The World Health Organization has already declared an emergency of international concern. There are travel restrictions, quarantines, and more to stop the spread of the virus. <\/p>\n Over 48,000 people have recovered from the Coronavirus so far and diagnostic test kits are being deployed as fast as possible. Remain mindful of scams and misinformation and keep up to date with the latest from the WHO by heading here<\/a>. Keep up to date with the situation reports from WHO<\/a> and don’t believe everything you read online. <\/p>\n It’s dangerous to assume how COVID-19 will impact esports going forward. The worst thing we can do is spread rumours and incite fear, or speculate in any way which tournaments might get cancelled, or changed to an online format. However, several esports tournaments have already been impacted by coronavirus disease. <\/p>\n 12 hours before the doors were set to open for IEM Katowice 2020<\/a>, the license for the event was revoked by the mayor of the Polish city. This meant the tournament had to be played without an audience<\/a>. <\/p>\n However, it also meant the tournament had just over 1 million viewers at its peak. IEM Katowice set a new record for IEM events and became the most popular non-Major event in the history of CS:GO. <\/p>\n
\nThe latest WHO report featuring distribution of confirmed coronavirus cases (Picture: WHO.int) <\/span><\/p>\nCOVID-19’s impact on esports <\/h2>\n