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The third round of the Dota Pro Circuit 2019-20 is almost here. With the ESL One Los Angeles Major and StarLadder ImbaTV Minor in a month, regional qualifiers were set to go within the week to determine the qualifiers for these tournaments.
The coronavirus outbreak has put a spanner in the works, however. Overwatch and League‘s esports have already been affected and Dota 2 is the latest game to join the list.
While all regions were set to begin their qualifiers on Feb. 7, Huomao TV, host for the Chinese qualifiers, announced that the qualifiers will be pushed back to Feb. 12.
The message, which Huomao TV sent to the teams on WeChat, says that Valve had pushed back the open qualifiers to Feb. 12 due to the coronavirus outbreak in the region. The dates for the closed qualifiers have yet to be confirmed. Teams can still proceed to register their teams at Perfect World’s PVP platform.
While the qualifiers are played online, qualified Chinese teams could still run into trouble traveling overseas for the tournaments. With the virus outbreak showing no signs of slowing, the U.S. has started implementing travel restrictions.
Since the next Major will take place in Los Angeles, the unprecedented scenario could mean that no Chinese team will be present for the third round of the DPC. The qualifiers for the Chinese teams will likely still be played, but its unclear if any of them will make it overseas.
