E3 is cool, but it’s no World Cup. The World Cup only comes around once every four years and even then, only 32 of the world’s most elite national teams make the cut (Spoiler: the US men’s national team failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup because…reasons). THQ Nordic decided it just couldn’t miss a moment of the World Cup this year and have decided to forgo E3 in favor of the international soccer competition. 

Interestingly enough, THQ Nordic is based in Vienna and Austria also failed to make it into the World Cup this time around. It isn’t clear exactly who they’ll be rooting for, but it certainly won’t be the Americans or the Austrians. Their origins go back to Sweden in the 90s, so that’s where our bets at.

In a statement, the company said that, “It is with great regret that we at THQ Nordic must report that we will be unable to miss a single moment of this great sporting even. Therefore, we will be forced to stay in our lovely Viennese beer gardens, blowing the froth off a couple, watching football and one or two cool press conferences on Twitch (looking at you, Devolver) instead of rocking it ourselves.”

But E3 isn’t the only thing the company will miss. “We have to admit, we are going to miss our 9:00 a.m. pint of beer in the Ye Olde King’s Head Pub in Santa Monica, where they show all matches live, but with the World Cup being held in Russia, it would mean a 7:00 a.m. beer – that’s too early, even for Austrians, let alone the Swedes.”

 It’s a tragedy that we’ll have to go through E3 without getting a new glimpse of Darksiders III or Biomutant, but THQ Nordic’s decision is understandable. After all, E3 doesn’t have penalty shots. It doesn’t have Ronaldo, Messi, Kroos or Neymar (it also doesn’t have Suárez, which is honestly a +1 for E3, but that’s besides the point). It doesn’t even have headers, so what’s the point.

E3 starts on June 12 in Los Angeles and will run through June 14.

The World Cup is in Russia and will be held from June 14 to July 15.