Fans, players, and broadcasters are all dealing with the fallout
Ashley Kang was getting ready for another day covering the League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) in late February. She had devoted her career to bringing content from Korean players and teams to an English-speaking audience, quitting her job as a software engineer and moving to Seoul so she could be on the ground where the action happens.
She had regularly stayed up until 6AM editing videos for her Youtube channel while keeping up with the North American and European League of Legends leagues, putting in countless hours to earn more than 100 new subscribers a day. The momentum she had built wasn’t showing any signs of stopping — until she couldn’t go to work anymore.
On March 2nd, Riot Korea announced that the LCK would be suspended after March 6th when more cases of coronavirus were confirmed in South Korea. “It has been so frustrating since my brand has been built from covering the LCK,” Kang told me over a Discord call from South Korea. “I had a job, a life here. All that momentum is gone.”
Riot Korea, the organizer behind the LCK, had already been on high alert for weeks after the new coronavirus had become more serious throughout the region. There were extra security precautions at LoL Park, the studio where league games take place. Everyone who entered the arena had to get their temperature taken and wear a face mask at all times. A week before the league announced it would halt operations, the press room closed down for Kang and other journalists.
“The coronavirus was very stable for a while, it was increasing slowly,” Kang says. “It looked like South Korea had it under control. Before the press room was closed, it looked like the LCK was getting a live audience back. But a few days before there was a massive outbreak, with hundreds of new cases per day.”
Once the South Korean government changed the national threat level from orange to red, the highest level, Riot Korea couldn’t let the LCK operate any longer without forcing players to take serious health risks. Since Kang has been unable to make new LCK content, she’s gained fewer than 10 followers a day. It’s affected other journalists covering Korean esports as well. “It’s almost impossible [to cover the LCK]. With no broadcast interviews, no one-on-one interviews, and no press room interviews, reporters can hardly write creative articles about the LCK,” Inven Global managing editor Joonkyu “Lasso” Seok says. “It adversely affected our website traffic and it has the same negative effect on our YouTube content.”
The LCK suspension is one of many examples of how the coronavirus outbreak has sent shockwaves throughout the entire esports industry. Tournaments and events across Overwatch, League of Legends, PUBG, Dota 2, Counter-Strike, the fighting game community, and many more have been postponed or canceled outright. Players, casters, coaches, journalists, fans, and others have lost opportunities and money, and they don’t know when they’ll be able to get back to work.