Blacklist Rivalry drops out of PGL Wallachia due to visa woes

MANILA, Philippines – Blacklist Rivalry is officially out of the PGL Wallachia Season 1 tournament after its members failed to secure travel documents in time. The tournament will happen offline in Bucharest, Romania.

The Filipino-laden squad had booked its slot for the tournament after a Cinderella run in the Southeast Asia qualifiers last March, climbing from the lower brackets and going on a five-game winning streak.

PGL also announced that no other Southeast Asian team could replace Blacklist Rivalry as no other teams held any visas as well, and that Chinese team Azure Ray will be joining in the event to fill in the missing team.

Black Rivalry team manager Nathaniel "NaTaN" Wicks took to social media to provide fans with a detailed explanation as to why the team will miss the tournament.

The team had secured their Romanian Schengen Visas but had not received them within the final deadline set by the tournament organizers due to a busy tournament schedule last March, as well as a Romanian Holiday that saw visa processing halted for a week.

"Our Philippine Players' Romanian Schengen Visas = Approved, but we did not receive them before PGL's set final deadline. PGL and Blacklist have worked hand in hand for more than a month to help bring us to Romania. Unfortunately, there are things that are out of our control and even though we did our best, it was still not enough," wrote Wicks.

Despite the setback, the team is now focused on its next outing, which will be the qualifiers for the 2024 Riyadh Masters.