South Korean Kim Dong-hwan, a professional StarCraft II player, has received a special U.S. visa, normally reserved for baseball players and other athletes.
The five-year P-1A visa given to the video game player last week is for "internationally recognized athletes." This follows another visa given to a Canadian League of Legends player earlier this summer.
The move could bring more professional gamers to the U.S. and grow an already booming industry. This October, the final match for the game League of Legends almost packed the Staples Center, home of the Los Angeles Lakers, with more than 13,000 people. The combined prize money for the three StarCraft II world championship series next year is $1.6 million.
For the past three years, Kim (aka "viOLet") has been traveling back and forth between the U.S. and South Korea under a visa waiver to compete in live matches, says Andrew Tomlinson, who is Kim's manager. Kim lived at Tomlinson's apartment when not competing.
At live matches, Kim would play against his opponent inside a soundproof glass booth. Thousands of spectators watch these tournaments in person, along with professional commentators narrating for millions of online viewers. But last fall, Kim was told that he had been coming in and out of the country so much that he couldn't come back without a visa.
That's a big problem, says Marcus Graham, a senior manager at the gaming media site Twitch and a competitive gamer for 14 years.
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