ViCi Gaming who was all set to play in IEM Katowice 2020 will sadly not be able to attend the tournament as one of ViCi’s players was unable to get his VISA on time due to the ongoing Coronavirus situation in China, according to tweets by Intel Extreme Masters.
The VISA appointment was postponed to a later date due to the Coronavirus outbreak, making it impossible for the player to secure it before the tournament. Hence, ViCi Gaming had to withdraw their name from the tournament and will instead be replaced by TYLOO.
TYLOO were the runners up of the Asian qualifier and have luckily been bootcamping in Ukraine as well for the past 11 days. The Chinese team will be stepping into their first international tournament with their new lineup, it will be interesting to see how the team performs after the departure of their star player Hansel "BnTeT" Ferdinand.
The Coronavirus outbreak has certainly hit esports hard, as China according to speculations might have lost its opportunity to host the CS:GO Fall Major in November. While other events like WESG 2019 Macau: APAC Finals, Acer Predator League 2020, and ESL One Los Angeles 2020 Major: Chinese Qualifiers were all canceled or postponed.
IEM Katowice 2020 is all set to take place from 24th Feb-1st March and will be the first big tournament of the year for the ESL Pro Tour. Let’s see how the tournament proceeds.
TYLOO's roster for the tournament will be as follows,
- HaoWen "somebody" Xu
- YuLun "Summer" Cai
- YuanZhang "Attacker" Sheng
- Cheung "Freeman" Wing Hei
- Son "xeta" Seon-ho
- LiKan "KingZ" Luo [Loaned Coach]
