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. Now that 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, Contender (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 (prize pool still TBA). 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 2 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 Contender Division.

In each group, every team will play every other team in the group.

Group 1 for IPTL Season 1 looks like this:

Team Liquid
SlayerS
MVP
Evil Geniuses

Group 2 looks like this:

LG-Incredible Miracle
StarTale
Prime
Team SCV Life

The top 4 teams will go to the playoffs, a single-elimination bracket. The bottom 4 teams move to up and down matches to face the top 4 teams from the Contender Division.

The full (tentative) schedule for IPTL Season 1 Premier Division is under the spoiler!
+ Show Spoiler [IPTL Premier Schedule] +

Premier Division games will be broadcast on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Premier Group A Schedule:
Liquid v EG - September 11
SlayerS v MVP - September 18
Liquid v MVP - September 25
SlayerS v EG - October 2
SlayerS v Liquid - October 9
MVP v EG - October 16

Premier Group B Schedule:
IM v StarTale - September 12
Prime v TSL - September 19
IM v Prime - September 26
StarTale v TSL - October 3
StarTale v Prime - October 10
IM v TSL - October 17

Contender Division

These 8 teams are incredibly good, but not quite at the tip-top of the heap. The first Contender teams will be teams that place 9th-16th in Team Arena Challenge 3. These 8 teams will also play round robin groups, with the top 4 teams receiving a cash prize and moving on to face the 4 weakest teams from Premier in up and down matches. Teams finishing third and fourth in their groups will fall out of Contender Division and must re-qualify through the Amateur Division.

Group 1 for IPTL Season 1 looks like this:

Acer
aTn Type
FXO
compLexity

Group 2 looks like this:

NSHoSeo
Karont3
Empire
Dignitas

The full (tentative) schedule for IPTL Season 1 Contender Division is under the spoiler!
+ Show Spoiler [IPTL Contender Schedule] +

Contender Division games will be broadcast on Thursdays and Fridays.

Contender Group A Schedule:
Acer v aTn Type - September 13
coL v FXO - September 20
Acer v FXO - September 27
aTn Type v coL - October 4
FXO v aTn Type - October 11
Acer v coL - October 18

Contender Group B Schedule:
NSHoSeo v Empire - September 14
Karont3 v Dignitas - September 21
NSHoSeo v Dignitas - September 28
Karont3 v Empire - October 5
Empire v Dignitas - October 12
Karont3 v NSHoSeo - October 19

Amateur Division

This is the rest of the field. The 4 teams dropping down from the Contender 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 Contender Division in the next season.

Teams looking to sign up for the IPTL Amateur Division must meet the following requirements: Must have a manager, a website, and at least 5 reliable players.

Application instructions are inside the spoiler:
+ Show Spoiler [Amateur Application] +

To apply, e-mail Frank Fields (ffields (at) ign (dot) com) with the following information:

Team Name:
Website:
Team Accomplishments:

Manager:
Real Name:
Alias:
In Game Name & Identifier: e.g. RGNMirhi.241
Email Address:
Phone Number:

Assistant Manager:
Real Name:
Alias:
In Game Name & Identifier: e.g. RGNMirhi.241
Phone Number:

Roster:
Real Name:
Alias:
In Game Name & Identifier: e.g. RGNMirhi.241

Amateur Division Schedule is behind the spoiler, beginning broadcasting on August 14th!
+ Show Spoiler [Amateur Division Schedule] +

Round 1 - August 12 - August 18
Round 2 - August 19 - August 25
Round 3 - August 26 - September 1
Round 4 - September 2 - September 8
Round 5 - September 9 - September 15
Round 6 - September 16 - September 22

We hope that you'll enjoy this new format and that many teams show us what they're made of in the Amateur Division. Prize pools and additional scheduling (up and downs, playoffs, etc.) are still to be announced. Stay tuned for additional information as the season begins! Please post here with any feedback or questions you may have, and please join us for the Team Arena Challenge 3 Grand Finals on August 11th! Thank you!

Stay up to date with IPL5, IPL TV, IPL Fight Club, and IPTL by
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opterown

Australia54784 Posts

August 01 2012 21:56 GMT

interesting format ^^

-FoX

United States479 Posts

August 01 2012 21:58 GMT

This is really cool! Hope to see a lot of up and coming teams in that amateur division!

