The COVID-19 pandemic is not enough to stop Riot games from holding the annual League of Legends tournament. The 2020 World Championship will push through in China on September 25.
The virus affected the eSports industry greatly. It has postponed a lot of events. Some continued its activities online. But, the League of Legends World Championship 2020 is not one of them.
We're excited to celebrate the 2020 World Championship this September in China! #Worlds2020
See this video message from Riot Games CEO Nicolo Laurent and Global Head of Esports John Needham about our current plans: pic.twitter.com/c8trp4x8LD
— LoL Esports (@lolesports) August 1, 2020
League of Legends World Championship tournament in one place
According to its blog post, Riot has announced that the whole event will take place in the new Pudong Soccer Stadium in Shanghai.
“By holding the event in a single city, we can reduce the number of trips required during the tournament and more carefully monitor the competition environment,” the statement said.
Riot mentioned that they are applying the guidelines mandated by the World Health Organization. It is to make sure that players and everyone involved will stay safe during the event.
Other companies postponing annual tournaments
It is the first major tournament that will take place during the pandemic. Valorant regularly conducts its Ignition series. But, it does not require intensive traveling. Other invitationals also take place online.
Meanwhile, Epic Games canceled the annual Fornite World Cup this year. An online tournament would have been an option. But, several factors such as ping and latency will be present in cross-region online competitions.
On the other hand, Valve has postponed the Dota 2 International this year. The prize pool continues to increase though via the battle pass. There is no final date for the competition yet.
There are a lot of online tournaments going on to compensate for the loss of LAN competitions. Dota 2 has DotaPit tournaments while Valorant continues its Ignition series.
It is still a month before the League of Legends World Championships 2020. Riot still has time to reconsider for the sake of the health of its players.
Featured image courtesy of League of Legends