By Joseph Cheah
As of to date, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) have impacted the esports industry negatively – forcing event organisers to cancel their events amidst concerns over health and safety of the community, employees and audience members. Some of the events that have been cancelled or delayed are:
- TEKKEN World Tour 2020
- TwitchCon Amsterdam
- Rocket League Championship Series Season Nine
- League of Legends Champions Korea
If you are an event organiser and you want to cancel your event due to the concern of the coronavirus disease, we set out these issues for you to consider before making a decision:
In a typical contract, there exist a force majeure clause. A force majeure clause is a provision that relieves a party from performing their contractual obligations when certain circumstances beyond their control arise, making it impossible to continue.
Check whether the force majeure clause covers ‘epidemic’ situation. If so, is there any condition precedent to perform before relying on this provision?
Check if your insurance coverage includes epidemics and/or communicable disease. Insurance companies are very specific when it comes to ‘exclusion’ clause.
Sometimes, delaying the event to a later date may be the best option. Attendees may not be happy about it, however it eliminates the uncertainty on how long the event is delayed for.
Esports tournaments are unique – most people watch the games online. Esports organisers can consider to hold the event virtually instead, making tweaks to their broadcast production, to satisfy their partners etc.