Update: January 29, 2020
Shanghai Dragons has now relocated its players to South Korea to protect them from coronavirus: "Our priority is to ensure the safety of all our players and staff along with providing the best possible environment for them to practice in." The Dragons were scheduled to host their first games of the season on February 15. At this time, the matches are still on schedule and no official Blizzard press release has announced a cancellation or delayed of the event.
Growing concern over the coronavirus may well cause this early season to be disrupted and rescheduled.
For its part, the third Chinese team in the league, Chengdu Hunters, has announced that it won't be leaving China. The team will take extreme precautions adding that "upon arrival, all personnel will have their temperatures checked and undergo full-body disinfection." Moreover, unlike Guangzhou and Shanghai, the Hunters don't have a Korean coach, which might be one of the reasons why they didn't decide to move from their premises.
Organisation and visa issues may also have been taken into account in this decision knowing that the opening of the third season of the Overwatch league is supposed to take place in two weeks in... China.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently changed the coronavirus risk classification from high to international. As a result, the Overwatch League Guangzhou Charge team has just announced on their official Twitter account the move of their premises to Seoul, South Korea in order to protect the players and coaching staff.
The virus is likely to affect future home-stands in Guangzhou scheduled for the weekends of February 22-23, March 14-15 and March 21-22. The international sports and cultural centre in Foshan — which will host these competitive days — is about 1,000 km from Wuhan, the city where the outbreak broke out. The Nenking Group, owner of the team, will keep the community informed as soon as solutions are found.
Blizzard invests in Google Cloud for the game hosting infrastructure and the YouTube Gaming becomes the official platform for the broadcast of the studio's competitive games, after two years using Twitch. The article will mainly focus on the Overwatch League.
