The announcement surfaced Thursday on the LCK Global Twitter page, citing the safety of everyone involved as the main factor that contributed to the shift in format.

“The 2020 Woori Bank LoL Champions Korea (LCK) Summer, which has been held without an audience to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and secure the safety of league members, has decided to switch to online matches starting on Friday, August 21,” read the announcement.

Up to now, LCK fixtures were held at LoL Park, where strict safety guidelines have been in place since February. All gear used by the players was disinfected after each match, while access to the venue was limited to only the players, coaches, referees and broadcasters.

However, the recent resurgence of COVID-19 in Seoul has forced LCK organisers to raise distancing guidelines to level two, meaning live play at the venue is no longer an option.

From this Friday until the LCK 2020 Summer grand finals on Saturday, September 5, all teams will have to play their matches from home or the team’s training bases. In order to help with the transition and keep competitive integrity intact, the league will send referees and operating personnel to “carry out smooth and fair game”.

“Field personnel will be dispatched with a safety checklist, including temperature measurement, usage of masks and regular use of hand sanitizer before entering the team’s accommodation.”

The broadcast team, which will keep working from LoL Park, will be subjected to the same safety checklist, whereas the analyst desk will be suspended until further notice.

The first match of the LCK 2020 Summer regular season that will see the new rules in place will be the clash between two teams that are already out of the race for playoffs in SANDBOX Gaming and Hanwha Life Esports, who will meet on Friday at 17:00 KST.

Seoul has 2,495 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 135 new positives reported on Thursday, while the number of cases in South Korea rose to 16,346 with another 288 appearing nationwide. China, however, reported only seven new cases on the mainland this Wednesday, which is a promising sign for the upcoming League of Legends World Championship in Shanghai.

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The reports of the teams’ relocation surfaced on Tuesday, March 24, when multiple sources unveiled Vancouver Titans were already in the process of moving their staff and players to the Korean Peninsula. The claims were later confirmed by a Titans spokesperson.

“The team is currently in Vancouver but I can confirm that we are working on relocating them back to South Korea imminently,” said the spokesperson.

On Wednesday, London Spitfire released a statement on their Twitter account confirming they will follow suit and move their team to Seoul.

“For the well-being of our players, the London Spitfire has relocated our team to South Korea. We plan to play our upcoming Overwatch League matches from the Cloud9 facility in Seoul,” read the announcement.

Both teams are assembled entirely from Korean esports players, meaning the move will allow them to return to their home country.

The coronavirus has already infected more than 55,000 people in the United States, making it the second-worst hit country in the world behind Italy (70,000+) and China (80,000+). Meanwhile, South Korea has reported just over 9,000 cases despite its proximity to China.

The relocation of Spitfire and Titans could result in a changed schedule for the 2020 Overwatch League season, as noted by Toronto Defiant coach Félix “Féfé” Münch on one of his streams. That is because the newly implemented online OWL schedule is based on the physical location of the teams in a bid to avoid connectivity issues.

Overwatch League’s decision to divide teams into regions saw the Asian teams numerically underrepresented, as there are only four teams who remained in Asia since Seoul Dynasty relocated to Los Angeles. This resulted in an asymmetric season schedule, with Asian teams forced to play each other repetitively. The decision by Titans and Spitfire to relocate to South Korea will bring the region up to six teams, which should help Overwatch improve its competitive schedule for the region.

London Spitfire are scheduled to play Paris Eternal and Toronto Defiant this weekend, while Vancouver Titans are slated to meet Dallas Fuel on Sunday. Titans have yet to officially address whether they will participate in their scheduled fixtures, while Spitfire have confirmed they are planning on playing their upcoming OWL matches from the Cloud9’s facility in Seoul. This, however, raises concerns with latency issues that will surely occur since Spitfire will have to play teams based in Europe and North America.

