The PGL Arlington Major will be Royal Never Give Up first Major debut since 2019, and Anathan “ana ” Pham will fill in for him.

Despite all of its players being able to leave their home countries just last week when RNG competed in full format at the Riyadh Masters 2022, Royal Never Give Up is the most recent team to be unsuccessful in acquiring US visas for all of its members.

RNG will not be in Arlington without the Malaysian carrier Daniel “Ghost” Chan Kok Hong, whose visa for the United States was refused after “several attempts,” according to a formal notification posted on their Weibo page.

Therefore, on his way to the Aegis of Champions with OG in 2018 and 2019, Anathan “ana” Pham will join three of the competitors he defeated twice in a row on the TI stage. Ana will be at the same booth in Arlington as Lu “Somnus” Yao, Yang “Chalice” Shenyi, and Yap “xNova” Jian Wei, who at TI 8 and TI 9 were competing under the PSG.LGD banner. This makes for an extremely intriguing combination.

Royal Never Give Up line-up for PGL Arlington Major

• [Australia] Anathan “ana-” Pham (stand-in)
• [China] Yao “Somnus丶M” Lu
• [China] Shenyi “Chalice” Yang
• [China] Liangzhi “KAKA” Hu
• [Malaysia] Jian Wei “xNova-” Yap
• coach: [China] Junhao “Super!” Xie

The Ana’s third LAN has not been PGL Arlington Major. He recently filled in for Team Liquid at the Riyadh Masters, although he was eliminated from the competition at the group round.

This time, there is a lot of strain on the team he is filling in for. Since Arlington is the final Major before TI 11, RNG must at least place in the top 8 to have a chance of earning enough DPC Points to enter the year’s most significant competition. RNG, who will begin their Major run seeded in Group A while three other teams will play with substitutes, would prefer to finish higher than the top 8.

The US visa has so far prevented a total of 7 teams out of 18 from competing. Entity, Thunder Awaken, and Talon Esports will all travel to Arlington with a stand-in player, while Xtreme Gaming had to forfeit their entire spot, Fnatic will have to play with three stand-ins, and Beastcoast will be without their coach at the Major but will bring Infamous’ captain Christian “Accel” Cruz to assist them.