ChuCky.Ca

Canada2497 Posts

August 01 2012 21:59 GMT

im liking the new format

mistsifter

Australia44 Posts

August 01 2012 22:00 GMT

Liquid vs EG opening match!
Hyped already!

Finrod1

Germany3997 Posts

August 01 2012 22:00 GMT

no mouz?

opterown

Australia54784 Posts

August 01 2012 22:00 GMT

group 2 is very difficult compared to group 1, lol

chris5180

198 Posts

August 01 2012 22:02 GMT

i like the format, can't wait!

imallinson

United Kingdom3482 Posts

August 01 2012 22:03 GMT

This seems like a really interesting format. It look very similar to the GSL format and I'm curious to see how that works in a team league.

Sozai

United States27 Posts

August 01 2012 22:09 GMT

#10

If I'm reading this right there seems to be a contradiction.

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.

The top 4 teams will go to the playoffs, a single-elimination bracket. The bottom 4 teams move to up and down matches to face the top 4 teams from the Contender Division.

Both of these quotes seemed to be in relation to the premier division. One states the top 3 of each group, a total of 6 teams will advance to the playoffs, and the other states a total of 4 teams will advance.

And are Challenger Division and Contender Division supposed to be the same thing or something different?

Is something wrong here or am I just confusing myself?

IGNProLeague

1184 Posts

August 01 2012 22:15 GMT

#11

On August 02 2012 07:09 Sozai wrote:
If I'm reading this right there seems to be a contradiction.

Show nested quote +

You're right, it was a mistake left over from an earlier draft. It's fixed now. =)

Acronysis

872 Posts

August 01 2012 22:33 GMT

#12

Sounds good - I like this format =) Makes for a lot higher stakes for every match I feel - it's crazy to think about some of the good teams that will have to go through the amateur division (Quantic first comes to mind).

Super excited for this - IPL TAC just gets better and better each season =)

Veldril

Thailand1817 Posts

August 01 2012 22:39 GMT

#13

I have a question: Will IPTL uses an all-kill format or the Ace match format (like KesPA's Starcraft Pro League)?

IGNProLeague

1184 Posts

August 01 2012 22:39 GMT

#14

On August 02 2012 07:39 Veldril wrote:
I have a question: Will IPTL uses an all-kill format or the Ace match format (like KesPA's Starcraft Pro League)?

Bo9 All-kill formats are still the plan.

Gorlin

United States2753 Posts

August 01 2012 22:40 GMT

#15

With the round robin, is point differential used to determine tie-breaks? Will it be all-kill format or the proleague format? (edit: just answered above me)
If it's all-kill, and uses point dif for tie breaks, I really don't like that. The way that seems to me is that teams will want to send their best players first and just hope that they all-kill since they won't want to drop any maps. This puts less emphasis on interesting usage and snipers, map choice, etc. This is still awesome news, but could you elaborate on this?

opterown

Australia54784 Posts

August 01 2012 22:45 GMT

#16

On August 02 2012 07:40 Gorlin wrote:
With the round robin, is point differential used to determine tie-breaks? Will it be all-kill format or the proleague format? (edit: just answered above me)
If it's all-kill, and uses point dif for tie breaks, I really don't like that. The way that seems to me is that teams will want to send their best players first and just hope that they all-kill since they won't want to drop any maps. This puts less emphasis on interesting usage and snipers, map choice, etc. This is still awesome news, but could you elaborate on this?

yeah, i agree, point difference is not the best for allkill format

IGNProLeague

1184 Posts

August 01 2012 22:55 GMT

#17

On August 02 2012 07:45 opterown wrote:

Show nested quote +

yeah, i agree, point difference is not the best for allkill format

So our plan for tiebreakers right now are head-to-head first (for two-team ties), then map score difference (i.e. 12-6 is better than 11-7 is better than 11-8, and so on).

yawnoC

United States3704 Posts

August 01 2012 22:59 GMT

#18

Really interesting decision. Interested to see how this will turn out.

johnnywup

United States3858 Posts

August 01 2012 23:07 GMT

#19

gogo infinity seven for "amateur" division!

i like this format the best out of all, very much like GSL

MCXD

Australia2738 Posts

August 01 2012 23:08 GMT

#20

What will the format of the up and down matches be? Two round robin groups, top 4 going up and bottom 4 going down (like the main divisions themselves)? Or simply pairing up the teams and having 4 stand-alone matches to determine the 4 teams going up and down?

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