10 Players Out Of ALGS Championship Due To COVID

The COVID pandemic continues to impact the esports world, with various esports teams across multiple titles struggling with positive cases among its players and staff members.

Most recently, it was announced that at least 10 Apex Legends players won’t be able to attend the ALGS Championship due to the virus, throwing a wrench in the plans of several teams.

The recent news of Apex Legends players missing ALGS Championship is a repeat story from the Apex Legends Global Series Major in Sweden, where several players were forced to withdraw due to positive COVID tests. This time, however, the situation is far more serious.

According to recent reports, at least 10 Apex Legends players have already tested positive for the virus and will have to skip ALGS Championship. This leaves their teams in a rough spot, scrambling to find substitutes or fielding coaches as an emergency substitute for the $2-million event.

The official list of players unable to attend the tournament includes 13 names, with some teams missing more than one member of the squad.

Players unable to attend the ALGS Championship due to COVID include: Cameron “Noiises” Walker, Rasmus “maydeelol” Zettergren, Song “Ras” Hong-gyun, Shin “Jusna” Yong-ju, Tsurumaki “Pinotr” Miki, Shakabo, Sawazaki “Otogi” Hirotaka, Shotaro “saku” Sakata, Lucky “JIGEN” Takeyama, João “Jinqs” Tel, Gabriel “1Fumeta” Reinhardt, Sebastian “Ricoysuavecito” Kosmach, and coach Steven “Pistillo” Rojas.

As a result, ten teams will miss at least one team member, yet there seems to be a pattern. Of the 13 missing Apex Legends pros, Pistillo is the only reported case from North America, with EMEA and South America reporting just two and three cases, respectively. The remaining seven players who tested positive for COVID all hail from APAC North.

SO far, the Japanese team FENNEL have been hit the hardest, missing three players in Jusna, Piotr, and Shakabo. This effectively means that FENNEL have no players eligible to compete in the ALGS Championship, although it’s unclear what the situation is with their coach.

This brings up the question of whether FENNEL will even be eligible to compete at the ALGS Championship. And if they do, the Japanese team will have to field an entirely different roster.

Several Apex Legends teams have already found substitutes to fill in the gaps, with some opting to add players from their regions, while others decided to pick players from the list of available North American pro players who did not qualify for the event.

Luckily, a plethora of NA Apex Legends pros traveled to Raleigh just to watch the event, which will help lessen the blow of positive COVID cases. Still, it’s not like adding a random replacement is the optimal solution, especially for teams who don’t communicate in English.

But even though COVID did introduce quite a bit of chaos to the ALGS Championship, some teams also struggle with visa issues. Besides the 13 missing team members who will skip the tournament due to COVID, there are also 15 confirmed cases of players who were not cleared to travel to North America.

That includes the whole Team Empire roster, who were likely denied entry into the United States due to being Russian, and two Luminosity Gaming players in Luis Enrique “Neazul” Ramos Suarez and Saul “YanYa” Ocampo Plascencia.

Other teams that are heavily impacted by visa issues include Buriram United Esports (APAC South), DreamFire (APAC South), and 1iQ (South America), who will all miss two players.

Due to the severity of the situation, many players called for protocols which would allow players who tested positive to compete in the ALGS Championship remotely. However, that idea did not come through due to the difficulty of maintaining competitive integrity.