smooya announces Benched Heroes' withdrawal from RMR event amid visa issues [Updated]

Update (18:20 MSK): Aunkere wrote on his Telegram channel that Calyx has another chance to get a visa. In case of another refusal, the team will surely miss the RMR event.


The Benched Heroes roster will not be able to attend the European RMR tournament, the team's AWPer Owen "smooya" Butterfield has announced on Twitter. The squad will miss the qualifying competition for IEM Rio Major 2022 due to Eugene "Aunkere" Karyat and Buğra "Calyx" Arkın not having visas.

Very recently, Aunkere lost any chance of getting a visa, while Calyx had the last opportunity for a successful outcome today, September 27, yet was eventually denied a visa.

Benched Heroes could go to the RMR with one substitute and use Thomas "Thomas" Utting as fifth, but participation without two originally submitted players is prohibited by the rules which ESL has previously reminded of.

According to smooya, his team's slot at the upcoming RMR event will go to Illuminar. At the time of publication of the material, the organizers have confirmed neither this information nor the withdrawal of Benched Heroes from the tournament.

The Benched Heroes lineup was formed in early August specifically for taking part in the qualifying event for IEM Rio 2022, after which made it to the RMR tournament through the open qualifiers. Besides smooya, Aunkere and Calyx, the roster includes Ukrainian Rodion "fear" Smyk and Pole Michał "MICHU" Müller.

Origin: twitter.com