11/03/2020 Paris Eternal has now official confirmed that its first OWL 2020 homestand has been cancelled.
Overwatch League team Paris Eternal’s first homestand of 2020 has been cancelled due to event restrictions surrounding the coronavirus outbreak.
The European team was due to host seven teams from North America and Canada as part of its homestand at the Zenith Paris stadium on April 11 and 12. However, as the French government has now prohibited any event with over 1,000 attendees until April 15 as a precautionary measure to stop the spread of coronavirus, the homestand will now not go ahead.
After recently beating Philadelphia Fusion, Paris Eternal and its fans were no doubt looking forward to this as a hometown celebration, not to mention the first European-hosted games of the 2020 OWL. Atlanta Reign, Boston Uprising, Florida Mayhem, Houston Outlaws, New York Excelsior, Philadelphia Fusion, and Toronto Defiant were all scheduled to take part, and there’s as yet no word on if the matches planned will be rescheduled. This isn’t the first time European esports have been effected, with IEM Katowice being played to an empty stadium.
Zenith Paris tweeted the below statement on March 9 confirming the postponement of all events until April 15 but don’t name the Paris Eternal event explicitly.
⚠️ I N FO ⚠️ pic.twitter.com/MYPDzskrte
— ZenithParis (@Zenith_Paris) March 9, 2020
On March 11, the team themselves confirmed the homestand would not be taking place.
Communiqué officiel – Paris Eternal. pic.twitter.com/cITPhzLiOB
— Paris Eternal (@ParisEternal) March 11, 2020
The second Paris Eternal homestand is billed to take place at the same venue on May 9-10.
The Overwatch League has already suffered setbacks due to the outbreak of coronavirus, with all homestands of Chinese teams in the first few weeks of the league being postponed.