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Amid the COVID-19 outbreak that started in China and quickly reached the Korean Peninsula, both LCK and Challengers Korea (CK) were played without studio audiences from the start of February. Several other precautions were put in place, such as a limited number of media allowed at the venue, while everyone in the LCK studio had to wear masks and regularly use hand sanitiser.

That situation lasted until March 6, when Riot Korea indefinitely suspended its leagues so as not to threaten the health of their players and others involved. Both the League of Legends European Championship (LEC) and the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) followed suit and suspended their leagues last week, while the LoL Mid-Season Invitational was delayed by two months.

The Chinese League of Legends Pro League (LPL) cancelled all of its matches from the end of January up to the start of March, when the league returned with an online format. Riot Korea discussed a similar solution for LCK and CK, as it appears hosting games at the LCK studio is not an ideal fit.

“Due to the on-growing Corona19 epidemic, in order to ensure the safety of the members of the league, we have decided to have the LCK and Challengers Korea go on an indefinite hiatus,” said Riot at the start of the month.

“Currently, we do not have a set return date and will keep a close eye on the epidemic to choose the appropriate date of return.”

New reports claim that Korean LoL leagues could return to our screens in a couple of weeks with an online format, thus mimicking the steps LPL took with their competition. The LCK cannot afford to find themselves in a similar situation as the LPL, where extended game weeks are in place so the league can catch up with the LEC and the LCS.

As of March 17, South Korea has just over 8,300 cases of the coronavirus. That is low compared to most countries, especially the likes of China (81,000+), Italy (28,000+) and Iran (16,000+). South Korea has suffered only 81 fatalities due to COVID-19 and has seen its rate of infection slow down significantly since the start of the month, in most part due to the high priority the country has put on preventive measurements such as testing its residents.

Although Riot Korea has yet to officially confirm an online format, both the LEC and LCS recently announced remote play will be in place for their leagues starting this Friday and Saturday respectively. Meanwhile, the LCS Academy league will resume on Thursday, March 19.

“Due to the ongoing developments of the coronavirus pandemic, we have decided to play the remainder of the 2020 LEC Spring Split 100% remotely online, with matches resuming Friday, March 20th,” read LEC’s announcement.

While traditional sports are at a standstill, the esports scene as a whole is transitioning to online play. It remains to be seen how the pandemic will affect major events such as the League of Legends World Championship and The International 10, which might also be played online for the first time in esports history.

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The news comes shortly after the firm indefinitely postponed the ESL One Los Angeles Dota2 Major due to the ongoing spread of coronavirus and the visa issues Dota2 teams have endured ahead of the third Major of 2019/20 DPC.

“After careful consideration of the current state and trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the health risk that this presents to competitors, staff and fans alike, we have made the difficult decision to cancel to the fourth Minor and Major tournaments of the DPC season,” read the announcement on the official Dota2 Twitter page.

“Given the high fluidity of the state of both the pandemic and geopolitical landscape, we will keep following the situation and decide how to approach the final Major and Minor of the season as the weeks progress.”

With this decision, Valve is supporting the idea of limited international travel in a bid to keep the fans, players and other individuals involved in Dota2 esports safe. That said, removing two DPC events will have serious consequences for those teams which have yet to secure their spot at The International 2020.

As it stands, only four teams have over 4,000 DPC points: TNC Predator (5,320), ViCi Gaming (5,100), Team Secret (4,950) and Evil Genuises (4,450). Filling the remaining eight spots in the top-12 are Invictus Gaming (3,100), Alliance (1,920), Team Liquid (1,820), business associates (960), beastcoast (820), Team Aster (440), Fnatic (400) and Chaos Esports Club (251.44).

Meanwhile, some prominent names in the Dota2 scene sit below the cut-off line, namely Royal Never Give Up (232.8), Gambit Esports (231), Natus Vincere (226), EHOME (216), Virtus.pro (172), Nigma (170), Ninjas in Pyjamas (151.2), Newbee (50), and even the reigning back-to-back TI champions, OG, who have accumulated only 100 DPC points after rebuilding their Dota2 roster earlier this year.

