Dragon Ball FighterZ World Championship delayed due to COVID

Following the resurgence in COVID-19 Omicron cases, many esports events are now in jeopardy, with mounting fears of the events being moved to an online format, postponed, or in the worst case, cancelled. Sadly for the Dragon Ball FighterZ community, the top 16 players from Bandai Namco's Dragon Ball FighterZ World Championship will have to wait a bit longer to find out who among them is the best in the world after the event was delayed indefinitely amid the outbreak.

Dragon Ball FighterZ World Championship Postponed

On 26th January 2022, Bandai Namco Esports issued a statement on Twitter regarding the difficult decision to delay the finals of the Dragon Ball FighterZ World Championship in consideration of the safety of tournament goers and players.

In consideration of everyone’s safety under the COVID-19 pandemic, we have made the difficult decision to indefinitely postpone the DRAGON BALL FighterZ World Championship Finals, which was scheduled in February.

Please check the images for details. #DBFZWC pic.twitter.com/JCedqwy6Zm

— Bandai Namco Esports (@BNEesports) January 26, 2022

Initially, the 16 qualified players from Europe, Asia and the Americas were due to meet on 19th and 20th February in the idyllic city of Paris, France.

However, after grappling with new travel restrictions and a slew of issues regarding the competitive integrity of its event, the Japanese company decided to pause the tournament entirely.

It is not the first time that a fighting game tournament has been affected by COVID. In early January this year, Capcom also cancelled the Capcom Cup 2021 and Street Fighter League: World Champions 2021 amid rising cases of COVID-19.

Meanwhile, Bandai Namco revealed they would continue to assess how best to proceed. Hence, a definitive cancellation is not off the cards since an online mode is not planned due to the game's lack of rollback technology.

However, the community will not be left empty-handed. Something special is being planned during the Dragon Ball Games Battle Hour 2022, an online event during which the Dragon Ball FighterZ World Championship was initially meant to be streamed.

For now, we will have to wait for how the current situation evolves globally to find out the possible fate of the biggest tournament of this fighting title.

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Featured image courtesy of Bandai Namco.