The playoffs of the Intel Extreme Masters Katowice, a large annual e-sports tournament in Poland, take place without an audience. That has been decided by the Polish local government following concerns about coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.
The ESL reports that on Thursday evening the Polish governor of Silesia learned that the IEM Katowice 2020 must close its doors to the public due to “the dynamic changes in the global health situation”. “We respect the decision of the local authorities. Your health and well-being are more important than anything else”, writes the ESL.
The organizer calls on interested parties who already have a ticket for the event not to come to the event location on Friday and during the weekend. They can get their money back. How that will happen exactly will be discussed in the coming days website of IEM Katowice placed.
The preliminary rounds of the tournament have already started in January. In the meantime, the group matches have been completed and on Friday and at the weekend the finals, including the public, would take place in Katowice, Poland, in the Spodek arena. As always, the matches are still broadcast via the well-known channels, such as Twitch. This year, e-sports organizations participate in the tournaments around two games: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Starcraft II.
IEM Katowice is not the only e-sport event where concerns about the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and the associated Covid-19 disease lead to cancellations, shifts or non-public admission. For example, the announcement of the timing and location of a major annual League of Legends tournament, the Mid Season Invitational, will be postponed. The upcoming Korean LCK matches from Riot Games’ own League of Legends competition will also be played without an audience. The Chinese games of the Overwatch League for February and March were previously by Blizzard deleted and a number of Korean competitions are now too canceled.
—
