Garena Free Fire cancels the Free Fire World Series 2021

Garena, the developers and publisher behind the massive mobile battle royale hit, Free Fire, have announced that they have cancelled the Free Fire World Series 2021.

The cancellation

The Free Fire World Series 2021 was due to start in November of this year but has been cancelled due to their concerns about the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

The last Free Fire World Series was held in Singapore and this event was reportedly going to be held in Mexico. I understand why they would have concerns about the pandemic, Mexico has been averaging new daily Covid numbers in the tens of thousands. Out of concern for safety, they have cancelled the event.

They must have been keeping tabs on the changing situation as it appears that this decision was made at the last minute. It was only last week that Garena opened registrations for the event. It was such a quick turnaround for the event to get cancelled, I believe that the decision must have been made rapidly.

Comment from Garena

In a press release about their decision to cancel, a spokesperson for Garena said:

“The well-being of everyone involved in the FFWS was our top priority as we carefully considered all options. We made the difficult decision not to hold the event to continue safeguarding the health and safety of the Free Fire community. The World Series stands as Free Fire’s largest and most exciting esports offline tournament. The growing safety concerns, however, have made it challenging to provide players and fans both an enjoyable yet safe offline esports experience. We would like to thank all our players, fans, and partners for their continued support, and look forward to hosting all Free Fire players and fans safely in time to come.”

Other cancellations and changes

Last year, the final Free Fire World Series was also cancelled due to the pandemic. At that time, they decided to replace the end of year event with the Free Fire Continental Series. This event was played entirely online and consisted of three regions, EMEA, Americas, and Asia. We don’t have any definite replacement events for Free Fire, but they have stated that they are planning to host smaller events throughout the remainder of the year.

In the world of PC esports, the Overwatch League has also announced some major changes. Activision has stated that the remainder of the live events taking place this season have been cancelled. Not only have they cancelled all future regular season events, but they have also made the decision to move the postseason competitions and finals to Hawaii.

They have partnered with the University of Hawaii to reduce their online latency for both gameplay and broadcasts. Normally the events would have taken place in Dallas, Texas and Los Angeles, California. The decision was made for the same reason that Garena cancelled their events, the pandemic.

At the beginning of 2021, plenty of companies promised major live events for the duration of the year but I would be surprised if these announcements are the last of the year.