Singapore Major: No 14-day quarantine, teams to leave immediately after elimination
Foreign esports teams coming to Singapore for the upcoming Singapore Major will not need to quarantine for 14 days, organiser ONE Esports clarified on Thursday (11 March).
"In line with ONE’s protocol and the Singapore Government’s regulations, all foreign players will be required to undergo COVID-19 tests, including before departure and upon arrival in Singapore. They must then be isolated until they receive a negative test result, which can take up to 48 hours," ONE Esports told Yahoo Southeast Asia.
"If a player were to get tested positive for COVID-19, we have plans put in place and this will be adjusted on a case by case basis," ONE added in response to further queries.
In addition, ONE Esports said that the players would need to "follow a strictly-controlled itinerary that has been pre-approved" and staff were "assigned to the teams to assist and ensure that the itinerary is followed".
Teams that are eliminated from the Singapore Major will also be required to return to their home countries immediately to minimise interactions, ONE Esports said.
“The health and safety of the players, talent and all who are involved in this closed-door tournament, including the wider community, is of utmost importance to us," ONE said.
The issue of a 48-hour isolation period was first brought up by Dota 2 commentator SUNSfan in his podcast on Tuesday (9 March). SUNSfan had alleged that teams competing in the Major were hoping that it would be cancelled, citing the isolation period among the reasons.
On Friday (12 March), Alliance, Evil Geniuses, Fnatic, Natus Vincere, Neon Esports, OG, Team Liquid, Nigma, Team Secret and Virtus.pro issued a statement via joinDOTA voicing their support for the Singapore Major.
"The planning and preparation for the Singapore Major has been an ongoing process for several months supported directly by the Singaporean Government. We are confident that every step is being taken to ensure the health and safety of everyone involved and are looking forward to putting on a great show for the fans and excited to see the return of LAN events," the statement said.
With the exception of OG, all the other teams have qualified for the Major.
ONE Esports had previously announced that the Singapore Major, which is scheduled from 27 March to 4 April, would not have live spectators for safety reasons.
The organisation partnered with esports production company PGL and the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) to host the Singapore Major, which will be broadcasted live on the official ONE Esports Twitch and YouTube channels as well as its Facebook page.
Scheduled from 27 March to 4 April, the Singapore Major is the first Major event of the 2021 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) and features 18 of the best teams in the circuit's six regional leagues in Europe, China, Southeast Asia, the CIS, North America, and South America.
They will be competing for the lion's share of a US$500,000 prize pool as well as a 2,700 DPC point pool to go towards securing a direct invite to The International 10 (TI10) in August.
All of the DPC's regional leagues except for China have concluded their regular seasons and determined their representatives in the Major.
Europe will be represented by Team Secret, Alliance, Team Nigma, and Team Liquid.
Southeast Asia will be represented by Fnatic, Neon Esports, and T1.
The CIS will be represented by Virtus.pro, Natus Vincere, and AS Monaco Gambit.
North America will be represented by Evil Geniuses and Quincy Crew.
South America will be represented by Beastcoast and Thunder Predator.
The representatives from the China region will be determined this weekend.
For more esports news updates, visit https://yhoo.it/YahooEsportsSEA and check out Yahoo Esports Southeast Asia’s Facebook page.
