rikz to stand in for dgt during PGL Astana opening weekend

9-5-2025 17:41

The Brazilian coach has been asked to take to the server again.

dgt will miss the event's opening weekend

paiN recent signing Franco "⁠dgt⁠" Garcia will miss the first two days of PGL Astana because of visa issues, the Brazilian organization announced on Friday, with head coach Henrique "⁠rikz⁠" Waku set to play as a stand-in in the interim.

In a post on X, paiN explained that the short amount of time between dgt's signing and the start of PGL Astana made it impossible for the Uruguayan to obtain a visa to enter Kazakhstan before the start of the tournament.

"Despite the immediate efforts of all parties involved, the document was only released with entry permitted from May 12," the Brazilian organization added.

dgt's absence is a blow for paiN, who are looking to find some stability after a rocky few weeks that saw the team field academy player Iago "⁠deemO⁠" Henrique as a stand-in after Kaue "⁠kauez⁠" Kaschuk was moved to the bench.

At IEM Melbourne, the Brazilian team also had to play with rikz instead of Rodrigo "⁠biguzera⁠" Bittencourt, who missed the event due to health issues. The Brazilian coach averaged a tournament-low 0.47 rating as the team lost to FaZe and Complexity.

dgt made his first appearance for paiN at BLAST Rivals, where the team went out in last place following defeats to MOUZ and Wildcard. After his team's elimination from the event, Lucas "⁠nqz⁠" Soares said they hoped to "show a much better CS" in Astana with more practice time with the former 9z star.

Date	Matches
PGL Astana 2025
10/05/2025	paiN 16:15 HOTU	Match

paiN will take on HOTU in their first match in Astana, the team's final stop before the Austin Major. The Brazilian outfit will play their first two matches in Kazakhstan with:

Lucas "⁠nqz⁠" Soares
Rodrigo "⁠biguzera⁠" Bittencourt
João "⁠snow⁠" Vinicius
David "⁠dav1deuS⁠" Tapia Maldonado
Henrique "⁠rikz⁠" Waku (stand-in)

more visa issues nice

2025-05-09 17:41

Astana is cursed

2 replies

The new USA

2025-05-09 17:42

they gotta protect the potassium

2025-05-09 18:24

Damn, F paiN

kazakhstan new usa?

LOL paiN are so unlucky man

Why would the US do this?

Disasterfest

Damn that sucks for dgt and for paiN as a whole, sucks for their fans aswell obv.

2025-05-09 17:43

USA > Kazakhstan LOL

2025-05-09 17:44

This is a terrible year for pain so far

no more tournaments in backwater countries pls

2025-05-09 17:45

God damn it not again

2025-05-09 17:46

Pain getting f*cked again, at least dgr joins mid tournament

2025-05-09 17:54

i dont know if this is unlucky or a lack of professionalism as they could have announced the deal before and maybe get the visa on time. shouldnt orgs be thinking about all this details? would it be worst to keep kauez until the end of astana if they werent sure the replacement would be able to play perhaps their biggest event this year?

2025-05-09 17:55

Did you see Hunter is also having issues, right? (And who knows if any other team may reveal issues too in the following hours).

2025-05-09 19:39

1 reply

yeah but the article says the problem was the short time after they sign dgt and the beginning of the tournament. anyway it suks..

2025-05-10 09:14

Meanwhile Russians don't even need their international passport to enter Kazakhstan

2025-05-09 17:56

4 replies

there's a difference between ussr country and uruguyausfyau though

2025-05-09 18:38

Whats so special about kakakazskan anyway to make visas so hard lmao?

2025-05-10 18:50

#17

2025-05-10 19:47

So? What point?

2025-05-09 19:21

for anyone who might be blaming Kazakhstani government for that, please take meds. This is 100% an oversight from both organizations (G2 and paiN). They knew about this event for at least 2 months, and considering the chances of visa approval to Kazakhstan are very high (even if you're from Palestine or whatever), idk wth they were doing during that time.

2025-05-09 17:58

3 replies

Pain took more than a month to sign dgt (or at least announce that he was signed), so I'm not sure they could've done things faster. G2 is inexcusable though.

2025-05-09 18:16

ok, I get paiN's situation, I'm more disappointed with the people who seriously think it's somehow the host country's fault. that's just bs.

2025-05-09 18:31

that's just people being dumb. especially because dgt did get the visa, just not in time for the first 2 days

2025-05-09 18:33

Yeah lovely, WE ARE MISSING new places and then this happens. Thank god Argentina and the other one got cancelled cuz we'd still get more visa issues. Fuck this shit just host everything in Copenhagen.

2025-05-09 18:02

9pandas triggered

2025-05-09 18:17

Incoming last place again for the idk 4th event in a row

As a resident of Kazakhstan I feel bad for dgt and Pain. Wish HOTU played a fulll strength Pain, not with a stand-in.

2025-05-09 18:07

fucking great

2025-05-09 18:15

gl for rikz, again...

2025-05-09 18:18

What is happening recently lol in the span of like 1-2 week we have got way more visa issues than in the entirity of 2024

why so hard to go to Kazakhstan? wtf ?

2025-05-09 18:29

brazil cs is cursed, please dig up the dead frog

2025-05-09 18:32

bruuuhh visa issue ?? wtf ?

2025-05-09 20:13

God dammit, nothing seems to be working out for Pain recently, at the very least he is not missing the whole tournament and their first match is one they should be able to win even with the coach playing

2025-05-09 20:15