EPT
Progaming in Korea has grown immensely over the past few years. Starting off as small tournaments in net cafes, the televised Starleagues now regularly defeat professioanl sports in the ratings. Not just a popular computer game anymore, Brood War has become Korea's 4th major professional sport alongside baseball, soccer, and basketball. The latest developlemt is OGN's new venture. OGN seeks to further obscure the line between pro sports and progaming.
Starting on April 17th, the SKY Pro League is the start of OGN's annual 40 week long pro team league. Every progaming team in Korea will compete in this huge league, which will eventually culminate in playoffs and a grand final.
The sheer scale of this league differentiates it from any other tournament. 40 weeks long, 2 broadcasts a week, 2 series per broadcast, 3 games per series. The money is good, too. Over 250,000,000 won (approximately $200,000) dollars are to be spent in prize money.
Competing Teams
All 11 Pro teams were invited
KTF Magic N's, SK T1 (previously 4Union), Suma Greatest Ones, Toona SG, Korea (KOR), Hanbitsoft, Hexatron Dream Team, Soul, Ktec Plus, Samsung Khan, POS (Pirates of Space)
Maps
1v1: Nostalgia, Neo Guillotine, Valley of Wind, XenoSky (Legacy of Char edit)
2v2: The Huntress, Vertigo Plus
The map maker/editor for OGN posted a long descriptive post here
Format
The format is the most complicated ever seen in progaming
Round 1
- The 11 teams play a round robin, 11 weeks and 44 matches in total
- Each series between two teams is a best 2 of 3, the order of games being 2v2 - 1v1 - 1v1
- At the end of round 1, the two teams with the most victories will face each other in a best 4 of 7 to decide the champion of the round
Round 2
- The team with the lowest win percentile in round 1 is temporarily eliminated
- The remaining 10 are divided into two groups of 5 according to their rankings in round 1. Each group plays a round robin, with a few additional games with between the two different groups. 11 weeks, 45 matches in total.
- Each series is best 2 of 3, but the order is 1v1 - 2v2 - 1v1
- At the end of the round, the first place teams from each group play in a best 4 of 7 round final.
Round 3
- The lowest ranked team from each group in round 2 face each other, with the losing team having to face the team temporarily eliminated from round 1. The loser of that match is eliminated from round 3
- The remaining 10 teams play in the same format as round 2
- Again, each series is best 2 of 3, but the other order is 1v1 - 1v1 - 2v2
- At the end of the round, the round champion is decided in the same method as round 2
Championship Series
- The 3 winners of each round compete, with a wild card being given to the team with the highest win percentile (asides from the round champions). If a single team has won more than one round, more wild cards are given.
- All matches are best 4 of 7
- Week 1: 4th vs 3rd / Week 2: 3rd vs 2nd / Week 3: 2nd vs 1st (Grand Final)
- It's unsure how the 4 teams will be ranked. It appears that the wild card team will receive 4th place, but the 3 round champions could be ranked by various standards (total win %, number of wins, etc).
For each series, each team is told what maps will be used in advance. The teams then select their lineup for the maps, but the lineup is not told to the other team. On the day of the games, each team's lineup is revealed to the other team.
Prize Money
The champion of each round will be given 70,000,000 won (approx. $60,000). The winner in the grand final will be given 40,000,000 won. There is probably some more prize money for various things, not revealed to the public.
Rambling
More BW tourneys is always good news. It's just that I've never really liked the pro league. There's not much that's wrong with it, in fact, there are a lot of good things about it. The format of hiding lineups till the day of the games allows for lots of interesting mind games. The fact that a single player can play only once emphasizes the overall strength of a team, unlike the MBCGame Team League (which is fun in its own way).
However, the fact that they insist on using 2v2 just kills this league for me. For most people, 2v2s are simply boring to watch. Even the best 2v2 games they've had just don't match up to the excitement of 1v1. Though it makes it different from the MBCGame Team League, it also makes it much worse.
The state of the pro teams might kill this league. Since KTF has purchased the most ridiculous team ever, the chance for decent competition looks slim. Everyone is predicting a war between KTF and SK T1, with all of the other teams trying to find a way to survive.
The role of the newcomers will be very important. If players like Casy, JulyZerg, Ddang, GoodFriend etc can realize their potential, the lower ranked teams could create some upsets and some fierce comeptition. The big, rich teamsvs the underdogs would be very interesting of the underdogs could put up a good fight.
However, the lineup of TheMarine, Sync, ArtOfHan, Nal_rA, Reach, Chojja and Yellow (the say he's going back to KTF) makes me doubt anyone's chances.
Anyway, this tourney is a good thing! Now, if only we could get VODs for the general public!
Hexatron Dream Team Fighting!
im going to have to read that over a couple of more times
