The IGN Pro League (IPL) has announced more details regarding their upcoming event, the IPL2. The event has a spectacular $50,000 prize pool, divided up as follows:

• 1st – $15,000
• 2nd – $10,000
• 3rd – $6,000
• 4th – $4,000
• 5th/6th – $1300
• 7th/8th – $1000
• 9th-12th – $800
• 13th-16th – $600
• 17th-24th – $400
• 25th-32nd – $200

In addition to these cash prizes, the top 16 finishers of the IPL2 will also receive spots in the IPL’s next event. The IPL2 features some pretty big names from Team EG’s Greg “IdrA” Fields to Tt eSPORTS’ Aleksey “White-Ra” Krupnyk. Here is the full list of players, ordered by seeding:

• Seed 1: EG.IdrA
• Seed 2: KiWiKaKi
• Seed 3: dignitas.SeleCT
• Seed 4: EG.Axslav
• Seed 5: mouz.Mana
• Seed 6: roxkisBratOK
• Seed 7: vile.State
• Seed 8: FXO.mOoNan
• Seed 9: sixjax.ViBE
• Seed 10: dignitas.merz
• Seed 11: TteSPORTS.White-Ra
• Seed 12: sixjax.dde

• Seed 13: coL.Destiny

• Seed 14: Lalush
• Seed 15: Nerchio
• Seed 16: aTn.Socke
• Seed 17: Millenium.DieStar
• Seed 18: MYM.ClouD
• Seed 19: NrS.RaNgeD
• Seed 20: coL.Minigun
• Seed 21: TBD – 5th Place Qualifier #1
• Seed 22: sixjax.CocoA
• Seed 23: Fnatic.NightEnD
• Seed 24: TBD – 6th Place Qualifier #1
• Seed 25: RGl.FuRy
• Seed 26: ESC.GoOdy
• Seed 27: coL.stalife
• Seed 28: aTn.DarKFoRcE
• Seed 29: TBD – 7th Place Qualifier #1
• Seed 30: Liquid`Ret
• Seed 31: imba.FXOStrelok
• Seed 32: TBD – 8th Place Qualifier #1

(Qualified but not yet seeded)

• Qualifier #1: Millenium.Tarson
• Qualifier #1: Fnatic.Fenix
• Qualifier #3: mouz.ThorZaIN
• Qualifier #3: coL.Drewbie

Not only will this event feature big name players, it also has some renowned casters in OneMoreGame.TV’s djWHEAT and GOMTV/GSL’s Casting Archon, Tastosis (Tasteless & Artosis)!

• Set 1: CatsPajamas & PainUser
• Set 2: HD & PainUser
• Set 3: TotalBiscuit and dignitas.Apollo
• Set 4: Artosis and Tasteless
• Set 5: DJ Wheat

Find out more at IGN Pro League’s website HERE!

After much anticipation and months of waiting, Riot Games has finally released a preview video for spectator mode as they displayed the latest champions and game features at E3. Spectator mode will allow spectators to view the games without participating in them, much like you’ll find in games like Starcraft II or Counter-Strike 1.6. With the addition of spectator mode, the game will be open to a world of new attention, including live broadcasting.

The spectator mode preview is near the end of the video, after the breakdown of three new champions that Riot Games is working on. Unfortunately, no official release date is set, however Riot has announced that they will be utilizing spectator mode at Dreamhack Summer 2011.

Baneling BBQ: Perspective

by Emil Erlandsson

Visit Baneling BBQ for more cartoons from Emil Erlandsson

One of the most popular online StarCraft II events is the FXOpen Invitational Series. Featuring players from around the globe duking it out against one another, the Invitational prides itself on providing eSports fans with matches they’d never see normally.

Today FXOpen announced that it has boosted its prize pool to $5,000. In addition to the expanded prize pool, FXOpen also announced that it will be changing its format. While previous Ivitationals saw all the invited players lumped into one big bracket, the next Invitational will see a series of qualifiers for the Europe, Korean, and America n servers (SEA will be included in the American qualifiers).

Four players will qualify from a pool of 32 from each region, and they will be joined by four other invited players, including MarineKing, the defending FXOpen Invitational Champion, in the final sixteen-man playoff bracket.

Staying true to FXOpen’s international focus, the commentary for the Invitational will be broadcasted on four different streams in four different languages. The english stream will feature the GSL Code A caster Wolf along with Unstable. Khaldor will handle the German broadcast, Slukad the Russian, and miDnight the Chinese.

