A few days ago, Valve announced that the ESL One: Rio 2020 major scheduled for late 2020 will be canceled. The tournament was originally scheduled to take place back in May, but was pushed back to November, and many cybersports fans were looking forward to it.
Valve explains on its blog that when the tournament dates were first announced, it was impossible to predict how the coronavirus situation would unfold. So now that the pandemic still continues to pose a threat in many countries, the organizers have decided to cancel the tournament so as not to jeopardize the health of players and fans who might want to attend the matches.
The bad news from Valve doesn't end there, unfortunately. The tournament organizer says all future majors will also be canceled until the situation normalizes. ESL officials released the following statement: «Right now Valve can't say with certainty when and in what form the majors will return again, but we will do our best to bring the majors to Rio as soon as possible. New dates will be announced as soon as it is possible to gather players in one arena without risking their safety».
