Wizards of the Coast has suspended in-store events in the United States and Latin America until after the prerelease events for Zendikar Rising in September at the earliest.
“After reviewing feedback from Core Set 2021 Prerelease,” Wizards said, “we’ve made the difficult decision to place in-store play under suspension in the United States and Latin America.”
While they would “love to provide a timeline for the return of in-store play,” Wizards continued, “this would be too vulnerable to disruption. After all, in-store play was reinstated on June 1 and, by the end of the month, the situation was drastically different—so different that we felt it best to suspend in-store play again.”
“So for now,” they concluded, “we can confirm that the suspension will be lifted no sooner than Zendikar Rising Prerelease”—and that Zendikar Rising will only offer an at-home prerelease.
Wizards will provide updates on the suspension of in-store play on the second Wednesday of each month at 3 PM Eastern, with the first coming on September 9.
Wizards originally suspended in-store play for North America, Europe, and Latin America in March as COVID-19 continued to spread around the globe. The suspension was eventually lifted on June 1, as many of the hardest hit European countries and American cities began to recover, just in time for many local game stores to hold prerelease events for Core Set 2021.
However, while the situation in Europe has continued to improve, COVID-19 infection rates in United States and Latin America have only gotten worse. The US and Brazil now lead the world in detected infections, with 3.1 and 1.7 million cases respectively, and the number of cases in US is climbing at an alarming rate, forcing Wizards to suspend in-store play once again.