The COVID-19 pandemic that’s currently causing a worldwide lockdown has forced Riot Games to cancel the 2020 Mid-Season Invitational for League of Legends.
Through a blog post released on April 23, John Needham – global head of League of Legends esports – has announced the news of them canceling the annual League tournament. While the decision is indeed unfortunate, it was inevitable due to the pandemic that is posing “extraordinary challenges around the globe.” The decision to not hold MSI 2020 was due to the fact that “International travel restrictions and local/regional/national mandates change daily, and nearly all assessments have the pandemic dramatically impacting large social gatherings throughout the summer.”
Based on the modelling of their external risk advisors, they felt that the COVID-19 impact wouldn’t be under control by the start of MSI 2020 which was scheduled to be on July 3rd. So instead of taking any unwanted risks they decided to cancel the tournament entirely, “We believe this decision was necessary to ensure the health and safety of the players, teams, crew, partners, media, and fans.”
Needham stated that their 12 regional leagues had “continued to operate using innovative production resources” and assured the players that League “has served as an important source of entertainment on an almost daily basis to millions of players and fans—and will continue to do so.” Riot has also said that they’ll keep players informed on the evaluation of alternative events and activities in the upcoming weeks.
On a more positive note they mentioned that the decision to cancel MSI will help them in creating an even better Worlds 2020 for their fans to enjoy by dedicating their global esports team and more resources to it, “We are totally committed to delivering the biggest spectacle we’ve ever produced in China to celebrate our sport’s 10-year anniversary.”
This change was followed by another announcement stating some changes in the quantity of teams alloted to each region for the upcoming 2020 World Championship.
As mentioned in the blog post, the 2020 World Championship for League will have the following regional seed distribution:
- LPL (China), LEC (Europe): 4 Teams each
- LCK (Korea), LCS (North America): 3 Teams each
- PCS (Southeast Asia), VCS (Vietnam): 2 Teams each
- CBLOL (Brazil), TCL (Turkey), LJL (Japan), LLA (Latin America), OPL (Oceania), LCL (Commonwealth of Independent States): 1 Team each
More details on the event, including pool placements for all seeds, will be updated by Riot in their website in the near future. We too will be sure to keep our readers posted on what’s to come.
