ESL cancels IEM China, moves EPL Conference Season 17

ESL will not be hosting an IEM event in China this year, the tournament organiser announced via Twitter. The news comes in light of the ongoing COVID-19 situation in the country.

Prior to the pandemic ESL had regularly hosted events in China, with the last being the IEM Beijing tournament in 2019 that was won by Astralis. IEM China would have seen the organiser return to the country, and was originally intended to take place December 6-11, but that event has now been removed from the calendar.

The move comes as an unfortunate blow to the Asian region, with members of the community already lamenting an apparent lack of support. The most recent manifestation of these complaints were directed at the four-team RMR hosted in the APAC region, compared to the 32 teams competing in Europe and the 16 competing in the Americas.

ESL included an additional announcement in the Twitter thread, stating that EPL Conference Season 17 is being moved to take place in 2023, having been originally scheduled for November 22-27. This is to avoid clashing with BLAST Premier Fall Final, taking place November 23-27.