ESPN and ABC will be postponing their Apex Legends EXP Invitational until October. The tournament was supposed to air with the X Games this weekend. Due to the mass shootings that happened last weekend in Texas and Ohio, ABC and ESPN pulled the footage to air at a later date. The tournament itself already live-streamed to its official Twitch and Youtube Live gaming channels last weekend. Highlights from the tournament were set to air this weekend. The recordings of those highlights are set to be aired on October 6, 2019. Rod Breslau, a reporter from the ABC affiliated site Slasher tweeted out this morning the email he received from ABC about the postponement. The tweet is set below this paragraph for further details.
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 pic.twitter.com/6BMwdbk93t
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) August 8, 2019
The ABC network decided to postpone the highlights of this tournament out of respect for the victims of the mass shootings from last weekend. The network is set to air an episode of E:60 about a tragic bus crash instead for the slotted airtime of the Apex Legends highlights. Coverage for Esports has recently been increasing in the news. The most recent esports coverage was the success of the professional Fortnite player Kyle, Bugha, Giersdorf, a sixteen-year-old teen winning the first Fortnite World Cup tournament and the prize of $3 million dollars. Fortnite much like with Apex Legends is a cartoon style game without blood or gore to show when playing the game. The rating for both of these games, Fortnite, and Apex Legends, are rated T for teen. The rating for these games and all others are decided by the ESRB. The Entertainment Software Rating Board was in response to the violence in video games such as Grand Theft Auto with such politicians like Hilary Clinton pushing for stricter and more obvious ratings on video games. These ratings are meant to aid parents when shopping for the latest game for their child.
The tournament is set to be released eventually by ABC for now. The ESA, Entertainment Software Association, stated in direct response to President Trump’s state address,
“More than 165 million Americans enjoy video games, and billions of people play video games worldwide. Yet other societies, where video games are played as avidly, do not contend with the tragic levels of violence that occur in the U.S.”
Much of the video game entertainment industry has been in support of this refute by the ESA. Let us know what you think in the comments below about all this craziness! And of course for more keep following the NerdStash on all socials for more coverage and me @mattykprod on Twitter.
