Terrific 12 basketball tournament now canceled

The 2020 edition of the Terrific 12 basketball tournament has been canceled, Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.
The event, scheduled to be held in Macau this September, was earlier reported to have been moved forward despite the Covid-19 restrictions. However, it has now been canceled because of existing travel restrictions, according to Xinhua.
The Terrific 12 has been running since 2018 in a six-day long format, featuring three teams from each of the four participating leagues.
Last year’s edition reportedly drew the attention of 117 million viewers over the different broadcasting channels. The figure was an enormous increase from the first edition held in 2018 that registered 21 million viewers.
The event cancellation is a blow to basketball fans in Macau and also for the local government that co-organized the tournament and had earlier announced an ambitious plan to hold at least one major international sporting event per month during the second half of this year.
Meanwhile, event organizer East Asia Super League (EASL) has released two new digital series about basketball, named “BALLERIFIC” and “Fresh in Macau.”
They comprise a total of eight episodes that have been seen by over 7 million people in the first month after launch, proving incredibly popular on social media platforms such as IGTV and Facebook.
The series, released on a weekly basis, show 15-minute long highlights featuring top players and key opinion leaders (Ballerific) as well as footage of top players training and roaming around Macau captured during last year’s event (Fresh in Macau).
The decision to cancel this year’s edition of the tournament comes after the decision from the central government not to stage any international sports events this year, apart from the trials for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games scheduled for the city of Beijing and the nearby city of Zhangjiakou.