Call of Duty: Mobile World Championship 2020 Grand Finals cancelled
Published: Dec 8, 2020
Activision has announced that the Call of Duty: Mobile World Championship 2020 Grand Finals have been cancelled. No prizes for guessing why the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has decimated esports tournaments and the Grand Finals has made the sensible decision to put the safety of the players and staff first.
This comes after long and hard-fought tournaments in eight global regions. The top teams and players have been confirmed and they were preparing for the biggest event of the year. The global finale would have brought in teams from Europe, Asia, the USA, and beyond to duke it out in Los Angeles. The pandemic has become particularly severe in Southern California with recent statistics showing that there is an average of 8,600 new cases in the city of LA per day.
The prize pool
They had a sizeable prize pool of $750,000. In a good-faith move, instead of simply pocketing the money and going home, Activision has decided to distribute the prizes. The prize pool will be evenly distributed between the Stage 4 Regional Playoff Champions. That means that each of the eight teams will receive $107,000. The qualified teams that will receive a portion of the prize pool are as follows:
- Rejection (Japan)
- Influence Rage (LATAM)
- Tribe Gaming (North America)
- Kings Clan (Western Europe)
- Team Mayhem (Others region)
- T1 (South Korea)
- NRX JEREMIAH 29:11 (Southeast Asia)
The announcement
In the announcement posted by Call of Duty: Mobile across their social media platforms they focused on the safety of their players and their fans:
“We’ve had to make a difficult decision, but we are putting the health and wellbeing of our players first regarding the Call of Duty: Mobile World Championship 2020. Out of an abundance of caution, the Stage 5 Grand Finals of the Call of Duty: Mobile World Championship 2020 will not take place.”
The future of Call of Duty: Mobile
With the uncertain nature of the pandemic, there is no guarantee that another Call of Duty: Mobile LAN tournament will be held any time soon. Even the Call of Duty console crowd had to move their tournament to an online-only format to keep going during the pandemic.
The announcement does note that they will have plans for the future. Whether that is moving online like PUBG Mobile or simply postponing events until the pandemic is over, it is safe to say that we have not seen the last of the Call of Duty: Mobile competitive scene.
