Valve cancels upcoming Major/Minor due to coronavirus

Valve cancels upcoming Major/Minor due to coronavirus
Valve cancels upcoming Major/Minor due to coronavirus
posted by NanaKrustofski,
Valve has to cancel more tournaments due to the coronavirus: The fourth Minor and Major of this DPC will not take place. The virus already affected the latest Major and now, it keeps having an impact on the Dota 2 scene. On Sunday, Valve announced that they will cancel the EPICENTER Major 2020 as well as the Dota PIT Minor due to safety measures. Visitors will get a refund for their tickets.





A domino effect of problems



Dota is not the only esports affected by the virus. Tournaments across all disciplines have to be postponed, cancelled, or altered. While these are unpleasant news for anyone who was looking forward to watching the event, circumstances are even more devastating for those working on events. Esports tournaments are often said to not be very profitable for organisers anyways. A complete cancellation could potentially damage affected companies severly.

The changes are especially hurting freelancers who do not have an employer giving them fixed salary. As PimpmuckL revealed on his Twitter, a major part of his income is gone.





Another issue that the cancellation of tournaments entails is the different distribution of DPC points. Several teams skipped events in the current season or were simply not yet able to gather enough points for The International 2020. For them, their chance to make it to TI currently seems to be gone.

A call for online tournaments



In the current light of events, it is not even certain if TI will take place as planned. Many voices in the community are calling for online tournaments and also remark that now, regional leagues could be tested.





Online tournaments would pose another opportunity for teams to play for the last DPC points. For smaller organisations, prize money is another important factor as well. Freelancers could also be compensated to some extend. However, the staff for an online tournament differs from that of an offline event, therefore, some economical damage will still occur.

It is also important to remember that it is no simple procedure to shift a tournament to an online stage. The operations at Valve might be limited as well. It is now up to see what adjustments and solutions there will be.

Photo credit: Epicenter Twitter

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