Visa issues continue to plague the North American league. While the situations of several players remain uncertain,
Disguised have become the latest organization affected. Although
the team’s jungler is expected to be Canadian player Christian "KryRa" Rahaian, James "
Kisno" Woo could ultimately fill the role, sources tell
Sheep Esports. The player was added to the
League of Legends Contracts Database by the team this Monday. Kisno is joining as a substitute, but could be the starting jungler when the competition begins this Saturday. Whether or not KryRa or Kisno play this weekend is highly dependent on the difficult-to-predict visa process, and a chance exists for either of the two to start.
With U.S. visa regulations having tightened, numerous organizations now find themselves in difficult situations. This is notably the case for
LYON, which was recently
forced to replace its Canadian toplaner Frankie "Zamudo" Lin with Niship "Dhokla" Doshi.
Team Liquid are closely monitoring the situation surrounding Park "
Morgan" Ru-han, while Dignitas are also expected to field replacements for Victor "
FBI" Huang and Lee "
Ignar" Dong-geun.
A similar profile?
Kisno is a jungler who competed in the NACL last year with Conviction and later DarkZero Dragonsteel. At 23 years old, he has been a professional player for three years, and has already represented a number of teams across the NACL Challengers League. He is also a highly ranked solo queue player, having reached rank two on the Korean ladder in late 2024.
Visa delays are largely due to slower U.S. immigration processing for foreign competitors entering the LCS. In recent years, application reviews have taken longer than before, with response times now counted in business days instead of calendar days. This slowdown is further exacerbated by the cluster of U.S. public holidays falling between free agency and the start of the season, which reduces the number of working days available to process requests. Limited availability of required consular appointments in players’ home countries, followed by additional delays to retrieve passports once visas are approved, have added another layer of complexity.
While Kisno may have to play this weekend, the possibility does still exist that KryRa is able to start as intended. KryRa has, reportedly, been practicing recently with the rest of the team. If his visa arrives on time, DSG is expected to field their planned jungler going forward.
