The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented effect on the gaming community. With so many conferences and conventions mothballed, as well as companies and development teams having to adjust to work from home, a great amount of the annual events that gamers happily await were canceled, postponed, or altered.
Unfortunately, the esport scene was very much one of the elements of gaming that faced issues. With so many events planned that could fill stadiums with crowds of thousands of fans waiting to watch, virtually every major esport event had to be canceled.
Some, like World of Warcraft’s Mythic Dungeon International, were able to move to an online format instead. While this presented a new set of challenges and wasn’t quite ideal, it was a better option than outright canceling the event.
Now Blizzard has taken to Twitter to announce a new – and hopefully final – change to the format of the tournament. Having already moved online, the organizers were hoping to be able to hold the final event as an in-person LAN. However, it seems that they’ve had to reconsider, as their announcement today states that they’ll be holding the event online instead now.
“In the interest of prioritizing the health and safety of all those involved, the upcoming Mythic Dungeon International Battle for Azeroth Finals will no longer be held as an in-person LAN,” the team took to Twitter to announce today in an announcement posted above. “Fortunately, the format will not change despite the shift to remote play.”
It seems that everything will still be perfectly on track for the rest of the tournament, which has already provided an incredible amount of nervously close games and fantastic gameplay. In both the NA and EU regions, Method has seemed the dominant side and have claimed victory repeatedly, but the teams surrounding them aren’t making it easy for them.
At the moment, Method seems to be the favorite both in NA and EU, but some other teams are making wonderfully competitive showings. Perplexed was able to provide a solid challenge, almost matching Method toe-for-toe as the two juggernauts raced against each other. On the NA side, Ethical came out with a solid showing to claim second.
This coming weekend brings the kickoff of the second NA cup, with all eight teams clashing right back together to claim dominance. While Method may be the favorite, it certainly won’t be an easy path for them to walk.
