Hello everyone! We have decided at IGN Pro League that Team Arena Challenge was better suited for a league style format instead of a self-contained qualifier and tournament. Once Team Arena Challenge 3 has concluded, we will be changing the format of our team league to a division-based system and call it the IGN Pro Team League or IPTL.
The new format introduces three divisions: Amateur, Challenger (8 teams), and Premier (8 teams). Let's take a look now at each of these three divisions and how they interact.
Premier Division
These 8 teams are the cream of the crop. They are the best teams around the world and are competing for a big chunk of change. The first 8 teams in the Premier Division of IPTL will be seeded in from the top 8 of Team Arena Challenge 3. These 8 teams will be placed into two groups. The top 3 teams from each division will move on to the playoffs, and the bottom teams in each group will be relegated to up and down matches with winners from the Challenger Division.
Round Robin will play out like this: Match 1 - Team A v Team B Match 2 - Team C v Team D Match 3 - Winner of Match 1 v Winner of Match 2 Match 4 - Loser of Match 1 v Loser of Match 2 Match 5 - Loser of Match 3 v Winner of Match 4
The top 6 teams will go to the playoffs, a single-elimination bracket where the top team from each group gets a bye into WR2. The bottom 2 teams move to up and down matches to face the top 2 teams from the Challenger Division.
Challenger Division
These 8 teams are incredibly good, but not quite at the tip-top of the heap. The first Challenger teams will be teams that place 9th-16th in Team Arena Challenge 3. These 8 teams will play a single-elimination bracket, with the top 2 teams receiving a cash prize and moving on to face the 2 weakest teams from Premier in up and down matches. Teams eliminated in the first round of this bracket will fall out of Challenger Division and must re-qualify through the Amateur Division.
Amateur Division
This is the rest of the field. The 4 teams dropping down from the Challenger Division will be seeded into a massive open (not semi-open like TAC, actually open) bracket that will contain all other interested teams. The top 4 teams will enter the Challenger Division in the next season.
We hope that you'll enjoy this new format and that many teams show us what they're made of in the Amateur Division. Please post here with any feedback or questions you may have, and please join us for Team Arena Challenge 3 over the next couple of months! Thank you!
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OMG this is SOOOO awesome, I'm so glad you guys are changing the format up, really excited to see the round robin play. You just keep improving it's been great to see this past year.
I don't like how the challenger league has no chance of winning the whole thing. I liked random teams facing off against Korean teams and taking a few games. Now the system is going to get regimented into the top Korean teams plus mouz
We designed this new system in order to make our tournament systems clearer to both the teams involved as well as ours spectators. We think this will be a lot easier to follow and understand and gives more of a story to the teams involved as they progress up or down the divisions. In addition, we felt that a lot of the up-and-coming teams who qualify for TAC don't get the love they deserve because often they are eliminated early because of a lack of depth of roster. By providing more divisions, we hope to shift some of the spotlight on them and give them a feeling of accomplishment by winning or placing high in the Challenger Division.
If you have any questions let us know! We will reveal more information on things like prize pool distribution and schedules as TAC 3 gets close to finishing. Also we plan on integrating the results of IPTL into our IPL live events in the future but haven't decided how to do so yet.
On May 10 2012 09:18 Hulavuta wrote: Wow, now it's going to get REALLY confusing. People already call the IPL TAC "IPTL" and now they're actually going to be different things o_o
The IPTL will replace TAC, so there will only be one thing running.
That's awesome to hear a new format. Only thing I would change is have more than two teams, maybe four, from the premier division be able to fall to the up/down matches. I can't wait to find out how it works out though.
On May 10 2012 09:17 McFeser wrote: I don't like how the challenger league has no chance of winning the whole thing. I liked random teams facing off against Korean teams and taking a few games. Now the system is going to get regimented into the top Korean teams plus mouz
I think you mean just Korean teams. Mouz without Thorzain have little chance and TAC2 was pure Korean domination.
The teams like Fnatic, EG and Liquid can probably do reasonably as they have some really good Koreans plus top end foreigners.
On May 10 2012 09:18 Hulavuta wrote: Wow, now it's going to get REALLY confusing. People already call the IPL TAC "IPTL" and now they're actually going to be different things o_o
The IPTL will replace TAC, so there will only be one thing running.
