The World Electronic Sports Games has announced that they will be cancelling the WESG APAC final. As of now, it stands as a cancellation with no further possible date announced. It is currently unknown if WESG have any plans or intentions to reschedule the event.
“We will make further announcements in the future as the situation develops,” they wrote in a followup tweet. “We give our heartfelt best wishes to the affected patients and their families.”
As the tweet below states, WESG’s actions are done in an effort to limit international travel to help control the spread of the virus, which has already crossed multiple borders. Nations nearer to China, where the epidemic is reported to have begun, have seen a faster spread. Distance doesn’t grant immunity, however, as the virus has been found in multiple patients in California, sparking fears that it could spread throughout the United States.
This is far from the first gaming event that has been affected by the spread of the virus. As it continues to pick up traction and spread further with more intensity, more and more events have been cancelled of all sort. The LDL and LPL for League of Legends suspended play at week 2 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, for example.
It’s an alarming state of affairs, and certainly disappointing for those that were intending to attend the APAC final, but it’s ultimately for the best. As much of a shame as it may be to miss an event, it’s a bit more of a shame to contract a potentially-deadly virus and continue an epidemic, so it seems to be a pretty fair trade-off.
WESG APAC’s final has already been plagued with issues, as the match was originally intended to take place closer to the new year before being postponed to mid-February and now being cancelled. Both dates, as well as the aforementioned LDL and LPL matches that have been suspended, were set to take place in locations geographically closer to China.
On one hand, that might seem to bring some relief to Westerners/Europeans that might be worried their next event could be cancelled. However, given that it’s managed to jump borders multiple times, it could be a matter of time before events placed elsewhere are being cancelled due to the virus again.
Given that international travel has already been negatively affected by the epidemic, there’s a good chance that we’ll be seeing more postponements and cancellations as time moves on. Just remember: as disappointing as having to reschedule an event you looked forward to might be, it’s infinitely better than becoming the next patient (or victim) of an epidemic.
