The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an incredible amount of disruption in the gaming world. This has been felt most of all in the conferences and events that were canceled, especially focused on esports events.
That isn’t to say that the rest of the impact in the gaming world hasn’t been significant, of course, but most gamers don’t feel an immediate impact from entire development teams having to work from home for safety’s purposes. The same can’t be said about the cancelation of dozens and dozens of events, which has impacted everyone from the most casual gamer to the most dedicated developer.
Blizzard’s esports have been particularly affected, with practically all of their popular IPs having their esports tournaments moved online. We recently discussed the Hearthstone Masters Tour, which has had its most recent and now two upcoming tournaments moved online, and while the future looks hopeful, we could very well be seeing the same thing for the rest of the year’s Masters Tour tournaments.
Blizzard has announced that the upcoming Mythic Dungeon International will continue as planned but the event will be moving to a remote broadcast with Talent casting the event from home. https://t.co/ViNdZJzv5g pic.twitter.com/1l3hMdgTao
— Wowhead💙 (@Wowhead) March 30, 2020
But the latest development lies not in Hearthstone but in World of Warcraft, namely the retail version. Blizzard took to their social media platforms earlier today to announce that they’ll be moving their upcoming World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth tournament to an entirely online format for the safety of everyone involved.
“For the health and safety of our casters and staff, the Mythic Dungeon International will be moving to remote broadcasts,” Blizzard stated in their announcement. “Our broadcast schedule will continue as planned and our Casters will be casting from home. We are committed to putting on the best show possible.”
And, other than promising more details later, that’s it. Blizzard didn’t share a great amount of information on the move, likely because we pretty much all saw it coming. The last few weeks have led to cancelations in every direction, to the point where most fans now have just taken to assuming that the events will be held online unless it’s considerably far off in the future.
The different cups of the Mythic Dungeon International all still have their same times and will be streamed exclusively on YouTube. The schedule is as follows, which Blizzard states has not and likely will not change:
Sat, Apr 11, 2020 1:00 PM EDT MDI BFA Season 4 EU & Asia Cup 1
Sat, Apr 18, 2020 1:00 PM EDT MDI BFA Season 4 AMER Cup 1
Sat, Apr 25, 2020 1:00 PM EDT MDI BFA Season 4 EU & Asia Cup 2
Sat, May 2, 2020 1:00 PM EDT MDI BFA Season 4 AMER Cup 2
Sat, May 9, 2020 1:00 PM EDT MDI BFA Season 4 EU & Asia Cup 3
Sat, May 16, 2020 1:00 PM EDT MDI BFA Season 4 AMER Cup 3
So, essentially, every Saturday from April 11th until May 16th will have some delicious MDI action. Set your calendars and check your bandwidth – the tournament is marching on!
