Looks like the Coronavirus outbreak has caused another unforeseen circumstance to another industry: eSports. The Overwatch League is moving their matches from Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Shanghai to Seoul, South Korea. This will take place in the 6th and 7th week of the competition and the makeup matches could be added to Seoul Dynasty’s home event in week 5. The league had already cancelled their February and March matches in China to “protect the health and safety of our fans, players, and staff”.
The release schedule for these matches should be coming soon, and they mentioned that this wouldn’t affect other Overwatch homestands in Washington, Florida and Atlanta.
While this is a welcome move considering they’re doing this to help stop the spread of infection to their fans, organisers and the players themselves, it’s uncertain how effective this would’ve been. I think it’s just a move from Blizzard to make sure there isn’t even the possibility of anyone getting an infection at on of their events. It’s a logical move, but it could also be because they just didn’t want their matches to be empty, with people not wanting to attend due to the fears of the coronavirus infection.
