StarCraft Proleague, also known as StarCraft II Proleague or Proleague for short, was the longest running StarCraft league in the world and the most prestigious team league. Hosted by the Korean eSports Association (KeSPA), the league was played

offline In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity, and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed as "on li ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. Proleague began in 2003 with the game StarCraft: Brood War before switching over to

StarCraft II ''StarCraft II'' is a real-time strategy video game created by Blizzard Entertainment, first released in 2010. A sequel to the successful '' StarCraft'', released in 1998, it is set in a militaristic far future. The narrative centers on a galacti ...

in 2012 and then discontinued in 2016. It was broadcast by SPOTVGames prior to being discontinued.

History

In 2003, the game broadcasting company MBCGame created the KPGA Team League, the first major team league in

StarCraft professional competition The real time strategy (RTS) computer game ''StarCraft'' had an active professional competition circuit, particularly in South Korea. The two major game channels in South Korea, Ongamenet and MBCGame, each ran a Starleague (Starleague (Ongamene ...

. MBCGame's competitor, OnGameNet created their own team league in response and so two major team leagues were active in the early 2000s. In 2005, KeSPA merged the two team leagues to create the Proleague, a unified league.

SK Telecom T1 T1 (previously known as SK Telecom T1 or SKT T1) is a South Korean esports organization operated by T1 Entertainment & Sports, a joint venture between SK Telecom and Comcast Spectacor. The team that would become SKT T1 was originally founded i ...

swept the first two rounds of the newly formed league and ended up winning the grand finals as well to be the first champion. From its inception, the Proleague format had the teams alternate between 1vs1 and 2vs2 games in a best of five or best of seven match. However, the 2vs2 matches were discontinued in 2008, leaving only 1vs1 games. After the 2008 season, the format of Proleague changed again to span a longer portion of the year, typically starting from the end of one year and ending in the Fall of the next. The 2009 – 2010 season led to the creation of the modern Proleague format where teams face off each other in four or five rounds of round robin. At the end of the season, the highest scoring teams face off in a single-elimination

playoffs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

bracket to determine the champion. Prior to the release of

in 2010,

Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based in Irvine, California, and a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. Originally founded in 1991, the company is best known for producing the h ...

, disputed with KeSPA over

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

rights of broadcasting StarCraft games. This put pressure on KeSPA and in 2011 the case was resolved with an eSports commentator noting that the case was a push to expand the broadcasting market into StarCraft II. The 2011 – 2012 Proleague ended up being a transitional season for the league as featured both Brood War and Wings of Liberty. Each match was played alternating between Brood War and Wings of Liberty, with each player having to prepare for both games as well. Following the closure of MBCGame in 2012, SPOTVGames broadcast Proleague alongside OnGameNet. The full transition into StarCraft II came into place for the 2012 – 2013 season which also featured EG-TL, a partnership between rivals

Team Liquid Team Liquid is a multi-regional professional esports organization based in the Netherlands that was founded in 2000. They signed their first professional players with the release of '' StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty''. In 2012, Team Liquid acq ...

and

Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses (EG) is an American esports organization based in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington. Founded in 1999, the organization has fielded players in various fighting games, ''Call of Duty (series), Call of Duty'', ''Counter-Strike ...

which made them the first non-Korean team to play in Proleague. EG-TL did not achieve much success in Proleague and ultimately pulled out of the league in the following season. OnGameNet stopped broadcasting Proleague starting the 2013 – 2014 season, leaving SPOTVGames as the sole broadcaster for the league. KeSPA announced on October 18, 2016, that Proleague would be discontinued citing sponsorship issues, declining amount of professional teams, and match fixing scandals.

Tournaments

OnGameNet and MBCGame Leagues

MBCGame hosted their first major team league in 2003. OnGameNet also hosted their own team competitions in 2003 and 2004.

United League

OnGameNet and MBCGame came together to host Proleague starting in 2005.

Hybrid League

Prior to the switch to

, the 2012 SK Planet Proleague Season 2 league featured both games.

StarCraft II Leagues

Proleague fully switched to StarCraft II starting with the 2012 – 2013 season.

Teams

For the 2016 season, the final season, there were 7 teams in Proleague. * CJ Entus *

Jin Air Green Wings Jin Air Green Wings () was a South Korean e-sports organization with teams competing in ''StarCraft II'' and ''League of Legends''. Its parent organization was Korean Air subsidiary Jin Air. The organization was formed in November 2011 as a ''Sta ...

* KT Rolster * MVP (Korean) *

Samsung Galaxy Samsung Galaxy (; stylized as SΛMSUNG Galaxy since 2015 (except Japan where it omitted the Samsung branding up until 2023), previously stylized as Samsung GALAXY; abbreviated as SG) is a series of computing, Android mobile computing and wear ...

* Afreeca Freecs (Korean) *

Prize Pool

The prize pool for the grand finals of the 2014 – 2015 Proleague season was a total of 70,000,000 KRW. In addition, each round had its own separate prize pool and additional awards were given out to outstanding players.

External links

Official SiteOfficial Facebook Page

References

{{Esports competitions StarCraft competitions Esports competitions in South Korea 2003 establishments in South Korea