International esports tournament organizer BLAST announced on Monday that BLAST Premier Rivals Monterrey has been canceled and moved to its studios in Copenhagen, Denmark. The company made the announcement on social media on Monday, noting only that the cancellation was due to “unforeseen logistical challenges,” adding later that “While we won’t be in Mexico this time, we look forward to returning in the future. This story was first reported by Dust2.us.
Given that the event was set to start at the end of April, the announcement leaves—at the very least fans—who booked travel and accommodations to attend scrambling to cancel/get a refund.
Set to take place in Monterrey, Mexico, BLAST Premier Rivals Monterrey was billed as the very first tier-one Counter-Strike 2 competition to be hosted within the country to-date. The global competition featured a total prize pool of $1M USD and was to be hosted at the Escenario GNP Seguros, in Pabellón M.
At the time it was announced in January, BLAST projected that BLAST Premier Rivals Monterrey would generate $12.5 million USD in economic impact/local investment. The event was being supported locally by events company Liga Ace and the support of the local government. Emmanuel Loo, Acting Deputy Secretary of Investment, Ministry of Economy, Nuevo León, Mexico, said in January:
“We know that the esports and gaming industry today represents an audience of billions of people worldwide, with an economic impact exceeding $200 billion annually. We also know that Mexico boasts the number one gaming market in Latin America, with over 76 million people and revenues surpassing $7 billion in the past year. For these reasons, we are fully convinced that championing and advancing the agenda to establish Nuevo León as the esports and gaming hub of Latin America will bring a series of economic, technological, cultural, and social benefits to the Nuevo León community.”
The Esports Advocate reached out to BLAST, its partner in the region Liga Ace, and the regional government prior to the publication of this story and will update it should any of them respond.