“An abundance of caution” will be the phrase of 2020. Whether we say it seriously – for the caution we did take – or ironically – for all the caution we didn’t take – will depend on what happens in the next few months. Right now, it likes like the world of esports is taking the virus seriously as events everywhere are being cancelled.

The LEC and LCS have been postponed and fighting games everywhere are taking a break. The fighting game community (FGC) may take more damage than most other gaming communities. It’s the FGC that doesn’t have the money to lose to event cancellations. It’s the FGC that can’t afford to take a break. It’s the FGC that’s the poor man in the esport world. And it’s the poor man that gets hit hardest by catastrophe and disease.

If you can, please stay at home for the next couple of weeks. The way we beat COVID-19 is by unifying with a self-quarantine before it hits a certain level. If we work together now we'll get to go back to smash tournaments sooner. Stay safe friends. — GimR @ #SmashWorldTour (@VGBC_GimR) March 13, 2020

But let’s pause the dramatic soapboxing for a second. The FGC is also resilient. This is a community where multiple games have rallied and gone from half-dead to alive and thriving. The FGC is made up from the grassroots and its communities are more accustomed to donation drives, fundraisers, and community effort than most esports.

Theory: The corona virus was bioengineered to destroy the fgc https://t.co/T9caxKGJfO — Majin 「O」boomer @ #FightingTuesday 99 (@2dJazz) February 21, 2020

Just how bad will the coronavirus be for fighting games?

What COVID-19 is and the reason for caution

To understand any of the wide reaching effects of coronavirus, it’s worth looking into the actual virus itself. First, let’s look at some of the more positive statistics.

According to Worldometers.info – a website that collects a ton of worldwide stats and updates daily – the total number of cases at the time of this writing is 145,021. That number isn’t too large when considering that 137 territories and countries are currently infected. Of the some 76,000 closed cases, only about 5,400 are deaths – about 7% total.

It’s worth noting that the total number of cases is likely underreported due to many reasons. The symptoms of coronavirus don’t always show, meaning some carriers don’t know they have it. Though, this also likely means that the fatality rate is over-reported. There’s also the fact that in many places in the world, data for many things isn’t well-recorded. Add to that, in countries like the US testing is prohibitively costly – as is most medical care – so many people with symptoms simply aren’t getting tested.

Even still, the positive side of the coronavirus is it isn’t lethal for a large portion of the population. It hits the immuno-compromised and the elderly the worst. Obviously, it’s terrible it hits anyone but it isn’t a world-ending threat.

If you measure the coronavirus by lethality, it thus far doesn’t compare to the danger of many other pandemics. However, the coronavirus isn’t a threat due to its lethality. It’s a threat due to its spread, its difficulty to catch, and its lack of vaccines. The coronavirus can transmit to others before it shows its symptoms. One study of the virus’s spread in Tianjin and Singapore found that on average the infection spread from its host 2.55 to 2.89 days before symptoms showed.

The coronavirus is incredibly stealthy, meaning that it’s much harder to stop than previous pandemics like SARS or MERS, despite being less lethal. The virus and its lethality is a problem – make no mistake. The weight it puts on societal systems that can bear almost no more weight is the much bigger problem.

If you look at the situation in China, Japan, and South Korea, you can see what it takes to handle the outbreak at a serious but minimized expense. Each of these three countries practiced a heavy amount of “social conditioning” – a term made to describe a self-imposed isolation where people attempt to minimize crowds and heavy social interaction as much as possible.

They also got to testing early and very often. If China had got to testing even earlier, and listened to the doctor that brought the issue up, then the country would have done even better than it did. Acting early, on a wide scale, and on the back of a well-built system, any country can beat the virus.

However, if your country isn’t careful and it lacks a good system then you face what Italy faces now. Italy has gone on full lockdown, to the point where the streets in cities like Milan are eerily empty. For Italy, the problem is mass infection has led to a flood of cases the system can’t handle.

