Abed and four other Filipino Dota 2 talents indefinitely stuck in Romania after TI 10

The biggest annual Dota 2 event, TI 10, ended last Sunday. After bootcamping for a long hectic month leading up to The Internationals, players prefer to fly home to take time off Dota in the roster shuffle season. However, five players, including Abed, are stuck in Romania due to a travel ban in the Philippines, their home country.

The five players, Abed (Evil Geniuses), Carlo "Kuku" Palad (T1), Karl "Karl" Jayme (T1), Djardel "Dj" Mampusti (Fnatic), and Marc Polo "Raven" Fausto (Fnatic) are unable to return home, as Fnatic team director Eric Khor disclosed on Twitter.

Due to surging covid cases in Romania, an inter-agency task force from the PH government has imposed travel bans for flights coming from Romania. This ban has been in place since their latest memorandum on October 16, right before the TI 10 grand finals date.

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Government repatriation might be the only recluse for stranded Dota 2 talents

The Bureau of Immigration Phillipines has redlisted Romania, therefore all incoming traffic from there is banned until they lift it in a memorandum. Until then, the stranded Dota 2 talents' sole resort is the Filipino DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs). As the Fnatic performance coach Paolo Bago tweeted yesterday, the Filipino consulates are already in talks with DFA authorities.

The crisis of the five Filipino players as well as the Fnatic coach Paolo Bago are only the end to a string of unfortunate events Dota 2 players have gone through due to COVID-19.

The tournament itself was hindered by numerous setbacks. Due to the pandemic, it was pushed back to August 2021 from 2020. Valve's fallout with the Swedish Sports Association afterwards postponed the date even further. Moreover, it meant that Avicii arena, or any other Swedish venue, was out of the picture.

A collaborative effort with PGL studios in Bucharest, Romania was Valve's fallback plan for hosting the highly anticipated Dota 2 event. While Romania was mostly covid-free then, numerous factors have led to a sudden onset of a fourth wave since October, right before TI started. Dota 2 talents from two Chinese teams got infected, and Valve even had to cancel and refund tickets for the live audience.