An Overwatch League tweet has confirmed that concerns about the coronavirus have made Blizzard cancel Overwatch League matches in South Korea. The country will no longer play host to Overwatch League 2020 for weeks 5, 6, and 7. Consequently, the home event for South Korean Overwatch League team Seoul Dynasty will also be canceled.
In order to protect the health & safety of our players, fans, & staff, we are canceling plans to host #OWL2020 matches in South Korea in Weeks 5, 6, and 7, including the @SeoulDynasty home event.
We’ll share more info about when and where matches will take place at a later.
— Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) February 24, 2020
These Overwatch League matches had already been rescheduled last month. The matches were originally due to take place in China but were relocated in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. Now it looks like the virus still isn’t giving Blizzard the chance to have those matches played. These matches will be rescheduled, but Blizzard isn’t going to share the details on when and where until a later date.
The coronavirus, known more specifically in this case as COVID-19, has now spread to at least 29 countries according to data produced by John Hopkins University. A number of esports events have been canceled because of it, and events outside of China are now starting to be affected. Most recently, Sony announced that it wouldn’t be attending PAX East due to coronavirus concerns, and Kojima Productions has canceled plans to appear at this year’s GDC. The virus is also affecting Nintendo Switch production and oddly spurring high Chinese demand for Ring Fit Adventure.