Italy has over 17,000 infected people as of March 13th, up some 2,000 people from March 12th. The Corona Virus has killed 1,266 people over there so far and the spread only happened recently. Italy has less deaths and cases than China but a much higher percentage rate of infection and death.

292 people per 1 million are infected in Italy as compared to just 56 in China. China’s death rate is about 4% and Italy’s is roughly 7.2%. This is despite the disease originating and getting a headstart in China. China dealt with a problem virus before in the form of SARS and since then worked to increase emergency healthcare access for situations just like these.

Unlike China, Italy does not have the hospital staff, the medical beds, and the ventilators needed to treat everyone. This means that nearly the entire medical industry needs to be laser focused on the Corona Virus. Hospital beds need to rapidly be freed up, people need to be rotated in and out, and in the ensuing chaos, more people die than necessary.

At this point, people who look at raw numbers can and do point out how the mortality rate still isn’t that high. The mortality rate could be significantly worse. It could also be significantly better and we can prove that by looking at countries with stronger preventive policies and better systems. In essence, preparation mixed with a strong healthcare system can save thousands of lives.



“Thousands” could be a small estimate as well. The coronavirus is fading in Asia but in the Western World it has only just begun. The choice between an abundance of caution and business as usual is a moral one, and on a moral level it’s very easy to make. Cut back on productivity, cut back on events, cut back on life for just a while, and 10,000 or more people could live quite a bit longer.

The problem facing the US is that the healthcare system is even worse. The US has less hospital beds per capita than Italy and a whole lot less than China and South Korea. Access to testing is even more limited and cost-prohibitive. So it makes even more sense for Americans to cut down on social interaction and productivity for a while.

The problem is, the US isn’t structurally well prepared to take off work. A recent survey from Bankrate found that 29% of 1,000 people surveyed had more credit card debt than emergency savings. A likely much larger percent of the population has a good chunk more general debt than savings.

A mix of debt, rising cost of living, and fall of real wage growth means that many Americans can’t afford to isolate themselves if it means taking off work. Money makes managing COVID-19 a lot trickier than normal and money is the big problem for the FGC. Can so many different titles and esports come to a halt without breaking the bank?

The financial fragility of the FGC

Most esports communities are small and rising compared to major sports. Some larger esports like League of Legends, Dota 2, and CS:GO have enough money and infrastructure built up that they can afford to miss an entire season. Even if players didn’t get their salary, they could still rely on streaming numbers that go well higher than what you see in Smash. As I write this article, LCS players are streaming in-house games with ad-hoc teams to over 60,000 viewers.

Players also make a minimum of $75,000 in the LCS. LCS Commissioner Chris Greeley told Dexerto that the average went even higher – over $300,000. At that level of income, saving becomes pretty easy even in places with a high standard of living.

The smaller esports – like Smash and many other Fighting games – have much more to fear. Tier 1 sponsors like Team Liquid, UYU, Cloud 9, and now Golden Guardians provide stable and liveable stipends to players. Even tier 2 sponsors won’t always provide a salary and will just pay for travel and lodging at events. The lower tier sponsors can’t even provide that.

The upside is that a lot of top level Smash and fighting game players find other jobs and ways of making a living. The top 20 players don’t need a side gig but many even in the 21-100 level does. That means many of these players don’t have to rely on fighting games to make money. The downside of the upside is that these jobs may be the kind to struggle under the coronavirus, too.

Before Calvin “GimR” Lofton and Matthew “Aposl” Lofton took off with VGBootCamp and created the Smash World Tour, they began as players and organizers in an even less financially sound scene. The two released a video going over their history in Smash where GimR explained that a side gig isn’t always the best paying gig.

“We didn’t have like super good jobs. We found jobs that let us take time off. And generally when you have a job that’s willing to let you take time off, it’s not necessarily the highest paying job.”

