SK Gaming

imba.FXOpen player

Eugin 'Strelok' Oparyshev will be unable to take his place at the North American Star League (NASL) Season 1 finals due to being unable to obtain a visa until the day of the event's start. He will be replaced by

Lee-Seok 'aLive' Han.

Strelok had been draw to face

Jonathan 'DarKFoRcE' Belke in the first round but the Ukrainian Terran underestimated the length of time it would take to receive his visa to the USA, ending up one day late.

Strelok explained in a thread on TeamLiquid:

"First of all. I am guilty. I am guilty that i didn't read the information about the speciality of american visa before tournament. I have received a thon of european and asian visas and was sure i am aware on how it is done. I knew US visa is hard one but i couldn't know it's THAT hard.

The next day after having qualified to NASL, i appealed for visa. It was more then 1 month before NASL I couldn't appeal earlier because to make visa you have to book flights and hotel with paying money. And it's not little sum i have to say. But still to absolutely any other country i could've made 5 visas in a row during this time, To US, even though we together with NASL worked very hard to get it in time, i missed it less then in 1 day. I will get visa in 8-th july 2:00 A.M. California time. NASL starts 8-th july in the afternoon but... sadly my trip to US will take 30 hours so it is absolutely impossible that i get there in time.

But for now i have to get US visa for 5 years, so i won't have any problems regarding future NASL/MLG events, which i am going to prove to visiting MLG in July or next one. So since i also have multi European-visa, i hope my visa problems will end at least for my progaming career years =)."

NASL explained their side of things:

"It is with heavy hearts that we announce today that unfortunately, Strelok was unable to receive a VISA in time to attend the NASL Grand Finals. We have been trying valiantly, along with Strelok for several weeks to get him a VISA faster so he could attend the event. We tried Blizzard and other big corporations to see if they could pressure the embassy to take action faster, we had a letter sent from an Ontario, CA congressman to the embassy on behalf of Strelok. Today however, we were informed that Strelok was unable to change the date of his appointment and can’t get a VISA in time to attend.

Due to this we needed a player to replace Strelok. Our Open Tournament runner up (TSL_aLive) was the first choice. After contacting their team manager, we confirmed aLive’s participation in the NASL Grand Finals, and are happy to announce that he will be attending!"

Strelok managed to top Group C of the NASL with an impressive eight wins, losing only to dde. Despite being highly regarded, due in part to his Brood War past, Strelok has been unable to gain any kind of LAN success in SC2. At IEM V Gamesom he was unable to progress from the group stage, he was taken out in the first round of the Assembly Winter bracket and at Dreamhack Summer he again fell in the group stage.

As a Brood War player Strelok managed to win the bronze medal at the 2008 WCG.

Sources: TeamLiquid 1 and 2

Thorin

@Thooorin on twitter.
http://www.facebook.com/Thooorin

Esports journalism

Professional:
2001-2002 Pro-cybernews (Editor-in-Chief)
2002-2003 Gamers.nu (Lead Editor)
2004-2005 ESportsEA (Editor-in-Chief, Consultant)
2006-2008 ESportsEA (Editor, Community feature host)
2008 TAO-CS volume 1 (Co-author)
2008 TAO-fRoD (Co-author)
2008-2009 WinOut.net (Editor-in-Chief, Consultant)
2009-2012 SK Gaming (Editor-in-Chief)
2012-2013 Team Acer (Editor-in-Chief)
2013-2014 OnGamers (Senior eSports Content Creator)

Pro bono publico:
2001-2002 XSReality (Site administrator)
2003-2004 Team3D (Editor-in-Chief, Consultant)
2012-2013 fragbite (Blogger)
2013-XXXX [POD]Cast (Co-host)

CS movies:
2005 Down with the s1ckn3ss
2006 T01_natu
2009 fRoD Quick and nasty (part 1)

Events attended for coverage purposes:
2001 CPL London (Pro-cybernews)
2001 WCG Qualifier (Pro-cybernews)
2002 CPL Summer (Gamers.nu)
2002 WCG Qualifier (Gamers.nu)
2002 CPL Oslo (Gamers.nu)
2002 CPL Winter (Gamers.nu)
2003 CPL Cannes (Gamers.nu)
2003 Clikarena (Gamers.nu)
2004 CPL Winter (ESportsEA)
2009 WEM (SK Gaming)
2010 IEM IV European Championship (SK Gaming)
2010 IEM IV World Championship (SK Gaming)
2010 Arbalet Best of Four (SK Gaming)
2010 Arbalet Cup Europe (SK Gaming)
2010 e-Stars Seoul (SK Gaming)
2010 WCG (SK Gaming)
2010 WEM (SK Gaming)
2011 IEM V European Championship (SK Gaming)
2011 Assembly Winter (SK Gaming)
2011 IEM V World Championship (SK Gaming)
2011 Copenhagen Games (SK Gaming)
2011 Dreamhack Summer (SK Gaming)
2011 SK vs. FX showmatch (SK Gaming)
2011 e-Stars Seoul (SK Gaming)
2011 ESWC (SK Gaming)
2012 IEM VI Kiev (SK Gaming)
2012 IEM VI World Championship (SK Gaming)
2012 WCS Europe (Team Acer)
2012 Dreamhack Open Valencia (Team Acer)
2012 Dreamhack Winter (Team Acer)
2012 IPL5 (Team Acer)
2012 HomeStory Cup VI (Team Acer)
2013 IEM VII World Championship (Team Acer)
2013 MLG Winter Championship (Team Acer)
2013 LCS Europe Spring Week 10 (Team Acer)
2013 WCS EU S1 Ro16 (Team Acer)
2013 LCS Europe Summer Week 9 (Team Acer)
2013 WCS EU S2 final / LCS Europe Summer playoffs (Team Acer)
2013 Riot S3 World Championship (Team Acer)
2013 Battle of the Atlantic (OnGamers)
2013 Battle of the Atlantic (OnGamers)
2014 LCS Europe Spring Week 5 (OnGamers)

Esports commentary/analysis

Professional:
2010 IEM IV European Championship (ESL-TV)
2010 IEM IV Asian Finals (ESL-TV)
2010 IEM IV World Championship (ESL-TV)
2010 IEM V Shanghai (ESL-TV)
2011 ESEA-invite S8 (WinOut)
2011 GameGune (WinOut)
2011 SEC (WinOut)
2013 Dreamhack SteelSeries CS:GO Championship (DH-TV)
2014 Dreamhack Steelseries CS:GO Invitational (DH-TV)
2014 Dreamhack Summer (DH-TV)
2014 Gfinity G3
2014 Dreamhack Stockholm CS:GO Invitational (DH-TV)

Pro bono publico:
2010 ESWC (lvl^)
2010 Arbalet Cup Dallas (lvl^)
2010 GameGune (lvl^)
2010 fnatic PLAY (lvl^)
2010 WCG Nordic (SK Gaming)
2011 Dreamhack Winter BEAT IT (whisenhunt)
2011 EPS Winter (whisenhunt/ESL-TV)
2011 WCG (whisenhunt)
2011 IEM VI Kiev EU qualifier (SK Gaming)
2013 FACEIT Sunday Cup April 28th (FACEIT)
2013 Prague Challenge (District)
2013 FACEIT Sunday Cup September 8th (FACEIT)
2013 FACEIT Monday Cup September 9th (FACEIT)
2014 ESEA Invite S15 LAN finals (NiPTV)

Miscellaneous:
* Winner of the Heaven Media 'E-sports Journalist of the year' awards for 2012 and 2013.