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The Overwatch League announced that matches scheduled for Saturday and Sunday have been postponed following California statewide “stay at home” order due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The games were scheduled to be played online, but Los Angeles issued a “safer at home” order on Thursday. That impacts the teams based in the city as well as the OWL production staff.

“For the overall safety and well-being of our players, teams and staffs, and in alignment with California’s statewide ‘stay at home’ order, we are canceling this weekend’s scheduled Overwatch League competition,” the league said in a statement Thursday. “We will share more details on match rescheduling and look forward to returning to action soon.”

https://t.co/thTPlfGXna pic.twitter.com/NQpYsV1Nd3

— Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) March 20, 2020

It is the latest setback for the OWL, which moved to a global homestand model for Season 3 after the first two seasons were contested exclusively in the United States, and primarily in Los Angeles.

However, the league initially canceled all scheduled matches in China and South Korea after the initial coronavirus outbreak in Asia. That was followed by canceling all homestands through April and moving to an online format that was scheduled to begin this weekend.



The Seoul Dynasty, San Francisco Shock, Los Angeles Gladiators and L.A. Valiant had been scheduled to compete in four total matches this weekend. The league said it will look to reschedule the matches.

There are currently 16 matches scheduled to be played in Week 8, March 28-29, but it’s uncertain whether they will be postponed as well.

–Field Level Media (@FieldLevelMedia)