An organizer wanted to hold a tournament for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare live on site at a LAN despite the current threat posed by the Corona crisis. Activision Blizzard intervened. The tournament was actually supposed to be held online, but players secretly competed face-to-face, as clips online show.
What kind of tournament is this? The “American Gaming Network” (AGN) has announced an amateur tournament in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare called “The Indianapolis Open – Summer 2020.” The tournament was supposed to take place in the capital of Indiana and run on August 1 and 2.
The problem: The amateur tournament was really supposed to take place “on site.” However, due to the infection risk posed by the novel Corona virus, such events are generally not welcomed: E-sport events worldwide are now only held online.
In the USA, the number of people testing positive for Covid-19 has continued to rise sharply in recent weeks. In the state of Indiana, there are around 900 new cases daily (via coronavirus.in.gov).
Activision Makes Last-Minute Changes
This was the change: At the last moment, Activision Blizzard apparently stepped in hard and made it clear to the organizers: This is not acceptable; we don’t want this.
The organizer AGN then stated the night before the event that the tournament would now be “only online.” Players were to play from home or, if they were already on site, in the hotel. But under no circumstances as planned in the LAN.
The communication between the publisher and the organizer is not public, but one can read between the lines that there must have been a clear message.
Activision Blizzard is the rights holder of Call of Duty and can withdraw the rights of the organizers to hold tournaments for their game.
AGN announced on Twitter: They apologize for the change of plans for everyone who traveled there.
But they hinted: There is no choice here; they have to switch to “online.” Activision wants it that way, and you can’t mess with them.
They state: “They look forward to collaborating with Activision on future events.”
Players Still Compete in LAN
This was the problem: The last-minute cancellation was likely a failure, as players had already traveled to Indianapolis to play Call of Duty there. Explaining to them: Stay in your hotel room and play online against each other didn’t seem to resonate with some players.
A video appeared on reddit showing players meeting at an Airbnb and hosting a LAN to still hold the tournament:
A further clip circulated on the internet showing players gathering for the LAN despite the cancellation and playing Call of Duty. There were even claims that the actual venue remained open and people would play there (via twitter).
The e-sports journalist Rod Breslau wrote: “A lot of foolish players are defying Activision’s instructions and common sense.”
This was the organizer’s reaction: To prevent such behavior on the second day, the organizer postponed the second tournament day by a week.
Previously, AGN had denied responsibility for players gathering to play. They did not support that.
Overall, the sentiment online is critical. Especially people from the industry who organize e-sports tournaments fear negative headlines portraying gamers as irresponsible and unreasonable.
The fact that players in the clips do not wear masks and do not practice social distancing is also criticized.
2020 has so far been marked by the Corona virus. The effects are felt in gaming as well. Many games have been postponed because development in a home office is not progressing as well as when working together in the office. Also, the gaming behavior of players seems to have changed during the crisis:
A survey shows how gaming behavior has changed due to the Corona crisis
