Magic: The Gathering tournament center evacuated due to Storm Ciara

One of Europe’s largest card gaming marketplaces, known as Cardmarket, evacuated over 700 players from a live event on Sunday evening. This sudden change was due to the dangerous storm Ciara.

The marketplace is hosting a major card game tournament throughout several European cities, dubbed the 2020 Cardmarket Series. The first event took place in Paris this weekend at the Paris Event Center, which is where the evacuations happened.

A Reddit user attended the event and posted a video of players vacating the space. In the video, he describes the ongoing situation.

“We’ve got some crazy situation, there’s a storm coming over Paris. If you look at this, this is our venue. It looks a little bit like a gigantic circus tent … the entire roof is shaking.”

A big thankyou to our judges and staff members who made #CMSeriesParis possible and prevailed in the face of all adversity! As the saying goes, "Neither snow nor rain nor winter storm Ciara stays these people from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." pic.twitter.com/IxBGMMtEvT

— Cardmarket-Magic (@CardmarketMagic) February 10, 2020

Moving venues to evade the storm

The user then follows other event-goers and organizers out of the building into another space. Plenty of people helped each other out during the evacuation as there were tables and heavy props to carry. He explains that the hasty switch was to prioritize the safety of players and attendees.

“Hall A… was only safe to use until wind speeds of around 70 – 90 kilometers per hour. However, Ciara was supposed to hit more than 100 kilometers per hour during Sunday afternoon.”

While everyone was in the middle of interviews, games, and hosting, this unfortunate situation put a temporary stop to all of that. Luckily, things were eventually back up and running in nearby Hall B.

Winter Storm Ciara

Powerful winter storm Ciara, also known as storm Sabine, is sweeping across Europe. It is affecting many countries such as Sweden, France, Slovenia, and Germany. Reporters have also recorded winds as high as 200 kilometers per hour in Italy. So far, it continues to cause havoc as death tolls are currently up to seven people. Several airports have delayed or canceled flights while authorities remind residents to stay safe indoors.