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If you spoil the results of the tournament, you will be banned. |
United States1050 Posts
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/YwMM8.png)
Missed the matches? For a spoiler free experience, go to http://www.ign.com/ipl go to our video section, filter for games, and watch them in HD for free! You can also find our games listed on our youtube channel at: http://www.youtube.com/user/IGNProLeague
IGN Entertainment is excited to finally give full disclosure regarding the IGN Pro League! The first season of the IPL is an invitational tournament to showcase what we can provide to you, the viewer, as well as serving as a demonstration of our new production and operations mechanisms. 16 players representing 9 different North American based clans will be competing for a prize pool of $5000 and 4 automatic qualifier spots for IPL Season 2!
The goal is the IPL is to bring a professional, polished viewing experience to fans of eSports, as well as supporting the development of eSports both nationally and internationally through a sustainable tournament system that rewards those who play in it.
Our social media links are below, like or follow them to keep current with the latest news!
http://www.youtube.com/user/IGNProLeague
http://www.facebook.com/IGNProLeague
http://twitter.com/IGNProLeague
http://www.justin.tv/ignproleague
Where: www.ign.com/ipl
Players:
 ROOTCatZ
FXOSheth
EGIdrA
EGMachine
sixjaxViBE
 SeleCT
VTSpades
ROOTdrewbie
FnaticFenix
coLstalife
 FnaticMSiTTI
ROOTKiWiKaKi
EGiNcontroL
LGAgh
ROOTMinigun
EGAxslav
Commentators:
DJ Wheat
Total Biscuit
HDStarcraft and LGPainUser
When: Thursday, April 21st to Sunday April 24th, and Thursday April 28th to Sunday May 1st at 8:00pm EST
Thursday, April 21: 6 Sets of Winner's Round 1
Friday, April 22: 2 Sets of Winner's Round 1 and Winner's Round 2
Saturday, April 23: Loser's Round 1
Sunday, April 24: Loser's Round 2
Thursday, April 28: Winner's Round 3 and Loser's Round 3
Friday, April 29: Loser's Round 4 and Loser's Round 5
Saturday, April 30: Winner's Round 4 and Loser's Round 6
Sunday, May 1: Finals
There will be a replay pack available at the end of the event.
Format:
16 Player Double Elimination
First 2 Winner’s Rounds: Best of 3
Winner’s 3rd Round and Winner’s Semifinals are Best of 5
First 3 Loser’s Rounds: Best of 3
4th, 5th, 6th Loser’s Rounds: Best of 5
Finals are Best of 5
Map Pool:
MLG Metalopolis
MLG Shattered Temple
MLG Shakuras Plateau
MLG Xel’Naga Caverns
GSL Cross Fire SE
GSL Crevasse
GSL Terminus RE
GSL Tal’Darim Altar
Prizes:
1st - $2500
2nd - $1500
3rd - $1000
In addition, the top 4 finishers from this event will be automatically qualifiers for IPL 2! Check out more details on IPL 2 below.
Bracket Link: http://www.ign.com/ipl/starcraft2/tournaments/best-of-the-west
I want to emphasize that this is our test run for future events and we welcome any and all constructive criticism or advice you all have!
The whole eSports team here at IGN Entertainment looks forward to providing you all with some great quality matches and an exciting tournament. We hope you all tune in to catch the action!
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United States1050 Posts
FAQ:
This will be kept updated with my responses to questions asked in this thread. Keep checking the FAQ to see new information!
Q: Why did IGN decide to jump into eSports?
A: As the top gaming site on the internet, IGN is passionate about nurturing the gaming scene. We believe that the main reason why America is not yet competitive in the eSports scene is the lack of events and sponsorships to support America's talent. IGN will be investing in accelerating the growth of the eSports scene in America. IGN will reinvest most of profits made from ads on the site into the players, so talented North American players can spend more of their times training to become the best players in the world.
Q: What are the details about IPL Season 2?
A: The basic rundown is that it will be a 2 month long, 32 player tournament, with the 4 automatic qualifiers from IPL Season 1 plus we plan to do a massive qualifier tournament for the other 28 spots. That's right, the other 28 spots will be filled through multiple qualifier tournaments. We will release more details on how you can qualify as IPL Season 1 progresses.