There are still two more Majors scheduled and 30,000 DPC points up for grabs, not including the last Minor tournament with 660 DPC points on offer. It is still unclear when and where the postponed ESL One Los Angeles Major will be played, while we can’t know for certain whether the last Major of the season (ONE Esports Singapore Major) will take place without any further complications.

The Singapore Major qualifier is scheduled to take place from May 17-22, with the Minor set to be played from June 9-13 and the Major tournament from June 20-28.

The cancelled OGA Dota Pit Minor 2020 was scheduled to be played from April 23-26, with EPICENTER 2020 initially slated to take place from May 2-10. Their cancellation gives teams a period of no international competitions up until the end of May when the qualifiers for the Singapore Major begin.

The scale of the COVID-19 outbreak could see all DPC tournaments cancelled – including The International 10, which is slated to take place in Stockholm, Sweden, in August.

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The announcement, which surfaced this Wednesday, cited the safety of employees, fans, players and partners as paramount. The schedule changes come in accordance with the guidelines set forth by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.

“After careful review and working in close collaboration with our teams, we are cancelling all Overwatch League events for Match and April,” read the announcement.

“Concurrently, we are working hand-in-hand with our teams to see that all matches are played when it’s safe and logistically feasible, staying as close to our originally planned schedule as possible.

“We are considering the various options available to esports in this effort, so that all teams – including those previously impacted by the schedule changes in China – can get back to doing what they do best.”

Although the events are officially cancelled, Pete Vlastelica, CEO of Activision Blizzard Esports and OWL Commissioner, explained that cancellation relates to events only and that matches scheduled to be played in March and April will still go ahead. It is not yet known where and when those fixtures will be played, with more details to be released in the coming days.

“To be clear, we WILL be playing matches in March and April,” said Mr Vlastelica.

“We cancelled the events, not the matches (though we will have to move a few things around in the schedule to make this work).”

The cancelled events include home series that were slated to be played in London, Paris, San Francisco and Washington. Earlier in the 2020 OWL season, Activision Blizzard postponed all events in China and South Korea.

Some reports suggest the company is working on adjusting the Call of Duty League schedule ahead of Dallas Empire’s home series, scheduled to begin at the end of this month at Toyota Music Factory in Irving, Texas.

Shortly after Activision Blizzard’s announcement, reports surfaced that claimed the Electronic Sports League was cancelling the ESL One Los Angeles Dota2 Major. However, it was later confirmed that the third Major tournament of Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) season will instead be postponed to a later date.

As the reason behind that decision, ESL cited the COVID-19 outbreak and ongoing travel restrictions that prevented a handful of teams from entering the United States with their full rosters, including Virtus.pro, Aster and Adroit.

“In light of recent travel restrictions and the evolving COVID-19 situation, ESL is postponing the ESL One Los Angeles 2020 Dota 2 Major,” read the ESL’s announcement.

“We are working closely with Valve to determine a new time and location for the Major.”

The ESL Pro League Season 11 CS:GO tournament also implemented some changes to its schedule this week when organisers unveiled the whole tournament will be played online, while the final event has been moved from Denver to a studio location.

FLASHPOINT organisers opted for a similar approach, with the entirety of the event to held in a studio setting in Los Angeles instead of the initial plan of hosting the finals in Stockholm, Sweden.

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This year’s NBA 2K League campaign was supposed to begin on Tuesday, March 24, but the launch date has been postponed such time as the outbreak is contained to a degree which would allow for safer health conditions for the players, fans and other individuals involved in the scene.

League organisers made the announcement on their Twitter page, where they explained that the 23 participating teams will play their preseason competitions remotely. A similar approach was taken recently by the League of Legends Pro League (LPL) in China, where the 2020 Spring Split was initially postponed and then relaunched with an online format.

