• News

RLCS Season 9 World Championship canceled over coronavirus worries

The April contest between the best teams in Rocket League in Dallas has just been canceled in regard to concerns over the coronavirus.

TJ Denzer

March 5, 2020 11:47 AM

2

The Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) was set to arrive in Dallas, Texas in April to determine who the best squad in Pysonix’s R/C soccer title was this year. Unfortunately, the coronavirus continues to complicate matters and the RLCS Season 9 World Championships have been canceled as concern over travel and the epidemic remain prevalent.

The RLCS made its formal decision regarding the cancellation of the Rocket League Championship Series Season 9 World Champion event via the Rocket League Esports website on March 5, 2020. Representatives from Psyonix stressed that the safety of staff, players, and fans were the priority, determining that the current concern and risk over the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic was simply too high to ignore.

“At Psyonix, we take the safety of our competitive players, fans, and personnel very seriously,” the statement reads. “Due to worldwide health concerns surrounding the developing situation around the Coronavirus (COVID-19), we are canceling the Rocket League Season 9 World Championship live event as scheduled from April 24-26 in Dallas, Texas. We understand that this is frustrating, but health and safety will always be our top priority.”

According to the statement, refunds will be issued on tickets to the event, and if they haven’t been received by March 11, 2020, then ETIX support should be contacted at support@etix.com. Furthermore, the blog states that alternatives to the live World Champion event will be determined, but no information is available on the matter just yet. RLCS will share as soon as updates on any new events become available.

Though many events have been affected by the outbreak of the coronavirus, including E3 2020 and GDC 2020, esports in particular have taken a big hit. Recently, IEM Katowice was forced to bar in-arena attendance and Tokyo TEKKEN Masters was postponed outright. League of Legends and Overwatch have also seen setbacks due to the disease.

Shacknews will share more info on new events relating to the RLCS Season 9 finals as it becomes available.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.