Pandemic COVID-19 locks down esports events
(Updated March 17, 2020)
On the last day of the year 2019, a mysterious flu-like disease surfaced out of nowhere in Wuhan. While everyone was looking forward to meeting the year 2020, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) lurked around the world.
Months later, the virus has infected over 183,304 people globally and has impacted big events, travel, global commerce, and even daily living. When the World Health Organization declared it as a pandemic on Wednesday, March 11, countries from all over the world imposed wider travel restrictions and community-wide quarantines. Many from the private sector either implemented flexible work schedules or temporarily laid off some of their employees.
Unfortunately, the world of esports is very much affected by these measures. While some survived (but without a live audience), some did not have a good consequence.
Here is a list of some major esports events in 2020 which are canceled or are lucky enough to be postponed.
Canceled or suspended indefinitely:
- Rocket League Season 9 World Championship Live Event, supposedly on April 24-26 in Dallas, Texas
- FUT Champions Cup Stage V, supposedly on April 3 – 5 in Bucharest, Romania
- PlayStation Licensed Qualifying Event, supposedly on May 2 – 3
- EVE Fanfest event, supposedly on April 2-4 in Reykjavik, Iceland
- Four Capcom Pro Tour events, Brussels Challenge (Belgium), Norcal Regionals (USA), April Annihilation (USA) and Taipei Major (Taiwan) were cancelled
- League of Legends European Championship Spring Season
- Tokyo TEKKEN Masters Tournament, supposedly on April 4-5 in Tokyo, Japan
- CONMEBOL eLibertadores Online & Live Event, supposedly on March 7 – 8
- Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2020, supposedly on June 9-11, in Los Angeles, California
- OGA Dota PIT Minor 2020 and EPICENTER Major 2020, the fourth set of minor and major tournaments for the 2019-2020 DPC season, was cancelled
Postponed:
- Major 1 of the Apex Legends Global Series, supposedly on March 13-15 in Arlington, Texas
- SOULCALIBUR World Tour 2020 was readjusted, removing two qualifying events
- SNK World Championship, supposedly to cap off on March 28 -29 in Tokyo, Japan
- Chinese League of Legends Pro Series was delayed for two weeks, capping off on March 9-14 without an audience
- League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational (supposedly on May) will begin on July 3 and conclude on Sunday, July 19.
- The Game Developers Conference (GDC) (supposedly on March) will be moved somewhere in summer
- The ESL One Los Angeles 2020 Major, which was supposed to happen on March 15-22, was postponed indefinitely
The following events canceled selling their tickets for live viewing:
- Flashpoint 1 Playoffs event, supposedly to be held in Stockholm, Sweden (all events are now hosted in Flashpoint’s Los Angeles Studio)
- Intel ExtremeMasters Katowice 2020 Playoffs canceled its live viewing from February28-March 1 in Katowice, Poland
- All Overwatch League events in March and April will most likely be held online instead
- All events for ESL Pro League Season 11 will be moved online
- All scheduled Call of Duty 2020 League events will be shifted online
It may be very disappointing for some, but the esports community has been nothing but supportive and encouraging.
Furthermore, an esports tournament is set to happen this Friday, March 20, as a charity drive to fight against COVID-19.