Update — March 13, 2020: Just half an hour before its first match of the week was due to begin, Riot Games has suspended the LEC Spring Split until further notice. Although no player or staff has tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) at the time of writing, a staff member is under quarantine after it was suspected they may have come into contact with the virus.

Update — March 12, 2020: Riot Games announced today that it will cancel the live audience and onsite press attendance at the League of Legends European Championship (LEC) Studio in Berlin for the remainder of the 2020 Spring Split. This will include the finals, which were moved to the studio from the originally planned roadshow event in Budapest, Hungary.

The announcement also noted that Origen, an LEC team that travels weekly to Berlin to compete, will play its matches online this weekend from Copenhagen. Denmark has put in place various measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus, including cancelations of all flights from high risk regions, closure of all schools and universities, and sending home all employees in the public sector with non-critical jobs. The country currently has over 500 diagnosed cases of the virus.

Original Story:

Riot Games has announced that its Spring finals events for the League of Legends European Championship (LEC) has been canceled.

The finals will still be broadcast from the league’s studio in Berlin. For now a live audience will still be hosted, but this could change.

This follows repeated delays and public closures of League of Legends esports events in Asia, in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

The League of Legends European Championship (LEC) finals roadshow event in Budapest has been canceled in response to the novel coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19). The competition will go ahead at the league’s studio in Berlin, however public attendees will not be permitted for the remainder of the season.

The LEC Spring finals, scheduled for April 25-26, would have marked the LEC’s first roadshow event in a Visegrád Group (or V4) country. It is the next major European esports event to be affected by the outbreak; the Intel Extreme Masters Katowice multi-game event was closed to public attendees last weekend, after organizer ESL’s mass event license was revoked at the last-minute by the governor of the Silesia Province in Poland.

“While we currently plan to host a live audience in the Berlin studio, we will continue to monitor the situation and work with local health officials to ensure the safety of players and fans, and will revisit this decision if necessary,” said Alberto Guerrero, head of esports for Europe, Riot Games, in a statement.

The decision follows months of delays and closures for the League of Legends professional circuits in Asia. The League of Legends Pro League (LPL) in China will only begin its Spring season on March 9, while the League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) initially barred audience attendance to its studio in Seoul, before deciding to delay games indefinitely, starting March 9.

Riot Games had also delayed its announcement of the timing and location of the Mid-Season Invitational 2020, on account of the virus outbreak. The World Championships is set to take place in Shanghai near the end of the year, with local authorities announcing they would fully support the event during a recent press conference regarding the coronavirus.