Shiphtur League of Legends star gets US pro athlete visa
- 11 years ago
League of Legends star Danny "Shiphtur" Le of Canada has made US history by becoming the first pro gamer to be granted a US pro athlete visa.
International sports stars from basketball, baseball and hockey are used to getting special immigration status to play in the U.S. We're used to hearing about people like David Beckham, ex-Los Angeles Galaxy player, or Dodgers rookie ace Hyun-Jin Ryu from South Korea being given the special P-1A visas.
Danny Le of Edmonton, Canada is now a part of that special list too. Danny is one of the world's top League of Legends players, a virtual capture-the-flag game where two squads of fantasy characters battle for a glowing orb. Le is so skilled that he became the first eSports player to be given this type of visa. Le needed the visa so he could live and practice with his squad in Riverside, California. In the professional league for League of Legends, all five members of a team must be physically together when they play competitions.
The competitions are broadcast online and have about 1.7 million viewers. A normal NHL game on NBC last year had about a quarter of that audience. Analysts estimate that about 32 million people around the world play League of Legends, with about half in the U.S. and the rest from Europe and Asia.
Teams can win millions in prize money in professional League of Legends competitions,
so Shiphtur spends hours a day with his team honing their lightning-fast reflexes. Lebron, Kobe and other traditional athletes better be careful, because it looks like competition for scholarships and endorsements just got a lot stiffer. Who knows what's next for e-athletes?
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International sports stars from basketball, baseball and hockey are used to getting special immigration status to play in the U.S. We're used to hearing about people like David Beckham, ex-Los Angeles Galaxy player, or Dodgers rookie ace Hyun-Jin Ryu from South Korea being given the special P-1A visas.
Danny Le of Edmonton, Canada is now a part of that special list too. Danny is one of the world's top League of Legends players, a virtual capture-the-flag game where two squads of fantasy characters battle for a glowing orb. Le is so skilled that he became the first eSports player to be given this type of visa. Le needed the visa so he could live and practice with his squad in Riverside, California. In the professional league for League of Legends, all five members of a team must be physically together when they play competitions.
The competitions are broadcast online and have about 1.7 million viewers. A normal NHL game on NBC last year had about a quarter of that audience. Analysts estimate that about 32 million people around the world play League of Legends, with about half in the U.S. and the rest from Europe and Asia.
Teams can win millions in prize money in professional League of Legends competitions,
so Shiphtur spends hours a day with his team honing their lightning-fast reflexes. Lebron, Kobe and other traditional athletes better be careful, because it looks like competition for scholarships and endorsements just got a lot stiffer. Who knows what's next for e-athletes?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Daily videos brought to you by THE Taiwanese Animators behind the infamous Tiger Woods animation. We got the funniest animations on the web to help you stay in-the-know on all the trending stories, so sit back, relax, and watch a few.
Visit our channel for your daily dose of Taiwanese Animations:
https://www.youtube.com/user/NMAWorldEdition
Wish all your news was animated? Subscribe now:
http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=NMAWorldEdition
Can't get enough of Taiwanese animations? Connected with us here:
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/NMAtv
Twitter @nmatv http://www.twitter.com/nmatv
Tumblr http://nmatv.tumblr.com
Google+ http://gplus.to/NMAtv
Web http://www.nma.tv