ESL: No live audience until November

There is still a long time until we can enjoy Counter-Strike at venues again.

Today ESL and DreamHack has announced, that most of their 2021 events will be held from studios.

- We’ve made the decision for 2021 to host the majority of ESL and DreamHack tournaments as in-person competitions from within a controlled studio environment. This means that our approach is to generally step away from events with live audiences until later this year. In 2021 we want to be more pragmatic and clearer with our decision making. Our expected return to regular live events with audiences is slated for November, however the general guidance may change depending on how local and global guidelines change throughout the year, ESL writes in a press announcement.

The ESL One Cologne is still a possibility though, the T.O. writes.

- ESL One Cologne powered by Intel remains as planned for a live event with an audience. As it is our EPT Championship and flagship competition, we do not want to close the doors to the LANXESS arena yet. We will reevaluate and update the situation in Q2.

The ESL Pro Tour will for the majority continue as originally scheduled with over $5,000,000 in prize money with minor adjustments made to the EPT Masters calendar.

*We acknowledge that IEM Fall overlaps with the recent announcement of the PGL Major. We are working on solutions to adjust and will update in due course.