As this calendar year is coming to an end, a new
SC2 SK Proleague season is closing in with each day passing.
December 29th marks the start of a new season. A lot has changed since the last season. One of the big changes is that
OGN will no longer broadcast PL and it will be broadcasted exclusively on
SPOTV Games and
SPOTV2.
The top 2 teams, STX Soul and Woongjin Stars have been disbanded with it's players finding new homes among other KeSPA and ESF teams. The most notable names that won't participate in the next Proleague are ex STX Innovation (now Acer) and Dear (now Mousesports), KHAN's JangBi (retired), T1's Bisu (retired) and EG's Jaedong as EG-TL have decided to not compete. The 3 teams that dropped out have been replaced by Incredible Miracle, Prime and Team MVP. Samsung KHAN has been renamed to Samsung Galaxy KHAN and KeSPA Team 8 finally found a sponsor and is now called Jin Air Greenwings.
Format has also been changed. This season will have four rounds and each round will be played in round robin BO5 Proleague format. Each round will also have it's own playoffs where top four teams will fight for the title of round winner. The round winner gets 40 extra points and USD ~$15,000 while the second best team gets awarder with 10 extra points and USD ~$5,000. The round playoffs will be in BO7 all-kill format. Top 4 teams in regular part of the season will qualify for post-season playoffs which will be played as best BO3 of BO7 matches with the formats alternating between Proleague, all-kill and Proleague again. Playoffs format has changed to single elimination bracket with the #1 team playing vs #4, and #2 vs #3. The grand finals are played as a single BO7 match. The winners are awarded with USD ~$50,000 while runner-up gets USD ~$20,000.
There's a new caster lineup as well, SuperNovaManiac and Whiplash duo got replaced by Wolf and Brendan Valdes. You will be able to watch the streams on Naver, Twitch.TV and YouTUBE.
* Sponsor: SK Telecom
* Teams: SK Telecom T1, KT Rolster, CJ Entus, Jin Air Green Wings, Incredible Miracle, Prime, Team MVP, Samsung Galaxy Khan
* Casters: Wolf Schröder and Brendan Valdes
* Streams: Naver, Twitch.TV, YouTUBE
* Game days: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday from 04:00 CST
* Point distribution: 1st: 81 / 2nd: 71 / 3rd: 61 / 4th: 51 / 5th: 45 / 6th: 40 / 7th: 35 / 8th: 30
* Map pool: Bel'Shir Vestige, Frost, Outboxer, Sejong Science Base, Star Station, Yeonsu
* Round format: round robin, BO5 Proleague
* Round playoff format: BO7 all-kill
* Season playoff format: single elimination, best BO3 of BO5, alternating between Proleague, all-kill and Proleague format (game 1: Proleague, game 2: all-kill, tiebreaker: Proleague)
* Grand finals format: single match, BO7 Proleague
* Prizes per round: USD ~$15,000 for round winner, USD ~$5,000 for round runner-up
* Prize for grand finals: USD ~$50,000 for Proleague winner, USD ~$20,000 for Proleague runner-up
* Individual prizes: USD ~$5,000 to player with most wins, USD ~$3,000 to finals MVP, USD ~$2,000 to rookie of the year, USD ~$1,000 to head coach of the year
* Sunday, December 29th (04:00 CST): SKT T1 vs MVP followed by IM vs Prime
* Monday, December 30th (04:00 CST): Samsung Galaxy KHAN vs Jin Air Greenwings followed by KT Rolster vs CJ Entus
* Tuesday, December 31st (04:00 CST): MVP vs IM followed by SKT T1 vs Prime
Sources: Team Liquid,
Team Liquid (2)