When they were denied permission to return to the Philippines following the conclusion of The International 10 tournament this past weekend, several Filipino Dota 2 players from multiple teams were left stranded in Bucharest, Romania.
In a statement on Twitter, Fnatic’s team director Eric Khor confirmed the situation and asked for assistance from the appropriate authorities to help bring the Filipino players back to their home country.
As of October 17, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), a task force established by the Philippine government to combat the spread of infectious diseases, released an updated list of travel restrictions for the country, with Romania being the only country on the list that had been classified as “Red.”
Entry into the Philippines will be denied to anyone who comes from a country that is on the Red List. Due to the directive, which took effect on October 16, the vast majority of Filipino players who had booked flights back to their home country for the dates of October 18 and 19 are unable to complete their travel arrangements.
Romania was placed on the Red List after the country experienced an increase in the number of cases of Covid-19 infection. As a result of the virus infecting a number of players, Valve and PGL decided to cancel in-person attendance at TI10 and issue refunds to those who had purchased tickets in advance of the event.
There are several Filipino players who are affected by the travel restrictions, including:
- Evil Geniuses: Abed Yusop
- Fnatic: Djardel “DJ” Mampusti and Marc “Raven” Polo Luis Fausto
- T1: Carlo “Kuku” Palad and Karl “Karl” Baldovino
As of the time of writing, neither Khor nor the Philippine authorities had provided any updates on the status of the players’ travel restrictions or whether they would be able to return to the Philippines anytime soon.
