Tournament organizer ESL has announced that due to the pandemic the majority of their tournaments will have to happen without an audience.
Be it ESL One, Intel Extreme Masters or DreamHacks, ESL is the biggest esport organizer worldwide. After most of their events were cancelled or moved to online competition last year, the pandemic continues to affect them in 2021. COVID-19 is still not in control and ESL’s 2021 roadmap has been announced with that in mind.
Hope for ESL One Cologne?
The first half of 2021 will still feature the online environments that we have grown accustomed to during last year. A potential exception to that could be the ESL One Cologne 2021.
Ulrich Schulze, ESL’s Senior Vice President, said that they “are committed to returning players to a LAN environment and are currently aiming to have fans back in their seats for ESL One Cologne. Of course this is dependent on the very latest guidance and we will release further information relating to the status of all tournaments in due course.”
If the local situation in Germany allows fans might see a return to the “Cathedral of Counter-Strike” in 2021.
For now ESL has fixed the dates for their events but the details regarding audiences are still subject to change throughout the year and will be announced at a later point in time.
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Image Credits: ESL | Stephanie ”Vexanie” Lindgren
