NaVi’s match at IEM postponed, ‘Perfecto’ tests positive for Coronavirus

During the group stage match Natus Vincere was scheduled to take on forZe, but that match wasn’t able to be played after Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy tested positive for the coronavirus. The tournament organizers decided to postpone the match, a decision forZe wasn’t all too happy with.

The match between Natus Vincere and forZe was a pretty important one, with both teams sitting at the same 2-1 record. Now the match has been postponed under the recent circumstances and ESL has not yet decided when it’ll be played.

/ @virtuspro had TL on first map because of busy schedule. 10 min delay – TL on first map. Na’Vi Have problem – it’s okay. Rules should be equal for everyone!

— Jerrycsgo (@Jerrycsgo1) October 18, 2020

On the side of forZe both the players and organization are not happy with the decision. Team captain Andrey “Jerry” Mekhryakov tweeted about the situation. “We just realized, 30 minutes before the start of the game against NaVi, that the match will be rescheduled. I know about COVID-19 and Perfecto’s situation and it’s terrible. But when it comes to Na’Vi rescheduling is all good for them”

Given the seriousness of the disease, plus the fact that there was calender availability, we made the decision to postpone the match. Similar decisions have been made with Covid cases in other sports. We did not consider it appropriate to force a team to play in this situation.

— Ulrich Schulze (@theflyingdj) October 18, 2020

Mekhryakov pointed to the recent situation with Virtus.Pro as an example, who had to forfeit a map due to a ten minute delay. Ulrich Schulze, the Managing Director of Pro Gaming, talked about why they took the decision to postpone the match on Twitter. “Given the seriousness of the disease, plus the fact that there was calendar availability, we made the decision to postpone the match. Similar decisions have been made with Covid cases in other sports. We did not consider it appropriate to force a team to play in this situation.”

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Image Credit: BLAST Pro Series (Twitter)