With the League of Legends Pro League reaching its home stretch before the playoffs, an official announcement on Sunday said all 18 LPL teams will play the remainder of the regular season games from remote locations due to a surge of COVID-19 in the country.
“To keep COVID-19 from spreading and to protect the health and safety of our players, coaches, team personnel and staff, we have decided to move the rest of the regular season games to remote play,” The statement said. “We appreciate your understanding and support. We’ll keep you informed if any changes occur in the future. We hope everyone stays safe and healthy.”
COVID has already affected some LPL teams in recent weeks. LPL team, Oh My God! already had games rescheduled due quarantining as a result of the pandemic. Additionally, only a couple of days ago, a match between Victory 5 and Anyone’s Legend was also rescheduled for safety reasons. V5’s jungler Hung “Karsa” Hau-Hsuan reportedly had “low fever symptoms.”
With one week left in the regular season, the number of remaining games affected is minimal. However, there are multiple high-stakes games in which playoff positioning and season lives are on the line. Edward Gaming faces off against LNG Esports in the first day of remote play, for example. And speaking of EDG, they also go up against Rare Atom, a team on the brink of qualifying for playoffs themselves, later in the week. Other notable matchups include Weibo Gaming going up against JD Gaming and RA vs JDG.
The announcement also stated that Team WE and LGD Gaming will be playing their games from their home arenas in Hangzhou and Xi’an, respectively.
