It happened for them the same way it happened for everybody else: They first wondered whether the looming threat of the coronavirus would mean they would have to do events without an audience.
They were worried mostly about travel at first and making sure crowds were smaller than 250 people, as initial recommendations suggested.
The world of eSports was just like everyone else. For weeks, the realities of what COVID-19 might reap on the United States seemed inconceivable until reality crashed down on the entire United States _ particularly the sports world _ all at once.
"If you had asked me two weeks ago where there was a world where we would play fully online competitive matches for the LCS, I would've laughed at you," said Chris Greeley, commissioner of the League of Legends Championship Series, "but when your options become something that's bad and something that's worse, bad looks pretty good."
What was thought of as bad for the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) just 10 or so days ago is now an enviable position for most sports league to look longingly at. This weekend, the LCS and the League of Legends European Championship (LEC) will resume play from a series of remote locations after just a one-week hiatus for the coronavirus.
In the next few weeks, the Overwatch League (OWL) is set to return to action after a brief hiatus of its own, similarly playing from a series of remote sites across the world, including Boca Raton. The Call of Duty League, which also has a Boca Raton-based team, and the NBA 2K League also expect to resume play in upcoming weeks playing from remote sites after suspending play for COVID-19 concerns.
While the rest of the sports world sleeps for an increasingly uncertain length of time, eSports has been able to adapt to our new crowd-controlled, self-isolated way of life by taking its biggest games out of the arenas and to the place most of them originated: the internet.
"This is," said Ben Spoont, CEO of Boca Raton-based Misfits Gaming, "the beauty of eSports."
