The 2024 Asian Esports Games were scheduled to be held from November 25th to 27th in Bangkok, Thailand. The event, organised by the Thailand Esports Federation (TESF) and sanctioned by the Asian Electronic Sports Federation (AESF), was to be attended by Esports athletes from all over Asia, including first-time participants from Nepal, Mongolia, and Tajikistan. However, teams from Bangladesh were nowhere to be seen in Bangkok’s Hua Mak Indoor Stadium.

Bangladesh was set to compete in the all-female Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) section, as well as the general eFootball section. A five-women team was formed for the MLBB segment through the national qualifying round, whereas ASM Nesar “MercwithD_” Uddin was chosen as the eFootball representative. Both selection processes were administered by the Bangladesh Youth Development and Electronic Sports Association (BYDESA).

In order to understand why the Bangladeshi contingent did not attend the tournament, we reached out to BYDESA. A spokesperson from the company cited Visa problems as the leading reason.

They said, “Due to the prior visa complications, the number of pending tickets has reached a significant volume of 4,350. However, the agency can process only 150 visas per day. While the Asian Esports Federation has successfully provided us with all the required visa-related documentation, the limited processing capacity left us with insufficient time to secure all the Visas within the necessary timeframe.”

Previously, the selection process for the eFootball segment was marred by controversy, as prominent eFootball players alleged that there wasn’t a regional or national-level tournament held to select the representative. A report by The Daily Star, which has since been edited, read that “MercwithD_” was selected since he was the eFootball champion of this year’s Road to IESF for Bangladesh. BYDESA did not issue any public statements regarding this topic.

Ayaan is the Chief News Editor of The Daily Esports.