Mere weeks away from the Apex Legends Global Series Split One Playoffs in Los Angeles, MoistCr1TiKaL announced Moist Esports will drop its ALGS roster to let the players compete following yet another failed attempt to get them U.S. visas.
Two of Moist’s three pro Apex players are Australian, and according to MoistCr1TiKaL, they wouldn’t be allowed to enter the country if still applying for a visa under Moist’s name. As such, the org is releasing them so the two Aussies, Ben “Wxltzy” Walton and Matthew “Emtee” Trengove, can enter the country as individuals and still compete with their American teammate, Zachary “Gild” Dennis. In his video on the subject, MoistCr1TiKaL blasted the U.S. immigration officers handling the team’s case, who he believes are the sole reason for the team’s continued denials.
“Our re-submission has been declined again for legitimately no real reason because the fucking glue-eating, crack-smoking, coke-snorting, lobotomite morons at U.S. immigration just don’t want them in the country for whatever reason they’re drumming up here,” MoistCr1TiKaL said in the video. “We have been working with the best lawyers in the industry, the best lawyers on this fuckin’ planet that specialize in this industry, and none of them can believe that we have been declined again.”
MoistCr1TiKaL even claimed a high-level executive at EA attempted to assist the team in the immigration process, and the players were still denied visas.
The Moist team’s case is certainly an odd one, considering the team has multiple top-placing finishes in international competitions and is considered one of the best teams in the world. Several other players of similar stature to the Moist players have secured visas to live and compete in the United States, such as fellow Aussies Rhys “Zer0” Perry and Noyan “Genburten” Ozkose of DarkZero, or British Cloud9 player Nathan “ChaoticMuch” Gajkiewicz.
What’s more, due to the team having been denied visas to live and work in the U.S. multiple times, Moist must drop them for Wxltzy and Emtee to complete the normally simple task of being an Australian citizen entering the United States for a short period and competing at LAN.
One working theory MoistCr1TiKaL and his lawyers have as to the repeated denials is that their immigration officers simply don’t believe the team is serious due to the org’s name being silly and a bit “icky.” Otherwise, he says, the decisions from the “U.S. immigration raid bosses” are completely without reason.
“The only thing I hope for the urinal cake that handled this case is that they get fired,” MoistCr1TiKaL summed up his frustrations in the video. “That is the only solace I will find here. I think they are so bad at their job they should be charged with treason.”
As it stands, it’s unclear if Moist could simply re-sign their ALGS team, whose Aussie players have been living and playing in Canada for the past several months, following the Split One Playoffs, although MoistCr1TiKaL’s video doesn’t make that option sound promising.
The loss of Moist Esports is an undeniable blow for Apex esports. And this time, the org doesn’t even want to leave the scene.
