After 14 Seasons, Korea’s StarCraft Proleague is Coming to an End

For over a decade, KeSPA’s StarCraft Proleague blazed the trail of the modern eSport.

But yesterday, after 14 seasons, countless moments and some of the best eSports memories ever witnessed, KeSPA announced that the long-running StarCraft Proleague will be coming to an end.

In a statement issued by KeSPA Chairman Jun ByungHun, the Korean eSports organization head pointed to market difficulties and controversies in the StarCraft title space have piled onto each other overtime.

“…The drop in the number of ProLeague teams and players, difficulty securing league sponsors, and match fixing issues have made it challenging to maintain ProLeague. As such, KeSPA has come to announce the discontinuation of ProLeague and its operations of the five out of total seven StarCraft professional teams that participated in ProLeague 2016. The decision to put the past 14 years behind us and discontinue ProLeague was a difficult one and it deeply saddens me to have to also bring you the news that KeSPA will be stopping its operations of ProLeague teams.”

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With the Proleague’s closure, five out of the seven league teams have dropped their StarCraft 2 rosters: SK Telecom, KT, Samsung, Cj and MVP. This year’s Blizzard World Championship will go without five of the most recognized and prestigious in StarCraft 2 history.

In the same statement however, Chairman Jun ByungHun said that KeSPA is not totally pulling the plug on supporting the StarCraft 2 scene. He said that KeSPA will continue to find means of support for players who will be competing in the Blizzard World Championships this November as well as a planned expansion of the StarCraft KeSPA cup.

Image by: AnotherRandomner

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