Most organisers and companies have opted to cancel their upcoming events in 2020 due to the threat of the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak, including major ones like E3 2020. However, others have chosen to hold their events in empty/vacant locations or go online instead.

The ESL has announced that the upcoming ESL Pro League Season 11 CS:GO tournament will be played online, the finals of which will now take place at a studio location in Europe, with no live audience. It was originally supposed to be held at the 1stBank Center in Denver, Colorado.

In a statement on their official website, ESL said:

“This decision was largely motivated by the fact that Malta, the country of our originally planned studio location, has instituted a wide range of travel restrictions and quarantine regulations as of today.

We fully support all measures aimed at containing the Covid-19 dynamics as much as possible.

These travel restrictions have made it impossible for a large amount of staff and the majority of teams to make their way to the planned season location.

Because of this, instead of having over a hundred players, coaches, team members and ESL staff in a single location over multiple weeks, teams and players will be playing their matches either from home, team houses or in suitable boot camp locations in Europe and play out their matches on dedicated online servers.”

According to ESL, participating teams and the Counter-Strike Professional Players Association have been “extremely supportive” of this decision. Full refunds for tickets will also be available, with further instructions to arrive from the 1stBank Center in the near future.

Going online is a good alternative to cancelling events, as it means that they can still go on with few caveats and less loss for all parties.

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