GimR’s situation isn’t going to be the standard, especially given how diverse the FGC as a whole is. But GimR is speaking to a truth in the US job market. If you’re working part-time and spending the other part of your time on an esport, you’ll probably be less financially secure than if you were full time in one career.

As events get cancelled, the players may not even have the worst of it. The organizers not only lose out on work, they have to put in a lot of work to salvage the situation. Most events will hand out refunds to attendees. Doing anything else would create a lot of bad blood. However, most events can’t rely on getting refunds from the venues they leased or the staff they employed.

That’s what happened with Community Effort Orlando – or CEO. CEO Dreamland had possibly the worst timing of any tournament this year. Going from March 13th to 15th, it was just in time for quarantine efforts to escalate and for most players to cancel but not far out enough that the TO could easily cancel with the venue and staff.

The result, CEO’s organizer Alex Jebailey had to open a Paypal for donations. Jebailey claimed he’d never had to do something like this in his 11 year long career as a TO for one of the biggest tournaments in fighting games. If he had flat out cancelled the event he would have been facing bankruptcy since he could not claim force majeure – essentially a cancelling of a contract due to unforeseeable events that would make it void.

In Eleven years of event hosting I've never had to do this.



Since everything for #CEODreamland was ordered to make the event great already before a ton of COVID-19 refunds started to come in.



We've set up https://t.co/BABW0rWufy to help support CEO this year if you wish to. — Alex Jebailey Loves you ALL (@Jebailey) March 12, 2020

Transparent mention. I can not cancel this event unless the city or hotel asks me too enacting Force Majeur(Google it). Everything in Orlando is open for business, no confirmed cases, Disney is open. If I cancel by my own choice, instant bankruptcy. Please understand my situation — Alex Jebailey Loves you ALL (@Jebailey) March 12, 2020

CEO wasn’t the only tournament that faced disastrous financial repercussion. Michigan Masters, a large annual fighting game tournament in you-can-guess-which-state got cancelled by state government decree. They had to slow refunds and send a request to the venue to cancel the contract on grounds of force majeure. Smashdown, a major tournament in Colombia also had to be cancelled, with one TO writing, “We are in debt, like seriously.”

In order to best mitigate potential bankruptcy and event destruction: Michigan M@sters is reserving the right to change the refund deadline and is now moving it up to tomorrow, March 13th as opposed to the 15th.



[a thread] — MiM@s 2020 – PERFECT VISION (@MIMastersFGC) March 12, 2020

This plus last RT… we are in debt, like seriously. We will publish refund ASAP, but please understand we are also suffering financially from this. pic.twitter.com/XvZ07Tn6ul — James – Clokke (@ClokkeJames) March 13, 2020

TOs often sacrifice a lot of their own money or time to get a tournament running. They could well be the biggest losers from the virus. Because TOs often personally create and run tournament series, seeing them go into financial trouble could mean less events in the future. Keep in mind CEO, Smashdown, and Michigan Masters are all annual events so their cancellation doesn’t just mean this year is gone. If they go far enough into the red, it means next year is gone too.

Honestly, if you registered for an upcoming Smash tournament that got canceled, AND you can live without your registration fee, please consider not asking for a refund.



These TOs may be going into hard debt over the Virus, & it's already the most thankless job. Just a thought. — HugS ❤️ (@HugS86) March 12, 2020

For Smash, the timing feels particularly brutal. The Smash World Tour was literally about to begin when the coronavirus escalated to the point where health professionals recommended cancelling large events. This tour looked like Smash’s best chance at a functioning circuit in a long time.

It may still be a functioning circuit, but further down the line now. VGBootCamp suspended the Smash World Tour and the PGStats team suspended the current tournament ranking system. Both teams are trying to do what’s right. They’re listening to experts around the world and giving people less reason to gather in large groups, spread the virus, and overload an underprepared system.

Unfortunately, like in so many things, it’s the money that makes it all tricky.

