How coronavirus pandemic affected League of Legends tournaments

How coronavirus pandemic affected League of Legends tournaments

Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic affected every aspect of our life including esports. League of Legends tournaments suffered probably more than other games. The thing is nearly every top LoL championship, which gives a chance to qualify for Mid-Season Invitational or World Championship, is played on LAN, often in studios with big audience. Moreover, three main regions of LoL esports are China, Korea and Europe. And this regions suffered from pandemic the most.

The first affected region was China, from where COVID-19 started to spread all over the world. Local league LPL stopped after the first week of Spring Split on January 19, when the world beyond China was still calm. For some time LPL was paused, then teams played special Open Scrims and LPL itself returned on March 15 in online format. To catch up the schedule, matches are played every day. Therefore, you can get your portion of arcade Chinese LoL no matter if it is Tuesday or Sunday. China nearly shut down the pandemic and there is a chance that we can see play-off on LAN, even without live audience.

South Korea is another epicenter of COVID-19 spreading. For some time LCK was played without live audience and players were wearing earloop facemasks. At some point LCK host Mina Kima was hospitalized with suspected coronavirus infection. However, suspicion was not confirmed and she returned to her job. Nevertheless, league was paused after the first round. Not long ago LCK have returned in online format.

China was able to stop pandemic but situation in Europe becomes critical. This, of course, affected the possibility of holding LEC matches in Berlin studio. On March 20 LEC returned without LAN. American League LCS was also relaunched on March 21.

Smaller (aka Wild Card) leagues were also affected. Brazilian league had problems even before the pandemic because of heavy rains in Sao Paulo and after the first rounds it was interrupted. It is still unknown when it is going to be back. Very popular Turkish League was played without live audience for some time but now completely shut down as well.

The only Wild Card League that was not affected by the pandemic is CIS league LCL featuring Unicorns of Love roster (with Nomanz and AHaHaCiK). LCL experiences hard times with lack of interest by sponsors and local audience, who loves Dota 2. The organizers decided to redirect finances from hosting a studio to supporting teams and league is played online. This is no great loss but some small profit.

Unicorns of Love after LCL 2019 Summer Split Grand Final

By contrast with traditional sports, esports can be played online but still loses something. Yes, players can still show their skill and audience receive content but in League of Legends teams’ sponsors are definitely unsatisfied with all of this. On League of Legends official streams, teams sponsors got their placements only on players’ jerseys. And with no studio they receive zero time on air. If this goes on, many teams can lose some big sponsors and this will be severe blow to biggest esports game now.

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