Yes, but I meant more like when talking about results. For example, NASL is saying "mousesports was the runner up in the first IPTL Team League" and stuff like that.
They run a league called IPL, you come along as a big name, so they change their name to IPTL (Incredible Panic Team League). Now you change your name again to the exact same abbreviation they previously used.
Awesome. I would prefer if the challenger tier had the same format as the top tier, though. Also, I don't think "Amateur" is a good name for the open tier, since there will no doubt be several pro teams in it.
On May 10 2012 09:41 aristarchus wrote: Awesome. I would prefer if the challenger tier had the same format as the top tier, though. Also, I don't think "Amateur" is a good name for the open tier, since there will no doubt be several pro teams in it.
For every pro team I'd bet 2 or 3 scrub teams join, I know I'm going to try and get my CSL team to sign up
I talked about this style a few weeks ago in some thread. would be awesome if you also created nonbroadcasted team leagues to get into the amateur league. kind of like game battles for mlg. love the style and I hope that you bring in a cup style tournament after main season to allow teams in different divisions to face off
I think calling it "Amateur division" is pretty odd. I mean, in IPLTAC3, there are temas like Zenex which aren't competing (because they didn't qualify). But if they want to qualify for later seasons, they get described as an "amateur" team, whereas they clearly aren't. I think something like "Open Division" would be a much better name.
On May 10 2012 09:31 StarVe wrote: Poor guys from incredible Panic.
They run a league called IPL, you come along as a big name, so they change their name to IPTL (Incredible Panic Team League). Now you change your name again to the exact same abbreviation they previously used.
This is pretty awesome. It has truly been a pleasure to see the evolution of the team arena, from it's beginning back in the summer of 2011 as a weekly showmatch between EG and Reign, then transforming into the IPL TAC challenge. TAC 1 was great, then TAC 2 became even larger, and now TAC 3 looks to be even bigger. All we need now are LAN finals please
On May 10 2012 09:31 StarVe wrote: Poor guys from incredible Panic.
They run a league called IPL, you come along as a big name, so they change their name to IPTL (Incredible Panic Team League). Now you change your name again to the exact same abbreviation they previously used.
I fear they'll run out of names soon.
I was thinking about that too... There are in the upcoming events (ACME IPL SM: ACME Incredible Panic League Show Matches)
Match 1 - Team A v Team B Match 2 - Team C v Team D Match 3 - Winner of Match 1 v Winner of Match 2 Match 4 - Loser of Match 1 v Loser of Match 2 Match 5 - Loser of Match 3 v Winner of Match 4
isn't a good format for getting the top 3 out of 4 from a group. Match 5 is one of those kinda pointless placement matches where neither team can be eliminated or get the 1st round bye, which makes it pretty boring to watch in my opinion. Why not just do an actual round robin?
Anyway, I'm excited for these changes as a whole, especially having an actual open bracket and a nice relegation system, so I hope this works out well for you all :D
Match 1 - Team A v Team B Match 2 - Team C v Team D Match 3 - Winner of Match 1 v Winner of Match 2 Match 4 - Loser of Match 1 v Loser of Match 2 Match 5 - Loser of Match 3 v Winner of Match 4
isn't a good format for getting the top 3 out of 4 from a group. Match 5 is one of those kinda pointless placement matches where neither team can be eliminated or get the 1st round bye, which makes it pretty boring to watch in my opinion. Why not just do an actual round robin?
Anyway, I'm excited for these changes as a whole, especially having an actual open bracket and a nice relegation system, so I hope this works out well for you all :D
I missed this initially but I think this is a good point. If only the first place in the group gets a bye round, and only the last place gets sent to up/downs, then Match 5 matters very little.
I guess they could send the bottom place team to the challenger division automatically, and the 3rd place to up/downs. Or just change the format. Though it is nice since it's reminiscent of bw.
this is a great update! It'll make the team arena challenges more dynamic and connected. TAC1 2 and 3 felt like three independent tournaments (which they were haha), but this will add some fluidity between the different seasons, should be really exciting!
