TL;DR

• Due to delays in securing visas, team Infinity Esports will arrive in Korea the day before their originally scheduled first match
• To provide the team with time to adjust to the time difference and prepare for their matches, the originally posted schedule for the Play-In stage is being modified.
• Matches originally scheduled for Day 1 will be switched with Day 2 matches
• Matches originally scheduled for Day 3 will be switched with Day 4 matches

Context:

Due to delays in securing visas that was no fault on the team, Infinity Esports from the Latin America North region will not be able to depart for Korea until September 28th. Based on their currently scheduled departure date for the evening of September 28th, the team will arrive in Korea on the morning of September 30th. Their first match was originally scheduled for October 1st.

After deliberation the League Ops team has decided to modify the Play-In schedule in order to provide the team with time to prepare and adjust to the time difference. As such the Play-In matches originally scheduled for Day 1 will be switched with the Play-In matches originally scheduled for Day 2. Matches originally scheduled for Day 3 will be switched with the Play-In matches originally scheduled for Day 4. 

Reasoning:

In this situation we have a realistic option available to us to mitigate the downside of an unfortunate visa situation via a change that will minimally impact other teams.

In the past we have made accommodations for teams who have faced situations beyond their control that would have had drastic impacts on their upcoming matches. Worlds is the most important tournament of the year and we want every team to feel that they had the opportunity to perform to the best of their ability. In this situation there were three factors that made us feel modifying the schedule was in the best interest of maintaining the competitive integrity of the Play-In Stage, while mitigating the effects of Infinity Esports unfortunate travel situation:

• This situation was identified early enough to give Play-In teams a 4 day advance notice of the impending schedule change.
• The schedule was modified symmetrically and would affect team preparation minimally
• This change would provide Infinity Esports with reasonable time to adjust and prepare for the most important tournament of the year.

As we were deliberating this issue we were aware that a significant number of fans had secured tickets for specific matches. We understand many of you were looking forward to seeing specific teams compete during Play-Ins and this schedule change may cause you to not see your most desired match ups. While we can’t fully correct the situation, we are trying to find ways to address this and do right by all those affected.  

We apologize for any complications this change causes and look forward to the start of Worlds later this week.