2020 has indeed been a “bad” year for esports tournaments in general, not just for League of Legends. The pandemic, which everyone knows about, has caused a slew of major tournaments around the world, from DOTA2’s Majors, CS:GO to MSI 2020 for League of Legends, to be canceled. Domestic League of Legends tournaments are mostly held online now, and if not, audiences are not allowed to cheer in person. It can be said that the global esports scene has been completely turned upside down this year.
Recently, the Chinese news site Scoregg unexpectedly shared a message that is believed to be from Leyan, a player from Vici Gaming. The anonymous sender revealed to Leyan that Worlds 2021 will be held in China.
Normally, we could understand that Worlds 2021 will still be held in this populous country. However, with the situation of the second wave of the pandemic becoming complicated in China, some believe that the “Worlds 2021” mentioned is actually the postponed Worlds 2020 being moved to early 2021. This opinion may seem unreasonable, but in the current context, the likelihood is not small at all.
Could they delay Worlds season 10 to season 11?
That sounds reasonable.
Maybe not, in Riot’s previous post, they stated that next year Worlds will be held in the US.
If this is true, then the only reasonable hypothesis is that Worlds season 10 will not be held until next year. We will have another major online tournament this year (it may have titles or cups but the competitiveness will be lower).
Looking at other games, DOTA2’s The International season 10 has been rescheduled to 2021 due to the pandemic. Therefore, if Worlds 2020 applies a similar approach, players should not be too surprised.
Domestic tournaments can play online, but for major events like Worlds or TI, organizing online is not feasible. If held on schedule while the pandemic is not fully controlled, it would be worse as it risks the health and lives of audiences, players, and many others. Therefore, the safe solution of postponing to 2021 is definitely something to consider.
The above points are basically still at the level of rumors or “conspiracy theories”. We have to wait for Riot Games to make an official announcement to feel at ease. Perhaps what esports fans in general and professional League of Legends fans in particular hope for the most right now is that 2020, with too much bad news, passes as quickly as possible.