The sad news for esports fans has been revealed – the CS: GO Rio Major 2020 tournament, which was supposed to take place in November in Brazil, was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The organizers Valve and ESL claim that they tried to implement the option of holding the competition live until the last moment, but, unfortunately, the global epidemiologic situation does not allow organizing the competition safely for participants and spectators.
The organizers promise to reopen global events such as the Major once regional RMR events can be safely organized. Fortunately, the restrictions will not affect online competition. It is also worth noting that tickets for a canceled Major don’t have to be returned, as they will still be valuable when the competition resumes.
Perhaps rescheduling the championship could be beneficial for ESL, because they will have more time to deal with the “spectator bug” – an error due to which the coaches of several teams could observe the opponents’ movements and inform their teammates about it. The recent reveal of this glitch sparked a scandal in esports and led to the removal of coaches and their teams’ disqualification from the competition.
