The past several days have seen a huge swathe of live events, from concerts and political rallies to sporting events, being canceled. Thenovel coronavirushas been pronounced a global pandemic and is now being taken extremely seriously. Video games, particularly eSports, have been affected like everything else.League of Legends, currently in the midst of ongoing competitive leagues across multiple countries and regions, is going out of its way to protect players, audiences, and employees in particular.
This morning Riot Games' commissioner of the LCS, theLeague of LegendsChampionship Series in North America, issued a statement confirming that all live audiences, tailgates, and press involvement has been suspended until further notice. The LCS Finals for the spring league is also in jeopardy, but no decision has yet been made. Riot says that the decision will be made by March 20, though, so attendees will still have time to alter their plans.
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The North AmericanLeague of Legendsleague isn’t the only one making cancelations, however. The European LEC has also announced similar decisions. “After careful consideration we have decided to cancel the onsite audience and press attendance for the remainder of the Spring Split, including the Finals.” The LEC had previously moved the finals from Budapest, Hungary to Berlin, but had hoped to preserve the audience. That’s no longer feasible, according toRiot.
For now, Riot will continue to keep both the North American and European leagues going, with the hope being that the individual teams and Riot’s employees will be able to stay healthy. To be fair, this was the National Basketball Association’s plan, too, right before a player on the Utah Jazz tested positive and gave the coronavirus to a teammate, and theNBA suspended its season. A full cancelation of theLeague of LegendsLCS or LEC spring finals or even the remaining season is still possible.
League of Legendsplayers are already well aware of the situation regarding the coronavirus, as play in both the Chinese and Korean leagues has already been canceled.Faker, perhapsLeague of Legends' biggest star, donated $25,000of his earnings to try and combat the spread of the coronavirus in South Korea. Everyone’s interested in doing what’s right to keep people healthy, while also wanting to provide fans with some greatLeague of Legendsaction.
League of Legendsisn’t the only game facing these problems.Mortal Kombat 11,Call of Duty: Modern Warfare,Overwatch,NBA 2K,Dota 2,Pokemon GoandCounter-Strike: Global Offensiveare just a few of the games that have canceled events or have moved to events without audiences. And it remains unclear if things will only get worse from here.
League of Legendsis available now on PC.
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