The cathedral of Counter-Strike is facing uncertainty amid COVID-19 pandemic. German Chancellor Angela Merkel will reportedly announce specific measures and restrictions that shall suspend large gatherings across the country until late August 2020. The country has registered 134,753 cases, 3,804 deaths and 77,000 recoveries as the government begins easing the lockdown.
The ESL One: Cologne 2020 is scheduled from July 6-12 with 16 teams in attendance. The Masters Championship event boasts of whopping $1,000,000 prize pool. Lanxess Arena in Cologne was set to host 15,000 blazing fans, however, that seems unlikely considering global state of affairs as of now.
Later ESL released a statement through Twitter, “Earlier today it was announced that all large gatherings cannot take place until August 31, 2020 in Germany. We are working on what this means for ESL One Cologne 2020. We will update you on this as soon as possible.” The event organiser is apparently assessing the situation and the event cannot be entirely ruled out if the situation improves in near future.
ESL is arguably one of the highly affected event organiser amid COVID-19 and the succeeding lockdown. The organisers had to host ESL One: Katowice 2020 in an empty stadium after its license to host mass event was revoked. The ESL One: Rio Major 2020 was set to take place from May 11-24, but it has now been rescheduled for November later this year.
