Recently, the organizing committee of the Vietnamese League of Legends tournament – Vietnam Championship Series announced the official schedule and new format for the Spring 2020 tournament, given the unpredictable situation of the pandemic. Fortunately for the Vietnamese gaming community, the tournament will not be postponed for too long, as the committee has decided to transition to an online format starting from the upcoming week 9 of the group stage:
“[ANNOUNCEMENT OF VCS 2020 SPRING MATCH DATE CHANGE]
Due to the complex developments of Covid-19, the VCS organizing committee announces a one-week postponement of the VCS 2020 Spring tournament.
The tournament will resume on March 27, 2020, with an online format.”
On the match day of March 15, the matches for week 8 of the VCS Spring 2020 group stage also had adjustments to their match times due to the complicated developments of the pandemic.
With this move, all six major regional leagues of League of Legends including LPL, LCK, LEC, LCS, PCS, and VCS have either transitioned or are planning to transition to online play, in order to complete the season on schedule and to prepare for the MSI 2020 tournament which is expected to kick off in July.
Organizing online matches will certainly present some challenges; however, in the current situation, this is the optimal solution, ensuring that the tournament is not interrupted while also ensuring the health and safety of the teams.
Additionally, from 2016 and earlier, VCS fans (then known as VCSA) were already familiar with the online format for group stage matches, before our tournament became more professional with modern stadium systems as it is now.
Therefore, it is likely that Vietnamese League of Legends fans will not find it too difficult to adapt to this new competition format, although it cannot be denied that the matches will lose some excitement without the support from live audiences.