The Dragonball FighterZ World Championship has been indefinitely postponed due to ongoing concerns around COVID-19.
Bandai Namco has announced that the Dragonball Fighterz World Championship will be indefinitely postponed due to COVID-19 concerns.
"In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we have been studying solutions on how to hold an event in a way that will allow players and other concerned parties to participate safely," Bandai Namco said in a post on Twitter. "However in consideration of everyone's safety we have made the difficult decision to indefinitely postpone the Dragonball FighterZ World Championship Finals, which was scheduled for February 19-20, 2022. We will continue to take the situation into consideration and make a decision on whether or not to hold the tournament. We appreciate your continued support and understanding."
Of course, Bandai Namco did tease that some sort of event might take the place of the World Championship in the meantime.
"A special online event is being planned for the Dragonball Games Battle Hour 2022, in which the Championship was planned to be streamed," they concluded.
While there was not a direct confirmation that this event would feature players from the World Championship, it is a strong possibility. Other possibilities include special show matches during this planned event. Usually, the Games Battle Hour is where Bandai Namco announced upcoming Dragonball-related action games. In the past, we've gotten season announcements for DBFZ, as well as other content revealed for games like Dragonball Z Kakarot.
"It's very disappointing for all of us to inform you that the World Championship final has been postponed indefinitely," DBFZ Producer Tomoko Hiroki said. "We are planning to host a special event for the Games Battle Hour that will hopefully deliver a different kind of fun from the regular tournaments."
The community reacts to DBFZ World Championship 'postponement'
The community for Dragonball FighterZ was of course devastated by the news. But they seemed to take it with some grace in the wake that this is just the reality we live in with COVID-19.
Others raised a good point that if Dragonball FighterZ had good netcode, they would be able to just hold the tournament online fully.
Fighting Game tournaments continue to deal with COVID-19 delays and cancelations
The Dragonball Fighterz World Championship isn't the only FGC event to face delays in recent weeks due to COVID-19. Street Fighter's big show, Capcom Cup, was also canceled due to the pandemic and forced to restructure for online. Genesis, too was forced to delay their big day for Smash.
Some FGC events, like Red Bull Kumite or CEO 2021, managed to go off without a hitch. However, that was before the Omicron variant really got going in the United States.
As you can see from the below, there has been a major spike in new cases heading into this week. As the Dragonball Fighterz event was next month, it was prime time for Bandai Namco to make a decision.
For all the latest on Dragonball Fighterz, including what ends up getting announced during Battle Hour, keep it locked here to esports.gg.