The Hainan Master Spring Invitational was originally supposed to take place between March 5-8, but ever since it got postponed we haven’t heard much of it.
Hainan Master Spring Invitational was the natural follow up to the Hainan Master Cup. The latter took place in Haikou, China in October 2019. It didn’t gain much popularity as it was pretty much a regional event with a total of eight teams – 7 Chinese and the South Korean T1.
The Spring Invitational was about to solve that problem offering more of an international stage for the teams to prove themselves. The venue remained the same in Haikou, but the prize pool saw an increase from around $70 000 for the Hainan Master Cup to $300 000 for the Spring Invitational. It all seemed well until the start of the year when.
The coronavirus outbreak
China is still the most affected country by the global pandemic mainly due to its population density. After the Chinese government declared quarantine for some region, delays in esports tournaments became the expected norm and not the exception. The Hainan Master Spring Invitational was officially postponed with a statement by the organizers on Weibo:
“Dear DOTA2 E-sports fans:To prepare 2019-nCoV pneumonia epidemic prevention and control of infection, 2020 DOTA2 Hainan Master Invitational (Spring) was originally scheduled for China Preliminary on February 1st and Offline Finals on March 3 were decided to be postponed, delay time according to the epidemic situation .we are also considering change the game site , please patience to wait for our message with will , the European teams which qualified and the CIS teams which are qualifying will not be changed.BOMI warm prompt: with mask, wash your hands ,go out less, avoid meetings .At the same time, we would like to express our sincere respect to all the medical workers and staff who are on the front lines of the epidemic prevention and control efforts.”
According to the post, there might be a change in the venue in the future. Note that the post above came on January 31 and it has now been over a full month with no news.
Postponed but not cancelled
While there’s still no update from BOMI Esports, the event is by no means cancelled. Proof of that are the qualifiers which are almost done. The only one still remaining is the SEA one who’s set to declare a winner this Wednesday, March 11. The ones that already secured a spot for the tournament are:
- Aggressive Mode – Europe
- HellRaisers – CIS
- You Know Who – China
- Team Sirius – China
The two regions missing are North and South America. Thankfully the event also has direct invitees which will probably include some teams from NA/SA. None of the direct invitations have been revealed yet as the organizers are probably waiting for things to calm down in mainland China.
There is currently the ongoing StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor and the ESL One Major Los Angeles right after it. In late March and early April we’ll have qualifiers running for the next Minor and Major events, so the schedule is pretty busy for most teams. Our best guess for the Hainan Master Spring Invitational to return would be mid-April or mid-May.
