Sporting a $100,000 prize in its opening season, the North American Starleague recently announced its full 50-player invite list. A wave of praise and criticism has followed. Of particular interest to many is Silviu "NightEnD" Lazar’s lack of an invite, a decision which has caused a stir of controversy for a number of reasons.

In a tournament where invitees were decided by popularity and skill, NightEnd, a TSL competitor eliminated by Boxer and an accomplished European Protoss from the Praetoriani team, was mentioned frequently by fans as the NASL invites were rolled out. When it was clear that he was excluded, a number of people wondered why.


In an attempt to shed light on the situation, Xeris, a NASL organizer, tried to cleanly explain each decision made. Via Xeris, the NASL’s official explanation is that Romania does not have a visa wavier program which allows citizens of specific countries to travel to the United States for tourism or business for up to 90 days without having to obtain a visa. The same explanation was given for Empire.Kas, a Ukranian player.

“We only wanted players who have demonstrated travel to the US before [such as White-ra],” wrote Xeris, “a ‘high risk’ player is something we didn’t want. We don’t want a situation where visa problems would stop a player like Kas from showing up to the finals.”

“We looked at everyone not from North America who applied to the NASL,” Xeris told me, “and we marked people who might have difficulty getting a visa due to their countries not having visa waiver programs with the US. These people included: MaNa, White-Ra, NightEnd, Kas and Brat_OK. BRAT_OK and White-Ra we immediately took off the ‘marked’ list because we knew they could get into the US due to prior times being here (White-Ra's case), or actually showing us the visa (BRAT_OK’s case).

“This leaves three players: Kas, NightEnD and MaNa. We only wanted a maximum of one person who we considered a ‘high risk’ just because of the potential problems that could arise if one or more of them would eventually fail to get visas and not be able to attend the finals. We chose MaNa. NightEnD was 2nd on our list of backup players (behind Minigun).”

A player such as the Russian Brat_OK, who has had numerous high profile visa issues in the past that have led him to back out on events and thus is the epitome of ‘high risk’, was accepted because he provided proof of a viable visa without being asked to do so.

Shortly after Xeris posted his original exlanation, NightEnD responded publicly that he felt left in the dark on the issue.

During the application process, the NASL asked NightEnD if acquiring a visa would be an issue, to which he responded that it would be no problem. The NASL never informed NightEnD that proof of a visa was a requirement and that NightEnD’s failure to produce it would mean his exclusion until the application process was finalized.


“You didn’t even bother to ask me or tell me about the visa,” responded an annoyed NightEnD to a post by Xeris. “You only told me about the visa after I asked if I’m invited [after the invitation process was already done]. That’s just pathetic and disgusting. When I had to apply for the NASL, you could have told me about the visa and by now I would already have applied for and had it. Romania is part of Europe and so I would not have had even one problem in getting the Visa. Very professional.”

NightEnD’s posts became emotional at times. When asked how he could complain about professionalism and be so abrasive at the same time, he attempted to explain his position and past, saying he was “sick of how he is treated.”

“You played Warcraft 3 for almost three years and you never had one chance to go to an offline event,” wrote NightEnD, asking readers to step into his shoes. “Then you have it by placing top four in Europe at Blizzard’s ladder tournament. Top six would get invited. After you put so much effort into the game you love for almost three years, day by day and you take fourth place in Europe and you get qualified for it, Bizzard tells you that you can’t come because there is a law in Romania that doesn’t allow you to play in Blizzard’s tournaments.

“My team back then checked with a lawyer and he said it was a lie. I asked Blizzard five or six times which law and Blizzard only told me ‘there is a law...’ - of course, there wasn’t any. And back then I cried because I didn’t understand why I got treated like that and I was hoping I would never get treated with such disrespect. Now I don’t get invited because they assumed I could not get a visa. How can I not be sad when I see how I always get treated?

“Black Dragon League invited eight players and for the next eight they had a qualification. Did I qualify for it? Yes, I did and I’m rank four after beating White-ra 2-1 in the last match. Did I qualify for TSL3? Yes, I did. Always, when there is something based on invitation I get a big FU and a bullshit answer. How can I not be sad and mad?”

Xeris responded by admitting that he did not specifically tell players that proof of visas were a requirement. However, Xeris, who also works with Fnatic, has defended himself by stating that Russian Terran Brat_OK’s manager provided a visa number to the NASL unprompted.

It is important to note that Brat_OK is no normal European player. He has had numerous visa issues in the past while NightEnD has had none. Brat_OK’s manager’s actions make complete sense in the context of his career.

“While it is true, I could have been clearer I guess,” wrote Xeris, “the ultimate burden of responsibility must be shared by both organizers and players. We are not here to hand-hold, and this is a two-way street.”

“As I said before, I could have explicitly stated about the visas from the start but didn’t. That didn’t stop Brat_OK’s manager from being proactive about it,” Xeris said tonight. “Especially given NightEnD has had problems in WC3 traveling, you’d think that would be something he would have been aware of.”

The contract provided to all applicants by the NASL specifically stated that players needed to guarantee their ability to be in the United States for the July finals in California but, according to Prae management, it failed to mentioned that any proof whatsoever must be provided to NASL staff. Prae asserts that the ambiguous wording left it up to players and their teams to guess at what exactly it was that the NASL wanted. If they guessed incorrectly, as Prae did, they would be excluded.

NightEnD maintains that if he applied for a visa today, he would receive one within a week.

Prae’s position is that ultimately, the burden of being clear and forthcoming about an application process falls with the NASL. Xeris has admitted fault here.

Xeris and the NASL assert that Praetoriani management should have been proactive in asking questions and providing travel documents in order to avoid issues.

In the hope of finding of a silver lining to this unfortunate and strange series of events, it may well serve to provide a warning to future competitions to be as transparent as possible and to competitors to be as proactive as possible. There’s no reason to approach a large event like this in any other way.