ESPN cancels Apex Legends tournament broadcast following US mass shootings
09
Aug 19
Live broadcast will not be shown “out of respect” following tragic events
Major sports media network ESPN has made the decision to cancel its broadcast of the recent Apex Legends tournament in the wake of two mass shootings in the USA.
The XGames Apex Legends EXP Invitational event, which took place during August 2nd to August 3rd at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, was due to be aired this Sunday on ESPN - but the network has taken the decision to postpone broadcasting the event after the mass shootings in Dayton and El Paso, which resulted in 32 deaths and 51 people injured.
Rod Breslau, and leading esports consultant in the US, was first on Twitter to confirm the news that the tournament broadcast for the popular free-to-play action FPS had been cancelled this weekend.
He said "ESPN and ABC has made the decision not to air the TV broadcast of the XGames Apex Legends EXP Invitational that was scheduled for this weekend, in response to the recent mass shootings, according to an ABC Affiliate TV station source. The hour long recap that was set for this Saturday at 10PM on ESPN2 is no longer in the programming schedule, but can still be watched on ESPN3.
"The broadcast will still be shown on TV at a later date, according to an event source. Note the EXP Apex Legends X Games tournament itself already happened this past weekend and can be found on the ESPN esports YouTube, this is just for the ESPN TV broadcast."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet tw-align-center"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">ESPN and ABC has made the decision not to air the TV broadcast of the XGames Apex Legends EXP Invitational that was scheduled for this weekend, in response to the recent mass shootings, according to an ABC Affiliate TV station source <a href="https://t.co/6BMwdbk93t">pic.twitter.com/6BMwdbk93t</a></p>— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) <a href="https://twitter.com/Slasher/status/1159587091149402112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 8, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Of course, the news has been met with mixed messages from gamers and social media followers regarding the event being cancelled out of respect for those affected by the mass shootings.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet tw-align-center"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Enough respect to cancel an event, but not enough to ban guns and actually save people.</p>— Ethan Schrader (@ethanti) <a href="https://twitter.com/ethanti/status/1159587479676248065?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 8, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
