Take the hosting out of La
The USA is a shit place to run a work visa based tournament
Separate the leagues or change it to mexico, or some Caribbean island, Brazil or chile PLEASE
6
Please I'm begging riot
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Basically, a tourist Visa is really easy to get in the LATAM countries, but they don't support Esports as an actual profession/sport so you can't get a athletic, business, or entertainment Visa which would be needed for VCT which takes place for most of the year. There are also a lot of legally grey areas in Esports and generally less infrastructure to support it. There are also a few other issues, but it take a couple paragraphs to explain so I will refrain from doing that.
That’s not really how it works though. Having “good relations” doesn’t magically create esports-specific work visas. Tourist entry might be easier in LATAM, but that doesn’t help with running a months-long league where players are paid, on contracts, and working full-time in a foreign country.
Most of these countries don’t legally recognize esports as a profession, so there’s no defined visa path no athletic, business, or entertainment category that cleanly applies. So even if relations are good, the actual legal infrastructure just isn’t there. Riot would be gambling with players’ legal status every season which is a huge risk.
And even if Riot did try to go through the proper work visa process in places like Brazil, Chile, or Mexico, it would take longer than in the US(usually 6 to 12+ weeks, versus around 4 to 6 weeks) for a US. P-1 or B-1 visa when handled by experienced esports lawyers. On top of that LATAM systems tend to be more inconsistent towards Visa's from multiple different countries.
You are legitimately pulling stats out of your ass, they dont need e-sports specific visas because the base visa is so simple and easy to get, do you understand how fucking easy it is to go from brazil to paraguay, to chile to colombia? "it will take longer" no tf it wont? why would it take longer? south american countries dont have an overwhelming influx of immigrants, nor do they have "national security" worries
its literally just "i wanna live in paraguay", "ok"
It’s not about needing an “esports-specific” visa, it’s about needing any kind of legal long-term work authorization. You can’t just run a months-long league with paid international players using tourist visas. Riot would be putting themselves and the players at serious legal risk.
Also, I never said they need a literal "esports visa." What I said was they’d need a proper visa for athletic, entertainment, or contract-based work. The problem is that most LATAM countries don’t recognize esports as a legitimate profession or sport, which means you can’t qualify for sports or entertainment visas — and getting a general work visa requires an offer from a company based in that country. Riot can’t just fly people in and hope the government ignores it.
Saying it’s “easy to go from Brazil to Paraguay” is irrelevant. Yeah, traveling between South American countries is simple but that has nothing to do with staying there long-term while working in a professional, high-profile, internationally broadcast league. There’s a massive legal difference between visiting a country and working full-time in one, on contract, for months.
And on top of that, none of the countries you mentioned have the broadcast infrastructure, legal support systems, or production capability that Riot already has built in Los Angeles. Riot isn’t going to relocate an entire league just because it might be a bit easier to get a Visa.
Fuck no
just split leagues. it works well on both ends. na wont get fucked by lack of talent in the long run and sa gets their own shit. SA i belive has some great talent to last the long run. also you can maybe do some LTA shit and it would work because there is actual competition between the 2 regions
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