ViCi Gaming will miss the upcoming IEM Katowice tournament due to visa issues, but these are far from the normal travel problems normally tied to esports.
One of ViCi Gaming’s players had his visa appointment canceled due to the widespread quarantines across China due to the spread of the virus that has killed over 1,500 people. ViCi Gaming declined to name the player that was affected by the cancellation, but luckily there will still be a Chinese representative in Katowice.
TYLOO is slated to replace ViCi at the IEM Katowice tournament that starts later this month. ViCi’s loss has turned into TYLOO’s gain despite the serious circumstances. TYLOO failed to make the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament after being decimated by ViCi Gaming in Katowice qualifiers by a 3-0 series score.
Katowice will see the debut of TYLOO’s Seon-hu “xeta” Son as Hansel “BnTeT“ Ferdinand’s replacement. BnTet was acquired by Gen.G for their first CSGO roster in December but played with TYLOO throughout the Chinese IEM Katowice Qualifiers. While BnTeT continued his strong run of form after joining Gen.G, he was unable to do much against ViCi at the time.
TYLOO happened to be in Ukraine boot camping during the start of the spread of the Coronavirus, avoiding the trouble that ViCi currently find themselves in. It’s an unfortunate start to ViCi’s position as the de-facto number one Chinese team with BnTeT out of the picture.
Counter-Strike isn’t the only esport that’s been affected by the virus. Earlier this month, Valve moved the Dota 2 ESL One Los Angeles Chinese qualifiers back five days. League of Legends saw the LPL Spring Split paused indefinitely as fears of the virus worsened, and the LCK’s opening matches were played in front of an empty arena as a precaution.
A source has told WIN.gg that every US citizen on the cruise ship Diamond Princess will be flown home today on US C-130 cargo planes after being confined to their cabins for almost two weeks. Once back on American soil, the US passengers will spend another two weeks quarantined at military bases in San Diego and Texas.
The virus has currently been found in patients in 25 countries other than China, including the countries across the EU, Canada, and the US. The World Health organization places the current number of infections at 50,580 as of February 15, with 1,527 new cases discovered between the 15th and February 14 according to the WHO.
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