“The health and well-being of our players, teams and fans is of paramount importance,” said NBA 2K League Managing Director Brendan Donohue.

“We will continue to evaluate the situation and do everything possible to bring the excitement of the NBA 2K League to our fans through remote preseason exhibitions and other content.

“We look towards to sharing additional information about these exhibitions and the start of the 2020 season as it becomes available.”

As COVID-19 continues to spread across the globe, many esports titles and their respective leagues have come to a standstill. Activision Blizzard recently cancelled all March and April events for the Overwatch League, while the League of Legends European Championship (LEC) abruptly called off all fixtures just hours before Friday’s games were scheduled to begin.

The long list of cancelled or otherwise affected esports events also includes: all major regions in League of Legends, which had its leagues and competitions either postponed, cancelled, moved online, or played without live audiences; CS:GO, which saw its two major competitions in ESL Pro League Season 11 and FLASHPOINT Season 1 moved to an online format; Rocket League, which cancelled the Season 9 World Championship; Apex Legends Global Series, which has postponed its inaugural Major tournament; Hearthstone, which moved to online-only format for its Masters Tour; and the Call of Duty League, which announced on Thursday that all scheduled live events had been moved online.

“After careful review and working in close collaboration with our teams, we are shifting all currently scheduled 2020 Call of Duty League live events to online-only competition, effective immediately,” read the CDL announcement.

Gaming events such as E3 2020, SXSW 2020, the Game Developer Conference and TwitchCon have been affected as well, with a high probability BlizzCon, which is traditionally scheduled for March-April, could follow suit.

The esports industry is but one branch of the global sporting community to feel the effect of COVID-19. Major League Baseball (MLB), Major League Soccer (MLS), National Hockey League (NHL) and National Basketball Association (NBA) have all suffered disruptions, as have the major football leagues in Europe and Australia.

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The announcement surfaced on Tuesday, March 10 on the official League of Legends website, where John Needham, the global head of esports at Riot Games, explained why Riot decided to postpone the MSI.

“After discussing with our leagues and other stakeholders, we’ve made the decision to move our annual mid-year global tournament event from May to July this year,” said Mr Needham.

“Shifting the tournament to the summer offers the best chance to see travel restrictions lifted, allowing teams from leagues around the world to travel and compete safely. Competition will begin on Friday, July 3 and conclude on Sunday, July 19.”

Although the rescheduling of the MSI is confirmed, Riot Games has yet to unveil the venue at which it will be played. That may take some time, seeing how COVID-19 has already spread to many traditional esports host nations. There are, however, rumours that MSI 2020 could travel to the United States, where the coronavirus risk is significantly slower than in many European and Asian countries.

Needham also unveiled the changes Riot has made to Summer Split start dates to accommodate for the MSI rescheduling and ensure minimal impact on the remainder of the calendar year.

LoL Summer Split start dates:

OPL (Oceania), VSC (Vietnam) – May 15
LCS (NA), TCL (Turkey) – May 16
LCK (Korea) – May 20
LEC (Europe) – May 22
CBLOL (Brazil), LPL (China) – May 23
PCS (Pacific), LLA (Latin America) – May 30
LJL (Japan) – May 31
LCL (CIS) – June 6

Additionally, Riot Games confirmed the cancellation of all Rift Rivals events for 2020 and beyond.

“Rift Rivals produced some epic battles, but the challenges it created to the annual schedule were felt at both a regional and global level,” explained Needham.

“We remain committed to producing globally resonant events that showcase our sport, and will work with regions to determine fresh ways to do so in the years ahead.”

As the coronavirus continues to spread across the globe, most of the Asian esports scene is at a standstill. League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) has just recently entered an indefinite break, while the League of Legends Pro League (LPL) returned on Monday in an online format after a two-month hiatus.

Meanwhile, the League of Legends European Championship (LEC) has changed the location of its Spring Split Finals, moving the event from Budapest to the LEC Studio in Berlin. Its North American counterpart, the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS), will go through with its initial plan of hosting the Spring Split finals in Frisco, Texas, but fan meetups and post-match celebratory handshakes have been suspended.