Q: I thought it was going to be $150,000!
A: Our goal for total cash prizes in 2011 is at minimum $150,000. We hope to exceed that number with your support to help get the IPL good viewership counts.
Q: So why only $5,000 for Season 1?
A: This is our showcase of what we’re going to be doing in the future. Consider this a warm up event to prove our worth and why you should care about the IGN Pro League. Our future events will significantly eclipse the $5000 mark.
Q: How many seasons is this going to run?
A: Our goal is not to burn out after making promises we can't deliver on, so each season's prize pool is scaled to make sure it is sustainable. We are not keeping a single dime of revenue for ourselves for the first couple of seasons, but are instead re-investing back into IPL events. Ideally we will go on for years with ever increasing prize pools as more and more people tune in and follow the IPL!
Q: Any plans for something like Code S and Code A?
A: We do not plan on having multiple divisions of the league running, however the current plan for IPL Season 2 and beyond is for the top 16 to automatically qualify for the next season with the bottom 16 dropping out and refilling our league from another set of open qualifiers.
Q: Are you even qualified to run this event? Why did IGN choose you?
A: When IGN decided that it wanted to pursue something like this, they understood that they did not have the knowledge or connections to be able to put this together all by themselves. As they were looking for community people to help them run this event, key members of the StarCraft 2 community put them in touch with us.
To fully explain our qualifications and why IGN chose the two of us from the SC2 community, Edward.IGN is an IT consultant for a large software company and the Managing Director for ROOT Gaming with a degree in Computer Science and I'm the Director of Operations for ROOT Gaming and also hold degrees in Marketing and Management. We feel we are qualified to understand both the technical and operational sides of this event, with of course the support of our great eSports team at IGN. Check out the rest of the team at http://www.ign.com/ipl/about!
Q: What about the NASL? Are you trying to edge them out?
A: Absolutely not. We have a good relationship with the NASL and intend on keeping it as such. We believe there is room for both of us to exist and thrive. The IPL and NASL both succeeding means nothing but good things for eSports.
Q: How can I help?
A: We have absolutely crazy growth potential in terms of production capacity and prize pool if we can get the viewership numbers to warrant a large cash infusion into IGN eSports. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell your parents, tell random people on the street! Get them excited about IGN and StarCraft 2 eSports!
Q: Who are you working with on this project?
A: We're working closely with Justin.tv to provide a great viewing experience for all of our viewers. In addition, we have hired on the team at Well Played Productions to assist with our post-production efforts to make the IPL as polished and professional as possible.
Q: Will the games be live or off replays?
A: All of the games will be off replays. We want to make this as polished of a presentation as possible for our viewers, and that means eliminating any technical glitches or problems that can occur with a live cast. By playing the games earlier and using replays, we eliminate one of the big issues that many live tournaments face. In addition, it allows us to set up art assets in advance to make the cast as enjoyable as possible.
Q: Why call it a Pro League?
A: We understand that Pro League means something different in a Korean StarCraft 1 context. However, we felt that that association is not as relevant anymore and as this is a professional player's league, Pro League was a natural fit. Sorry for anyone who was confused by the title, but we are not following the Korean StarCraft 1 naming conventions.
Q: Why include these commentators?
A: We understand that different people have different tastes in commentators, and as such, we have included a range of the top commentators. They will be rotating through the match sets, but I recommend you try them all out, even if you've previously not been a fan. We did not take our casting decisions lightly and we feel that everyone can enjoy aspects of all of our casters.
Q: What about non-North American expansion in IPL 2 and beyond?
A: We want to be as inclusive as possible, and our goal is to reach out to many areas of the world. For right now we're still debating and figuring out the qualifier setup for IPL 2. We will release information as soon as we know for sure!
Q: Why was player <X> or <Y> not involved with this?
