Riot Games has pushed the 2020 Mid-Season Invitational from May to July in addition to shifting dates for the League Summer Split due to growing concerns over COVID-19, more commonly known as the coronavirus, the publisher said today.
MSI, which has traditionally been held in May, is now slotted to take place from July 3 to 19. The Summer Split will begin before MSI in May. This decision, Riot said, was made to minimize the impact on the rest of the calendar year.
“Shifting the tournament to the summer offers the best chance to see travel restrictions lifted, allowing teams from leagues around the world to travel and compete safely,” Riot’s global head of esports John Needham said.
The first leagues to begin Summer Split play will be the OPL and VCS, which both start on May 15. Here are the start dates for all of the League regions.
- OPL, VCS – Friday, May 15
- LCS, TCL – Saturday, May 16
- LCK – Wednesday, May 20
- LEC – Friday, May 22
- LPL, CBLOL – Saturday, May 23
- PCS – Saturday, May 30
- LJL – Sunday, May 31
- LCL – Saturday, June 6
- LLA – TBA
Riot has also decided to sunset Rift Rivals 2020 in the regions where the tournament was scheduled to take place. It added too many challenges that “were felt at both a regional and global level,” Riot said.
Last month, Riot Games was forced to delay its announcement of the MSI 2020 location because of the coronavirus outbreak, which has claimed nearly 4,000 lives worldwide. China and South Korea, League’s most successful regions, have the first and second-most confirmed cases of coronavirus.
The situation will continue to be assessed by Riot and is subject to change if the overall global health and safety circumstances aren’t satisfactory for the company’s standards.
