The organizers of the ESL Pro League Season 11 tournament announced that the tournament will be held online due to the spread of coronavirus. It was originally planned that the group stage of the tournament would take place in Malta, and the playoffs – in Denver (USA). It has now been decided that the group stage matches will be played online, and the final part of the competition will take place in a European studio without the presence of spectators.
Recently, similar decisions have been made by the heads of other tournaments: the finals of IEM Katowice were held without spectators, and the final part of Flashpoint, which was supposed to take place in Stockholm, was moved to Los Angeles, and spectators will also be able to watch it only online.
According to the organizers of the ESL Pro League, their decision was largely influenced by the fact that new quarantine rules were adopted in Malta, implying restrictions on entry and exit, as well as on movement within the country. As a result, it became impossible to ensure the arrival of staff and teams to the studio where the competition was planned to be held. In addition, ESL has decided not to create a situation where more than a hundred people, including coaches, team members and staff, will be in one place for several weeks. Instead, players will be able to compete from home or from their team headquarters. Separate servers will be allocated for matches.
ESL assured fans that it expects to return to normal competition in the future. The organizers have already sent out refund instructions to those who purchased tickets.
