The 2020 Brawl Stars World Championship Finals will take place on Nov. 21 and 22 remotely as opposed to offline in Katowice, Poland where it was initially scheduled to be held, Supercell announced today.
The tournament will still be operated from Katowice’s studio, but the players will compete online in an effort to remain safe at home amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since this is an international tournament, teams will compete from all over the world, including Europe, North America, and Asia. Competing remotely might cause lag and connectivity issues, but Supercell said the priority was the “safety of [its] finalists.”
Related: Everything you need to know about the Brawl Stars World Finals 2020
The World Finals will feature eight teams from five different regions competing to earn a portion of the $500,000 prize pool, which could reach up to $1 million depending on how much money is raised from Worlds-themed item purchases.
There’s been a surge of declared COVID-19 cases in countless European countries, including Poland, over the last few months. But despite the number of cases linked to the pandemic continuing to rise around the world, an international esports event was hosted offline in China recently: the 2020 League of Legends World Championship. The finals of Worlds 2020 even took place in the Pudong Football Stadium of Shanghai and featured a crowd of over 6,000 fans.
This won’t be the case for the Brawl Stars World Finals, however. But the event hasn’t been canceled, contrary to countless other international esports tournaments scheduled to take place this year.
