ESL Cancels IEM China 2022 Due to Ongoing COVID-19 Situation

ESL has announced multiple changes in its competitive CS:GO calendar for the year ahead. This includes the cancellation of IEM China 2022, which was scheduled to take place from 6^th to 11^th December, due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation in the country.

Additionally, the tournament organizers have also cleared up the calendar by postponing ESL Pro League Conference Season 17 to take place next year, in order to avoid conflict with BLAST Premier: Fall Finals 2022 which is scheduled from 23^rd to 27^th November.

ESL makes multiple changes to its CS:GO calendar - Cancels IEM China, Postpones EPL Conference S17

ESL has decided to pull the plug on the only top-tier CS:GO tournament that was going to take place in Asia later this year - IEM China 2022.

This decision has been taken because of the COVID-19 situation that still persists heavily in the country, forcing the government to take strict actions like enforcing tight lockdowns in many parts of the country, restricing domestic travel, and other such measures.

The tournament organizers have come forward to state that "In light of the ongoing COVID-19 situation and complexities of hosting an international competition in China, we've made the decision to not host the planned IEM tournament there."

Despite the announcement ESL has not promised if there will be another such tournament next year and simply mentioned that it will continue to monitor the developments in the region from next year onwards.

Apart from this, ESL Pro League Conference Season 17 which was scheduled to take place from 22^nd to 27^th November has also been postponed to 2023, clearing up the schedule conflict with BLAST Premier: Fall Finals 2023 which is taking place between those dates.

The last time a CS:GO tournament was held in China was back in 2019, when ESL had hosted the IEM Beijing 2019, which was when Astralis lifted the trophy in front of a packed arena.