Blizzard Cancels OWL Matches in China, Obviously

Hey, while we’re talking about Blizzard – do you remember earlier, when Riot Games decided to postpone matches of their professional League of Legends games in China due to concerns about the Coronavirus? Blizzard has decided to do the same thing, because while they’re evil, they’re not stupid either.

We have decided to cancel our February and March matches in China in order to protect the health and safety of our players, fans, and staff. We hope fans have a safe and happy Lunar New Year, and we remain incredibly excited to play Overwatch league matches in China later this season.

We’ll share more information about when and where the matches will take place at a later date.

Thank you for your support and understanding!

So far, the viral outbreak has killed around 200 people, and there are almost 8000 estimated infections around the world, although 95 percent of them seem to be located in Hebei. As a precaution, many OWL teams have already moved their players to South Korea so they’ll be able to continue to practice with relative safety.

Hopefully this disease is taken care of before long – more for the people who are sick or at-risk than anything silly like eSports, but hey, we can call the latter a bonus.