A: Unfortunately with a set of 16 players, we had to make hard choices and decisions about who we extended invites to. Some popular players did have conflicts with the scheduling or did not want to participate, and there was not much we could do that about. We feel like we have a strong range of players that have different play styles and will provide entertaining matches. We hope to see the popular players we weren't able to extend an invitation to excel in the IPL 2 qualifiers and participate next season!
Q: Are all the games going to be cast in the earlier rounds or only a selected few?
A: All games will be cast.
Q: Will there be an organized VOD list like the GSL or is it justin.tv stream only?
A: As of right now, the plan is there will be links from the bracket to each VOD.
Q: How much will it cost to watch?
A: Right now, the plan is to provide completely free streams of the event!
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United States1050 Posts
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I'm so pumped for this. Awesome prizepool=Awesome for esports. Good luck to the players. 
Justin.tv is so involved in esports now, it's amazing. Not to mention they are the best site for streaming. 
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This is really exciting, things are picking up hugely for western esports.
The only thing I'm apprehensive about is the inclusion of TotalBiscuit. I really do not enjoy seeing him commentate games. His style and general knowledge just make me cringe.
Here's hoping for Day 9 or JP for season 2.
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This seems to be being expertly handled. Solid player list, great choice of commentators. I'll be watching.
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On April 05 2011 07:27 Xaeldaren wrote:
Here's hoping for Day 9 or JP for season 2.
Seconded. I would love to see Day 9 on the casting crew, hopefully he'll be interested after finishing his thesis.
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I think Totalbiscuit is a fine commentator you just need to pair him up with someone knowledgeable with the game
Will there be a best of the East Coast?
And will there be an open portion of the tournament?
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This is a brilliant first step and I wish you the best of luck.
I personally absolutely love TotalBiscuit's casts and I am thankful to IGN for including him, it's a huge plus.
One question that I am sure many people would like to ask (and that perhaps has been answered before in other topics, I am not sure so forgive me) is: are you planning to allow foreign players in future seasons or will this be always be a tournament for American players only?
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people might not be too happy about the commentators... I mean I do love all of them, but counting out painuser because he is a competitive player and we still do not know much about him as a analysist or commentator, I think it would be wise to put in another experienced analysist to go along with hd wheat and totalbiscuit... if that made any sense o.O I know that they chose tb to "get out to the masses" but the sc2 community is still part of that masses and I think we would still like to hear profound analytical commentaries. Hope i made some sense :O
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United States12240 Posts
This is quite an undertaking and you and Edward are going to be pretty heavily scrutinized, but with the structure and branding of IGN behind you, this shows real promise. This is the level of recognition that SC2 needs to succeed in e-Sports in a medium beyond Internet streaming, and is this community's best hope of eventually breaking through into the mainstream, provided it gets the support it needs to do so. I wish you and your team the best of luck!
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Casters are super important and I don't think its something you can just fall into. Please closely look at who you align your casting with as it is probably AS important as your invited players.
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Will the games be Live or cast off replays? Didn't see that mentioned in the OP. It doesn't matter a great deal to me but, I like it when events are up front about it. I try to make the time to watch Live matches where as if it's just a replay I'll get to the VOD eventually.
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So now Root, EG, and Team Liquid all have their own tournaments/series.
Also how were the players/casters chosen?
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Aw. Was hoping for a large scale teamleague, as that's what the name proleague implies 
Oh well, still another fantastic tournament :D. GL IGN, GL Spades ^^
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I realise it's only a test run or whatever (is that necessary?) but the lineup is... how to put this... not very exciting? Also, TB commentating is a massive, massive turn-off. If it's a rotation system for commentators then i'll probably tune in when he's not on. If he's gonna be on every game then i'm just skipping this altogether i'm afraid.
On the plus side, the format looks pretty solid - definitely an improvement on MLG and NASL.
As for a question, will this be expanding to non-American players? That would definitely help with the roster.
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This is awesome. Really looking forward to this tournament. The intro video is the best I've seen yet for any sc2 event!
In anticipation from a lot of comments could you guys disclose any specifics to the player selection process?
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Disappointed we'll be missing out on sundevil commentary, maybe next season.
Yay for IGN taking an active step into Starcraft!
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EPT![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/XtTlS.png)
