The Novel Coronavirus outbreak has imposed its will on many aspects of Chinese day to day life. In the most recent development, the Overwatch League has decided to cancel a series of Chinese Homestands scheduled across February and March.
Team’s and Player’s Thoughts
Two of the Pacific East Division teams have already announced they have moved their training facilities to South Korea. There are the Guangzhou Charge and the Shanghai Dragons. Running counter to these was were the Chengdu Hunters. Who choose to stay in their facilities, albeit with increased sanitation, for the time being.
Seoul Dynasty Chief Officer of Operations has also assured fans of the team that they are working with the League office on the situation.
Know people have been asking about @SeoulDynasty given what’s going on in China. We’re on it – player safety and health comes first, and we know what’s going on is much bigger than us / the game and have given the league our feedback.
— Gen.G Arnold (@arnoldwh) January 26, 2020
Players have been chiming in as well the past week. Matthew “super” DeLisi expressed his views on the outbreak in his stream stating:
This [coronavirus] better wrap it up or I am
not going!
Los Angeles Gladiator’s Main tank Min-seok “OGE” Son also begged the question of Chinese homestand in his twitter and continues to tweet news about the outbreak.
how can we play in china…?
— OGE (@OGE_ow) January 24, 2020
New Details On Coronavirus
The coronavirus Outbreak has already affected over 6,000 people across the whole of China. Recently the virus has also been confirmed in various nations all over the world. Since the first few days of the outbreak, the number has jumped from 900 to its current 6,000. Previously reported to be only capable of animal-to-human transmission the virus has been confirmed to be capable of human-to-human.
It was speculated that the virus would impact the league in some way. In only a couple of days these quickly turn to reality as cases of the virus mounted and public safety concern began to pressure the League to respond.
The CDC and WHO have already placed China as a region with high risk. For travelers, this means avoiding nonessential travels. The organizations have also updated their recommendations for locals and travelers. Here is the one for the CDC, and the WHO.
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