Community effort

Tricky, but not impossible.

Many games in the FGC came up in tricky situations where the money wasn’t really there. Many games came out the other end and kept growing. Through all the hardships and difficulties the FGC has faced, it’s entered the esports landscape through grit and community effort.

There’s plenty of reason to believe that the FGC will survive like it always has. For many titles, the community is larger and more active than ever. The ecosystem has also increased now the many big teams and sponsors see fighting games as one of the major sectors of esports.

Not to mention that the rise of internet matchmaking means even very old games like Melee have a strong streaming audience. Netplay also allows for internet tournaments. Normally, they’re a rough and imperfect supplement to local competition. Now they may be the ticket to keeping the competitive fires burning while we all socially distance.

The internet doesn’t just help matchmaking, it helps mobilize the community. Throughout CEO, Jebailey’s Twitter feed has been full of kind messages about the tournament, all attached to donations. Several players have also chosen to donate their winnings to CEO to help keep the tournament running. While we don’t have donation or financial numbers from CEO, it seems like community effort turned the tide.

I donate all my prize of doubles to @CEOGaming

I attend CEODreamland as a graduation trip and it was so much fun !!

Thank you for all who talked to me or played smash together !!

I hope to meet you again😊😊 — クロ/Kuro⚫️ (@_kuro258) March 16, 2020

Giving a fraction of my winnings back to @CEOGaming since its always such a great event and to help them recover. Thank you for the amazing event as always @Jebailey WE LOVE CEO AND YOU — eU Samsora (@Samsora_) March 15, 2020

Not gonna take the prize money to support @Jebailey and @CEOGaming with what happened in regards to COVID-19



Great event, had lotsa fun

Hope everyone enjoyed my play — UYU丨n0ne (@n0ned) March 15, 2020

In the wider community, Smash.gg plans to make a TO relief fund that will run out of their shop. After cancelling Pound 2020, GimR offered full refunds but said that anyone who did not refund would basically be donating to VGBootCamp. VGBootCamp would then feed these donations back into the community, either by paying the staff who work at Xanadu – VGBootCamp’s venue – or even going into a netplay tournament prize pot or TO relief.

COVID-19 has impacted the live esports scene. Many grassroots TOs made investments in events that they won't be able to run. We're planning on setting up a "TO Relief Fund" Shop on smashgg to help organize how donations are collected. More details coming Monday.



– smashgg fam ❤️ — smash.gg (@smashgg) March 14, 2020

A little bit more detail as to what we are doing with the money, etc. https://t.co/w9W5IgmRXZ pic.twitter.com/2RNporvn5z — GimR @ #SmashWorldTour (@VGBC_GimR) March 13, 2020

As ever, the community effort hasn’t ended. Even in the face of a pandemic, the community effort won’t end. This is why, even as the coronavirus escalates (The Center for Disease Control had initially recommended no gatherings larger than 50 people for eight more weeks. Now, it’s complete lockdown in most areas affected by COVID-19), you shouldn’t expect the FGC to die. Yes, this will hurt the FGC. It will hurt it worse than other esports. However, the Smash World Tour can delay its finals and its circuit. The community can come together to help those in need. The fight isn’t over, it’s just beginning.

If you’re looking to help the FGC fight, keep an eye Smash.gg’s TO relief fund. Let tournaments keep your venue and entrant fee if that’s financially responsible. If you see tournaments rerunning on twitch on VGBootCamp or BTSSmash, consider letting them run in the background, with adblock off. Or actually watching them. After all, you might just have a lot of time on your hands pretty soon. Consider watching streams from players themselves.

Don’t seek to make events or fill that void. WIth proper isolation and hygiene, the disease will pass quickly and we’ll end the fight even faster. If you ever feel lost in the feed of information, seek the World Health Organization or the CDC’s websites for up to date tips and guidelines. In fighting games and in virus prevention, community effort is everything.