As a professional League of Legends (LOL) game of the top level in mainland China, LPL consists of spring and summer competitions divided into regular seasons and playoffs, with 17 e-sports teams vying for the crown and admission to the LOL global finals.

Unveiled on January 13, the 2020 spring competition was initially planned to held in six host cities including Shanghai, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Xi'an, Beijing and Suzhou, but was postponed after the Spring Festival due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The organizer officially announced on March 2 that the spring competition will be transformed from offline to online mode and is planned to conclude on April 19, two weeks later than the initial schedule, in a bid to leave margin for players to participate in international games.

Shanghai local authorities also encourage e-sports enterprises to hold their offline games in an online way.

"Shanghai will not slow down the pace of turning into a global city of e-sports, regardless of the effect caused by the coronavirus," said Wang Yayuan, deputy director of Shanghai municipal publicity department.

Shanghai is to host the 2020 League of Legends World Championship Finals this autumn.