Other esports titles that have suffered due to the COVID-19 epidemic include Overwatch, CS:GO, FIFA, Apex Legends, Dota2 and PUBG, which had to cancel its Berlin Global Series.

The Overwatch League cancelled all of its Chinese homestand events in February and March, while the makeup matches, which were scheduled to be played in Seoul, South Korea, ended up cancelled as well.

The Apex Legends Global Series had to cancel its first Major of the season, slated to be played in Arlington, Texas, from March 13-15, while EA’s other esports franchise, FIFA, cancelled the FUT Champions Cup Stage B, PlayStation Licensed Qualifying Event and postponed the CONEMBOL eLibertadores Online & Live Event.

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In an announcement that surfaced on Monday, PUBG Corp. cited safety of the players, staff and fans as the number one priority.

“With the health and safety of our players, employees, and fans as our top priorities, we’ve made the difficult decision to postpone April’s PGS: Berlin event,” read the statement.

“The dates and times of regional qualifiers may also be subject to change. The plan to host four PUBG global esports events in 2020 remains unchanged, and we are actively exploring options for when a replacement event can be held.”

PUBG Global Series: Berlin was slated to begin in March 2020 as the opening event of the new PGS, which was billed as the next step towards expanding the PUBG esports scene. The series features four major global events, starting with Berlin and ending in with the grand finals in November.

Due to the coronavirus outbreak, which was recently declared as a global health emergency by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the PGS schedule will see slight adjustments in a bid to avoid risking the health of players and other people involved. While the dates and regional qualifiers are subject to change, the plan to host four PUBG global events in 2020 remains untouched.

PUBG Corp. also unveiled they are actively working to set a date for a replacement event, although no information about it has been made public. That said, we can expect it to take place sometime before July, when the second PGS major tournament will be played.

This is just one of many incidents where the coronavirus has affected the esports scene. In January, EDward Gaming coach Ming “Clearlove” Kai announced he would not be able to join his team in the second week of the League of Legends Pro League (LPL). The whole LPL was postponed shortly after, while League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) has been played without live audiences.

The coronavirus has also left its mark on the Overwatch League, which has cancelled Shanghai Dragons’ homestand weekend this month and Guangzhou Charge’s homestand series in March. Charge also decided to move their practice facilities from China to South Korea in a bid to keep their players and staff safe.

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The Chinese city is currently the centre of an outbreak of a newly discovered coronavirus, which has killed at least 17 people to date and is said to have spread into six countries.

SEE ALSO: ESPORTS BETTING IN CHINA

Despite staying in the epicentre of the outbreak, Clearlove did not seem too fazed about the whole situation.

“If I can’t return [to the LPL] after I’ve celebrated the Lunar New Year, then you can only see my drafts online. I’ll send them a video of my drafting, I’ll cloud drop my drafts, that works,” said Clearlove.

EDG’s next best-of-five fixture in the LPL is set to take place on Saturday, February 8, when they will meet with Royal Never Give Up. So far, EDG have defeated Victory Five and lost to Top Esports, meaning the bout with RNG will be a must-win match for Clearlove’s men.

The two sides met at the Demacia Cup grand finals in December, where RNG bested their compatriots 3-1.

Today, the Chinese government announced they are suspending all outbound transport from Wuhan until the outbreak is contained, meaning that it is unlikely Clearlove will get a green light to leave the city before EDG’s clash with RNG.

There is also a reason to believe Clearlove could be absent for significantly longer, considering the city is now expected to be in lockdown for longer than initially foreseen. The latest news regarding the virus claimed it has infected nearly 600 people and has spread into Japan, Macao, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Korea and even North America.

The severity of the outbreak is still under question, with the World Health Organization still debating whether the epidemic should be considered as a global health emergency.

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