China’s LPL to start broadcasting scrims amid coronavirus hiatus
Competition in the LPL will continue online as it remains shut down by the epidemic.
The League of Legends Pro League (LPL), the top League of Legends professional league in China, has announced that they will begin broadcasting online scrimmages between its teams amid its ongoing hiatus due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in the country.
With the safety of its players, teams, staff, and fans remaining a primary concern, the LPL revealed in its official Weibo and Twitter accounts that the online scrims league will begin on February 26 and will feature Top Esports, JD Gaming, Suning, Victory Five, and eStar.
We want to give a quick thank you everyone for the support when we announced our temporary hiatus for the LPL.We will be hosting an online scrims league starting the 26th. Our primary concern is still keeping everyone safe but we are expecting some great entertaining matches!
The scrims will follow the LPL’s best-of-three match format, with two daily matches taking place over the course of four days.
The LPL first announced that it was going on hiatus back in January, over a week before it was scheduled to return from a two-week break for the Lunar New Year, due to the rapid spread of the coronavirus epidemic in China and its surrounding countries.
As many as 27 countries have been affected by the coronavirus outbreak, with over 75,000 cases and 2,000 deaths confirmed thus far, as reported byChannel News Asia.
Esports tournaments and leagues across the world have also been affected by the ongoing epidemic, with theOverwatch League notably cancelling the Homestands previously set to be held in Chinaandmoving them to South Korea.
The coronavirus outbreak has even prompted the2019 LoL world champions FunPlus Phoenix to donate ¥2 million (US$290,000) to help combat the epidemic.
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