At the end of December 2019, a coronavirus epidemic broke out in the Chinese city of Wuhan, which spread in almost two months in two months. For prevention purposes, many countries have banned crowded events, which is why some e-sports tournaments, as well as gaming exhibitions and festivals, have been canceled or postponed. TEO has compiled a short list of events influenced by the epidemic.
League of Legends
- Organizers LCK Spring 2023 stopped the matches of the regional league indefinitely.
- Organizers LPL Spring 2023 Since January 19, they have abandoned matches at the stadium and transferred the league to the online format.
- The final LEC Spring 2023scheduled for April 25–26, was moved from Budapest to Berlin.
- The final LCS Spring 2023 should still be held April 18-19 in Frisco, Texas, but Riot Games is closely monitoring the spread of coronavirus in the region.
CS: GO
- Final stage IEM Katowice 2023 passed without spectators. City authorities have banned ESL from letting people into the Spodek Arena due to the high risk of infection.
- League organizers FLASHPOINT Season 1 reported that they decided to combine all their events and transfer official matches to their own studio in Los Angeles.
Overwatch
- Organizers Overwatch League – Season 3 They tried to transfer the home matches of the Chinese league members to South Korea, but this did not allow the epidemiological situation in the country to aggravate. As a result, all the games of 5-7 weeks that were supposed to take place in Seoul were postponed indefinitely.
Dota 2
- At the time of publication, not a single major Dota 2 tournament was canceled or rescheduled due to coronavirus. Upcoming major ESL One Los Angeles 2023 should go on schedule, however, some participants from China have already had problems obtaining visas to the United States.
Call of duty
- Call of Duty League organizers reported on measures taken to help prevent coronavirus. The tournament operator promised to provide a comprehensive cleaning of all rooms and playgrounds before and after the matches. At the venue, medical workers will be constantly on duty, and all players will have free access to hand sanitizers. All meetings with fans and team autograph sessions were canceled.
Rocket league
- The world championship of the ninth season of the Rocket League was canceled due to fears of the spread of coronavirus. The event was to be held in Dallas from April 24 to 26. The teams agreed to play matches online, and not in the Psyonix studio. After that, the organizers added $ 250 thousand to the tournament prize pool.
Hearthstone
- Hearthstone Masters Tour Indonesia has moved to Los Angeles and will be fully online. Players who have already booked tickets and hotels to participate in the event will receive compensation from the organizers.
Apex legends
- Electronic Arts moved the first major on Apex Legends indefinitely. The tournament was supposed to be held from March 13 to 15 in Arlington, USA.
FIFA 20
- The FIFA Global Series tournaments, as well as the FUT Champions Cup Stage V Bucharest, due to be held May 2–3, 2023, were postponed indefinitely.
Fighting games
- As part of the Capcom Pro Tour, the Brussels Challenge 2023, NorCal Regionals 2023 and April Annihilation 2023 tournaments were canceled.
- Bandai Namco canceled Tokyo Tekken Masters, and the Tekken Pro Championship completely switched to online format.
- The qualifiers for the Tekken World Tour 2023 and Soulcalibur World Tour 2023 have been rescheduled.
- NetherRealm Studios has announced that the Final Kombat tournament will be held without spectators.
Free fire
- The Free Fire Champions Cup 2023 tournament, which was scheduled to take place on April 19 in Jakarta, was postponed indefinitely.
Pokémon
- The 2023 Pokémon Europe International Championships 2023, which was scheduled to take place in Berlin from April 17-19, has been canceled.
Game Exhibitions
- The TwitchCon Amsterdam festival, which was scheduled for May 2–3, has been canceled.
- The Game Developers Conference (GDC), which takes place every year in San Francisco, has been postponed. The event was to be held from March 16 to March 20.
- The NVIDIA GPU Technology conference, due March 22–26 in San Jose, will be fully online.
- Minecraft Festival 2023 postponed indefinitely. Initially, the event was supposed to be held on September 25-27.
- SXSW 2023 conference canceled.
At the time of publication, the coronavirus epidemic has spread to 115 countries. The total number of detected cases of infection exceeds 114 thousand. More than 4 thousand people died. The number of recovered exceeded 64 thousand people.
