fnatic replace HEROIC at BLAST Open London

HEROIC were forced to withdraw from the event after being unable to obtain a visa for xfl0ud.

BLAST have announced the replacement of HEROIC with fnatic at the upcoming Open London tournament after the former was unable to field at least three players from the related invitation Valve Regional Standings.

HEROIC's Director of Esports, Robin Nymann, has clarified that the team didn't have enough time to get a UK visa for Yasin "⁠xfl0ud⁠" Koç between the decision to bring him back into the roster and the visa confirmation deadline, which he said was set for August 20.

The 22-year-old's return to the team was announced on Tuesday and was made in the aftermath of HEROIC selling Andrey "⁠tN1R⁠" Tatarinovich to an unnamed organization, which HLTV knows from sources to be Spirit.

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The move, which came two months after he was benched in favor of Linus "⁠nilo⁠" Bergman, was crucial for HEROIC to retain their points on the VRS after they also lost Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García to G2 in the summer break.

The move was also necessary for the team to keep invitations based on rankings which featured SunPayus, xfl0ud and tN1R, as teams are required to field a three-man core from the related invitation ranking.

That includes BLAST Open London, for which the July 7 invitation VRS was used, featuring the aforementioned trio along with Linus "⁠LNZ⁠" Holtäng and Simon "⁠yxngstxr⁠" Boije.

The replacement marks the third change to the team list following the withdrawals of The MongolZ and Aurora from the tournament and their replacement by Liquid and Legacy.

fnatic were the next team in line eligible for a replacement invite from the Global VRS out of teams that did not previously decline an invitation to the tournament or its qualifiers. It came as a second chance after Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer and company failed to qualify through the European Rising tournament, placing third-fourth there.

The tournament will kick off with an online group stage taking place from August 27 to September 1, followed by the playoffs in London's OVO Arena Wembley from September 5-7.

The updated team list looks as follows:

Vitality
MOUZ
Spirit
Natus Vincere
FURIA
FaZe
G2
GamerLegion

Liquid
Virtus.pro
Legacy
FlyQuest
M80
fnatic
ECSTATIC
Imperial