Call of Duty League Live Events Are Moved to Online-Only Competition Due to the Coronavirus

• The Call of Duty League will be suspending live events due to the coronavirus. Ticket holders are urged to visit host team websites and follow their social channels.

The Call of Duty World League has sent out an email to fans earlier today in regards to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic. After the WHO declared novel coronavirus disease a pandemic, governments, cities, and institutions had to take extra cautionary measures in order to prevent the possible spread of the virus. Sports leagues around the world had to suspend play due to the virus including the NHL and NBA. However, esports competitions will not stop.

• Read: CDL Los Angeles Home Series Winners – Dallas Empire

In the email, the Call of Duty League stated that the “health and safety of employees, fans, players, teams, and partners is paramount to Activision Blizzard esports.” Esports events are just as crowded as sports events, and the possibility of something as contagious as the coronavirus spreading would be incredibly high. The CDL has suspended “live events”, however, they have not suspended league play as they are shifting to online-competition.

Email from the CDL

Since the CDL has partnered with Youtube, the competition will continue to stream on there with no interruptions. Here is the full email from the Call of Duty League:

Reaction Around the League

The CDL also posted the news on their social media channels with those who work in the CDL giving their reactions. Momo, an esports caster in the league tweeted that it was the right decision, however, also adding a sad emoji.

😥 right decision

— Phil (@Momo) March 12, 2020

A caster’s main job is to be at the live events and call out the play by play action. Now that the live events are suspended, there will definitely be a change in the setup for broadcasting the events. It would only be normal for casters to continue to broadcast the action from their own home since most of the live events are spread across the US, Canada and Europe.

Courage JD, who is a well-known caster and 100 Thieves content creator also agreed with the decision calling it the “right decision”.

So sad but the right decision.

— Jack “CouRage” Dunlop (@CouRageJD) March 12, 2020

The next stop in the CDL home series was Dallas, where the Empire was going to host the tournament on March 28th and 29th. It’s most likely that the home series will not be pushed, and that the league will continue to move on with the competition. The only issue will be ticket holders who have paid to see the teams compete live. Unless a decision is changed, it’s most likely that the ticket holders will need to get a refund for the event.

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Although it’s sad news for fans who were waiting months for this event, each team hosts two home series. By the time the Empire hosts its second home series, hopefully, things will be more under control than they are now.