Last week, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) expanded into multiple countries throughout the world. At the time of writing, there are over 12,000 people infected with the COVID-19 virus in 30 countries (excluding China’s numbers) including South Korea, Iran, Japan, the United States, and multiple European countries. These cases have led to health and safety concerns about attendance at global esports events, and most recently affected one of the biggest events in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive – the Intel Extreme Masters Katowice, as the event was played with no audience on-site. The League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) also postponed this week.
In China’s esports industry, the negative impact of coronavirus has gradually declined little by little, as some major tournaments will resume in the next week, and one more esports business has created online esports education.
Other stories covering China : Tencent partnered with SuperGen Education, and released free esports educational courses on its livestreaming platform Penguin Esports; KPL Team Hero rebranded to Nanjing Hero with new logo; Chinese Dota 2 teams went to Thailand, Kuala Lumpur, and Mexico to deal with visa challenges for ESL One Los Angeles Major; and Chinese business site 36Kr partnered with the China Communication Industry Association.
