Denis "electronic" Sharipov was unable to secure a Visa and will therefore have to cede his place in FlipSid3's starting lineup at the iBP Masters, the $100,000 event which will also serve as the qualifier for IEM Oakland.

Standing-in for Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov will be Owen "⁠smooya⁠" Butterfield. The British youngster, who has flown under the radar until now, will have a chance to show the world his game at The Hangar in Costa Mesa, CA., starting Saturday. 

electronic will have to postpone his North American debut

The team's official statement:

We are disheartened to announce that Denis “electronic” Sharipov was unable to secure a visa to travel to the United States to compete in this coming weekends iBP Masters. F3 will still be in attendance at the event and will be fielding a stand-in. We are excited to announce that Owen “smooya” Butterfield will be joining the roster as the 5th member for this weekend. Big thank you to him for being willing to jump into the squad at such short notice and we are excited to see him perform at this LAN.

Versed with the AWP, it remains to be seen what role smooya will jump into as FlipSid3 take on Group A against Cloud9, Echo Fox, and TYLOO. While the schedule has not yet been revealed you can check out more of the event's details, here.

FlipSid3's lineup for the iBP Masters:

Yegor "⁠markeloff⁠" Markelov
Georgi "⁠WorldEdit⁠" Yaskin
Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy
Jan "⁠wayLander⁠" Rahkonen
Owen "⁠smooya⁠" Butterfield (stand-in)