Why call the groups round robin, if htey aren't played round robin but rather dual tournament? But YES! More dual tournament groups, GOGOGO! It puts focus where it belongs, the one who wins wins! Instead of the classicc "If he wins this 2-0 but player B be loses 1 map vs player C, or player C wins 2-0, he should be through, i think." #anticlimactic
Aside from that, it's a great news. I'd like to see the organisation getting more involve into bringing international teams instead of korean ones. Otherwise it's just like GSTL, KSL and that's just not worth watching for you.
Edit : Just read, Chapatiya and StarVe posts. I'm with you guys ^^
Hmm, I'm not sure about the new format. Only the 8 teams in the premier league have a chance to win it all now, so I don't know how much effort the teams in the other divisions will put in now.
Okay, so IGN starts IPL, which stands for IGN Pro League, then starts IPL TAC, which stands for Team Arena Challenge, and now IGN is going to name it IPTL, which presumably stands for IGN Pro Team League?
That just sounds so strange. I'm so used to "Proleague" and "Team League" being two different things. Like early OGN/MBC differences. Then there's the later simplified "Proleague", which is a team league anyway. ITPL, or "IGN Team Proleague" makes a lot more sense but the abbreviation sucks, and doesn't follow the whole add-T-before-L to differentiate team competition from solo that GSL started with GSTL and NASL picked up with NASTL. Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii if MLG comes out with their team format I wonder what it'll be called.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of IPL's work, but restricting the Challenger division to just eight teams seems a little bit too low to me.
With that said, your division-classified format is the way forward for team leagues, and its definitely an improvement from TAC and the rest of the high profile team leagues.
The only thing that bothers me about this tourney format is that in the group stages, the 5th match is totally pointless, because the two teams involved are already guaranteed to have to fight in WR1.
I would recommend either making it full round robin. This would only add 2 games to the entire existing system at most, so I don't think it would hurt scheduling much at all. If you want to keep the double elimination group system, then there must be a significant advantage for being 2nd in your group rather than 3rd, which at the moment there isn't. To stave off pointless games.
Also it might be worth while to make a handy chart to show how this works out visually, like GOM did with the new GSL format.
This is awesome. I especially like the idea of the divisions with one of them being open. It really feels like IPL is getting everything right in terms of organizing tournaments these days!
So, for the people who haven't realised this yet, their system is the exact same as GSL.
Premier Division - Code S Group play followed by single elimination tournament.
Challenger Division - Code A Single elimination tournament with the top players getting to play the bottom players of the Premier division (Up n' Down)
Amatuer Divison - Code B Losers of the Challenger Division play in a massive open bracket along anyone else who can assemble a team.
Whether people like this for a team league or not, up to you, but its the exact same thing as GSL in turns of format.
I actually love this format. Resembles more of a sports league format. I'd even be fine with no up and downs and simply teams get relegated or promoted.
On May 11 2012 05:14 Bumblebee wrote: I like this a lot. Now give us live games and live broadcasts, so we can get a real team-feeling going here!
Are you really an advocate of this? I would've thought as a team manager you'd find it a scheduling nightmare.
I, for one, don't think scheduling is a problem at all. It's a matter of having a dedicated team and a management that puts time into scheduling. I'm absolutely certain that making this a live format will ease my job a lot. And make it a lot more fun due to the feeling that you get from playing such wars live.
While I'm really excited for this already... I'm kind of worried about the choice of up and downs. The premier league bottom two play the top two of the challenger league and the winners of that move to the premier league and losers move down... but for the Open -> Challenger there is no up and downs at all and a 50% fallout level. Challenger basically seems like hell. If the top two from challenger automatically moved up and the bottom two from premier were automatically relegated I feel like the system would be a lot better, Especially depending on the amount of top tier teams involved.
I think that avoiding the up and downs between challenger and premier would also help the up and coming teams that you felt needed more of a spotlight, as they would get a whole "season" in the premier division for doing well in the challenger division instead of just a oneshot up and down.
I don't like that only the bottom 2 of the premier division go down. This will make the changes in the premier division very slow. I could see making the challenger division bigger, and having the top4 of the challenger vs the bottom 4 of the premier. That way I can see more changing the way the premier and challenger division looks withing each season. The way it is right now it just seems very stall for the premier division. Have the 8 premier just advance to top4, and bottom 4 fall into up & downs.
format is kinda similar to european football. i hope there will be no up/down matches, the bottom 2 from premier should relegated to challenger; the top 2 in challenger should be promoted to premier. same thing form amateur and challenger.
