Riot Suspends League of Legends Championship Series, Moves Spring Finals

The League of Legends Championship Series has been suspended due to the coronavirus concerns, Riot Games announced this week. Just as Riot decided to cancel the weekend’s League of Legends European Championship matches and evaluate what steps need to be taken next, it’s decided to suspend all LCS operations for the time being as they monitor the situation and new plans are made. Riot said it’s looking into playing the rest of the games remotely which would mean games being conducted with no crowds, and the location of the Spring Finals has also been moved in response to the situation.

Chris Greeley, the LCS commissioner, shared an update with LCS fans through the league’s official Twitter account this week. LCS viewers will know that matches are played on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, though it looks like the matches will be cancelled for the weekend and perhaps longer depending on how long it takes to figure out the next steps for the LCS.

“As the impact of COVID-19 (coronavirus) continues to grow, we’re committed to keeping the health and safety of players, fans, and everyone who makes the LCS possible at the forefront of every decision we make,” Greeley’s update said. “And so, it was an incredibly difficult call to make, but this afternoon we decided, after discussion with LCS teams, to suspend operations (including all LCS and Academy games) for the immediate future. The same factors that weighted into this decision, coupled with expanding restrictions on large-scale public events in North Texas, have also led us to move the 2020 LCS Spring Finals from Dallas to the home studio in Los Angeles.”

Greeley replied to the LCS tweet to add that Riot is “looking to shift [their] play to remote games (i.e. teams not on site) and get the LCS back as soon as possible.” It’s unclear when or if that might happen.

The LCS is the latest of several of League’s various organizations around the world that’s been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Riot said last week that the Spring Finals would still happen despite the issues though added that the situation was being monitored to see if anything needed to be done regarding the Finals location. After more live events were suspended and then the LEC itself was suspended, combined with the fact that other esports organizations were suspending operations or shifting to online-only matches, the decision wasn’t an unexpected one.