FLASHPOINT Shifts Online Amidst Coronavirus Worries

In a statement released on their Twitter, the newest addition to the CS:GO calendar in league play will also be shifted online. FLASHPOINT survived the first week without incident, and was able to successfully inaugurate its unique personality-heavy style on LAN where each team had the chance to play at least once.

According to the statement, the teams will remain in Los Angeles to play on minimal ping, but will not be coming into the studio. Given that it’s recommended to minimize exposure to additional people, many people have pointed out that this may well be the safer option to pursue to prevent travel and further interaction.

Although the HLTV post regarding the league’s decision mentions that the US Center for Disease Control recommended that gatherings in-person should not exceed the 50 people, MonteCristo did say - in the weekly FLASHPOINT Q&A - that the studio did not have the aforementioned number of people. He did however, add the disclaimer that this was to the best of his knowledge.

FLASHPOINT had already taken certain precautionary measures as at request of the CSPPA, by allowing players to use their own headphones instead of the customary noise cancelling FLASHPOINT ones. This was done in order to minimize skin-contact with shared surfaces for the players and had casters moved to a separate location to ensure that players couldn’t hear them.

Ultimately, it seems as though BLAST remains the only organizer to get away unharmed from the pandemic, as they narrowly avoided the window of emergency that came up. It’s still uncertain how the league will react to this on broadcast, which so far was compensating for the quality of teams by actively featuring player personality.