organizers contact the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they find the consul in Moscow and reply with an official letter: "Unfortunately, the consul is on the weekend until May 11 and they can't help in any way"?

I don’t know what miracle happened, and how the stars converged, but I began to look for contacts of Belgian consuls from all over the world, in the hope that they are familiar with the consul from Russia and will be able to ask him to help us in this difficult situation. In the end, my searches and calls throughout Europe, I settled on the contact of a person working in the first European department. After another retelling of our story and a plea for help, he said that he did not promise anything, but he would definitely try.

Yesterday morning, he nevertheless called and clarified the numbers of our applications at the visa center. Three minutes later we got a call from the Belgian Consulate General and were told that we could pick up our passports with visas.

Recall that forZe qualified for PGL Major Antwerp 2022 following a successful performance at the European RMR tournament. In the first round of the competition, the Russian team will meet with Renegades.

PGL Major Antwerp 2022 will take place from 9 to 22 May at the Antwerps Sportpaleis in Belgium. The championship will feature 24 teams from all over the world who will compete for a prize pool of $1,000,000, EPT and BLAST Premier ranking points, and a ticket to BLAST Premier: World Final 2022.