Streamer Charles ‘MoistCr1TiKaL’ White Jr. has announced that his esports organisation, Moist Esports, is filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Immigration.
The lawsuit is related to visa issues that resulted in the Australian members of the organisation’s Apex Legends team being denied entry to the USA.
According to MoistCr1TiKaL on his YouTube channel, the organisation’s Apex Legends squad was denied entry into the USA multiple times over a six-month period. The three Australian members of the team weren’t granted visas with one of the reasons apparently being that the immigration agency didn’t believe the team was as highly ranked as they claimed they were.
The visa issues originally stopped the team from sending its players to America for the first split of competition, the online stage, which resulted in Moist Esports competing from Canada. The team’s results in said competition meant it qualified for the Major which was held in Los Angeles. However, once again Moist Esports couldn’t acquire the visas.
MoistCr1TiKaL claimed that this led to Moist Esports dropping its Apex Legends team because the players couldn’t come to the USA under the organisation. The players later applied for ESTA visas individually.
Two out of the three Australians had their applications denied, meaning once again they could not enter the country in which the Major was held.
The players went on to apply for B-1 visas, the process of which included an interview with someone at an embassy in Lisbon. These visas did get approved and the players all arrived in Los Angeles right before the tournament started.
Despite the issues and lack of practice the team, playing under the name Not Moist, were able to finish fourth at the Apex Legends Major.
Moist Esports is going ahead with a lawsuit with the aim of having its visa rejections overturned for its players and coach. According to the YouTube video, Moist Esports’ lawyers were also confused by the handling of the situation from the U.S. Department of Immigration.
Regardless of whether Moist Esports wins the lawsuit, MoistCr1TiKaL claimed that the immigration office will not have to pay any damages.
In the video Charles ‘MoistCr1TiKaL’ White Jr, Founder of Moist Esports, highlighted: “This has been a super expensive process and there is also so much lost income here because there was so much money on the line for this tournament as well as so many potential eyes on our organisation.”
