With over 110k signatories at the time of this writing, the “Leffen” petition calling on the Obama administration to address the lack of equity given to international esports players looking to travel to the United States as professional athletes is safely in the “get a response from the White House” result.

While the government agency and the wider administration isn’t bound to grant the request at the heart of any of these petitions, it seems that most petitions that reach the 100k signatory threshold always get an answer of some sort, presumably from people in the executive branch of government, somewhere. Even petitions like the bluntly-named “secure your climate legacy by halting all new drilling, fracking, and mining on public lands and waters.” petition receive the obvious “hey, we’re tryin’ here” you’d expect out of an off-the-cuff comment from the President.

Or not.

I dunno. Please, I don’t want to get political, here.

Even if the petition does not directly contribute to a policy change at USCIS that benefits esports, the community will get a response as to why some sort of immediate satisfaction might not be possible. I’d be kidding myself if I didn’t say I’d be pleasantly surprised that this petition would lead to a unilateral policy change, but that’s the sort of thing you can’t necessarily count out when you have an administration with a touch of senioritis.

Please, no political comments. I am pulling words out of the West Wing to try to light-heartedly make a point. Just don’t even. I can’t even, for sure, confirmed.