Esports will feel the pinch along with every other industry i♉n China thanks to the Wuhan coronavirus.
In case you've been living under a rock (which might be the safes🐲t place to be, come to think of it), there's a new viral outbreak in town. It's called the , so-called since the virus originally came from Wuhan, China. The virus is related to a family of viruses that includes everything from SARS to the common cold. Symptoms include cough and fever but can escalate to pneumonia and severe respiratory distress.
So far, China has reported over , although 🌄those figures are widely . We'll likely 𝐆never know the true number of infections as China's health system is .
The entire country is shutting down due to the outbreak. . . Government official🎉s are telling people to stay inside, even going so far as to provide to give people something to do in the hopes that limiting exposure will cause the epidemic to blow itself out.
And as you might expect, this has g൩reatly🌌 affected esports.
China is the largest esports market on the planet, with a recent report from Chinese media conglomerate Tencent reporting 2019’s esports revenue . All the biggest tournaments take place in China, from to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dota 2’s The International, and many more were planned for 2020.
Only now, those tournaments are being delayed or outright canceled. The Video Game Championship Pokémon Midseason Showdown was scheduled to take place on February 2nd 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:but was canceled due to🌺 the coronavirus outbreak. Week two of League of Legends Pro League 2020 Spring Split 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:was delayed two weeks, anℱd so far there's been no update on if it w♔ill still take place at all.
Last week, . Predator League has ও to the summer in response to the outbreak, and has been postponed indefinitely.
ꦇSo far, American and European tournaments have been unaffected by the coronavirus, but if the epidemic spreads beyond China’s borders, we could see those tournaments shutting down too.
While it pales in comparison to the loss of life, one thing is for certain: it could be a bad👍 year for🧜 esports.