On March 4th IGN ProLeague 6 (IPL6), one of the year’s premier StarCraft II events, was officially cancelled. CompLexity Chief Operating Officer Jason Bass called the cancellation a “step backward for the industry.”
With the announcement coming merely 3 weeks prior to the tournament’s March 28th start date, numerous teams, players and spectators were left scrambling to adjust their travel itineraries. In IPL’s official statement, refunds were promised to everyone that purchased an event ticket and/or reserved a room at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. No mention was made about those that may have booked a flight, car, or room at another hotel; however, IPL was apologetic to their “biggest fans who planned to be out in Vegas.”
Thankfully, compLexity’s StarCraft II players, who were scheduled to attend IPL 6, had not made any travel arrangements prior to the announcement.
Complexity SC2 players Joshua “TriMaster” Niven and Gage “Sasquatch” DuBose shared their disappointment.
“Besides gambling and enjoying Vegas in general, I was actually looking forward to visiting with a lot of friends I haven’t seen in a while,” said Niven, “including my ex-teammate SangHo and several other players as well as the coach from IPTL finalists team MVP.”
DuBose added, “I’ve seen some people who have to change their flights and plans because of this. Personally I’m just really disappointed because now I have very little to look forward to or practice for in terms of upcoming events. The next event I actually know of, online or offline, is MLG Anaheim in late June.”
Despite their current sentiments, both players were quick to point out that the IPL events they had attended in the past were extremely well run and player friendly. DuBose went as far as saying that IPL5 was his “favorite event that [he’d] ever been to.”
With the future of IPL looking bleak, a hole now exists in the esports tournament landscape.
For additional information about IPL6’s cancellation, email [email protected].
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Full statement from Complexity Chief Operating Officer Jason Bass
The cancellation of IPL is a step backward for the industry. Competition is good and the more events we have is good for this budding scene. Thankfully we still have many of the major events still running tournaments and leagues so I don’t view this as the kind of setback North American eSports saw when The CGS shut its doors but it is a set back none the less. On a personal note with MLG not having an open SC2 bracket, IPL was set to be an event that had all of our SC2 members in presence and for that I am very disappointed and I know they are too.