Involvement for the "Amateur" events will be huge - thereby bumping viewership of the "Pro"-side. Where/when do we get more info on the "Amateur" stuff?!?!
I am not really confident that this will work out the way you want to. Haven't we seen that this kind of format failed last year in the gsl? I am also not very happy with the round robin system. I think that a group in which everyone faces everyone shows far better how really deserves to be in the playoffs...
On May 16 2012 16:59 Odal wrote: Why don't they change the iptl to the IGN Pro league like bw pro league and then call the normal IPL the IGN Star league? like osl/msl? So confusing.
Yes, the names are confusing. Proleagues have always been team leagues, and Starleagues have been always individual leagues.
Such a sick format! Isn't this exactly what they were talking about on Inside the Game yesterday? I'm sure this will be great and we will see some upsets in the up and downs between seasons :D
taking cue from soccer and using promotion/relegation, awesome.....and then once a year you should have a massive FA cup style tournament where every team has a shot
this has the potential to be absolutely amazing and scene changing
I love anything that allows "up and coming" (I hate that term) teams to participate in big leagues. Lots of smaller NA teams with sick good members that would do super well in any team leagues.
Well I think its a step in the right direction BUT a few issues:
The way the round robins in the premier division are going to play out seems very very very strange given that 3 teams are advancing to the playoffs out of four. Match 5 is a match that serves no purpose if im following this correctly. Both teams in match 5 will already have secured a playoff place and neither of them will be able to secure the top seed in their group. If im imagining the playoff situation correctly (top seeds skip into ro4?) then the teams in match 5 are just battling for which quarter final theyr in which is sort of pointless.
Also, and this is more personal preference, I dont like that you have up/downs to get into the premier from challenge. Give some credit to the challenge teams and just put them straight in. Its a good way to get some fresh faces into the premier league and you arnt going to miss the guys that just got beat down in premier.
Whoa. This is like a mixture of CAL and GSL. Fucking awesome, IGN continues to be on the bleeding edge of innovation with IPL, and MLG isn't far behind.
I love to see Western eSports exploding, I just hope IGN and MLG see themselves as partners in the marketplace and not as competitors- they share the same viewerbase, but there's enough room for both!
As much as I love these changes, all of these new leagues and leagues changing names and formats and being run every third sunday of the month but only if it's an odd date or within 3 days of a full moon is cluttering up Liquipedia /rant
I can't wait to see how this turns out. I really hope it works as well as it looks like it should :D
I didn't even notice the problem with the pointless Match 5, but that's a great point.
I really like the divisional format, and this is all a step in the right direction. BUT. It seems there's a lot that needs to be worked out with the promotion/demotion between the leagues. As it stands, premier league will barely change. Only two teams drop down, and they still have a great chance to win their up/downs and be right back in the premier league.
And the challenger division offers very little reward. Teams placing 3rd and 4th just get put back into the grind with little to show for their success. Teams will be qualifying from the Amateur Division to the Challenger division on a regular basis and have nothing to show for it. I think a big part of what makes the GSL's divisional format work so well is that there's constantly a financial incentive for advancing at every round of Code A and Code S, not just the status of being in one or the other. I'm sure the prize pool for the premier league is generous, but by placing one large reward at the end of a very long road (starting in Amateur or Challenger), I think it will make the two bottom leagues lack drama. Obviously IPL/IPTL don't have GSL money, and I'm sure there's many challenges to implementing a reward/prize pool like that. But that's the direction things need to go. I really really like the opportunity that's being given to everyone to compete, not they just need to provide a better incentive.
2 things: For clarity, you should change the description so "division" doesn't both refer to amateur/challenger/premier, AND the two groups within premier.
Second, I feel this may end up facing a similar issue as GSL where there is too little exchange between the top 2 divisions, although since the divisions are a lot smaller I don't know if that will make a difference.
EPT
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sucks for them.. TT
Incredible Panic Team League Season 3