The qualifiers will span three weekends, with Europe on June 11th, America on the 18th, and Korea on the 26th. The final event will be held on July 1st and if guaranteed to give SC2 fans some amazing games.

Source: Esfiworld

After much anticipation, the North American Star League has announced the time and location of the Grand Finals for their inaugural season. The event, as expected, will be in Los Angeles, California at the Ontario Convention Center.

Casted by none other than Gretorp and iNcontroL, the duo will be joined by an unannounced third caster, who will likely take the place of one of the casters as they play in the event.

Ontario Convention Center
Ontario Convention and Visitors Bureau
2000 E. Convention Center Way
Ontario, CA 91764

The event is set to run from July 8th to the 10th. Tickets will be on sale, both online and at the door for a one time fee of $25, which will cover all three days of the event.

Baneling BBQ: A Few Drinks

by Emil Erlandsson

Visit Baneling BBQ for more cartoons from Emil Erlandsson

Today, leading live video streaming platform startup, Justin.tv has unveiled a new website for the competitive gaming community. Its name is TwitchTV and it will be both an eSports portal and community. Justin.tv hopes that the platform will be the one-stop-shop for all live video streaming for anything and everything eSports.

TwitchTV currently features live video content from games like Halo: Reach, StarCraft II, World of Warcraft and Call of Duty: Black Ops. Much like Justin.tv, TwitchTV will continue their partner program where gamers and tournaments alike can take a share in the ad revenue from their stream(s). In addition, much like the premium subscription that you can get from the North American Star League (www.NASL.tv), the company will continue to try to enhance that type of premium content model (eg. pay-per-view and subscription-based).

Keep in mind that the website is still in open beta so it may still have a few bugs!

Check out the press release HERE! To try out TwitchTV, visit their website HERE.

With MLG Columbus starting up tomorrow, progamers from all over are packing their bags and boarding flights to Ohio. Well, all except StarTale’s Bomber, one of the Korean players who was suppose to participate in MLG and GOMtv’s League Exchange Program. Unfortunately for eSports fans Bomber missed his flight due to passport issues and will not participating in MLG Columbus.

There is a bright side to this, however. Taking Bombers place will be none other than the Kratos Protoss, 2 time GSL champion oGsMC. According to posts on Twitter from LiquidHuk and MLG staff, MC is already on his plane and on his way to Columbus.

But that’s not all. Last night in Cyber Sports Network’s “Clash of the Houses” tournament, StarTale’s July (aka JulyZerg the God of War from Brood War) won a free trip to try his luck in MLG Columbus’s open pool.

With both MC and July joining the cast of IM.Losira, SlayerS_MMA and FOXMoon, MLG Columbus is looking like it will be the best North American lan tournament of the year.

Today a new StarCraft II utility website launched. Dubbed SC2 Earnings, the website lists professional SC2 teams and players in order of money earned from “online tournaments, LAN events, show matches, and leagues with a combined prize pool of $1000 USD or more.”

Professional sports players salaries are readily available to sports fans, however, this is not a luxury we have in the world of e-Sports.” said Justin Loeb, Founder and Owner of the website. “Our goal is to give fans a small glimpse into how much money their favorite players are actually accumulating over the course of time.

The cool thing about SC2 Earnings is that you can sort the list by region (Americas, Europe, Asia, Oceania) and by player race, allowing for some pretty interesting data to be extrapolated.

To keep up with SC2 Earnings, you can follow it on Twitter and on Facebook.

In a new study by Divorce Online, it has been determined that 15% of women who file for divorce due to unreasonable behaviour claim that their spouse was putting gaming before them. More specifically, wives blame both World of Warcraft and Call of Duty for a breakdown in the marraige.

Jessica Ellis, a 24 year old from London had this to say about her husbands “addiction”.

He was addicted to World of Warcraft but played other games now and then. The amount he was playing gradually increased until I could not take it any more.

When it became serious he was playing up to eight hours a day. I was constantly trying to get him to cut back but he didn’t think he had a problem until I told him I wanted to leave. But by that time it was too late.

The study utilized 200 divorce filings with unreasonable behaviour as the reason. The percentage of women citing unreasonable behavior has been up 5% since last year.

Source: Dailymail.co.uk
Image courtesy of Game Culture