Mr. W started out as a professional esports player and won multiple championships and top placings on the pro circuit of a major competitive game. After retiring he became a coach at a well-known esports club. Players he trained went on to compete at a number of major tournaments, and he is often interviewed by the media about tactics and his reading of the game's patches. This time a U.S. esports club wanted to hire him as a coach, and the petition was filed under O-1A.

• In its RFE, USCIS argued that all of Mr. W's awards were won as a player. Since he was now applying for a coaching position, those results could not be used directly to show extraordinary ability as a coach.
• A good share of the media coverage we filed was mainly about the team and match results, and USCIS took the position that it was not "about the beneficiary" himself.

• We cited the USCIS Policy Manual's guidance on athletes who move into coaching: when the achievements from a playing career are closely enough connected to the current coaching work, they can be considered together. We presented his playing and coaching careers within the same game and the same tournament system, showing one continuous career path rather than a change of field.
• We re-screened the media evidence, keeping only reports and interviews with him as the main subject. Each came with a full translation, plus circulation and traffic data for the outlet.
• We documented, one by one, the major tournaments that players he coached went on to compete in, and asked club management and coaches from other teams to write letters describing how peers have adopted his training methods and tactical thinking. That gave his coaching expertise third-party support and showed that he is still at the top of the field today.

Date	Milestone
About two months after we took the case	O-1A filed with premium processing
Under three weeks after filing	RFE received
Under three weeks after the RFE response	Approved

Less than three weeks after the RFE response went in, Mr. W's O-1A was approved, and he can move to the U.S. to coach as planned.

Approved less than three weeks after the RFE response, so Mr. W can move to the U.S. to coach as planned.