IGN Entertainment and Caesars Entertainment announced partnership to bring professional video gaming tournaments to the world’s largest casino entertainment company: the Caesars Casino Hotels in Atlantic City.
The IPL 3: Origins will feature a StarCraft II live tournament on October 6-9 at the Circus Maximus Theather.
IGN is bringing along the top 32 StarCraft II players to compete for $100,000 in prizes. There will be four online qualifying tournaments 256 competitors clashing against each other, where the top two players of each qualifier will take home $1,000 and free travel and accomodation for the event.
Out of those 256, only 16 will be chosen to compete against the 32 finalists for a chance at $100,000 in prizes. IdrA, Select and WhiteRa will be competing as well.
“We believe that pro video gaming can become as popular as mainstream sports such as basketball, tennis and wrestling, and we are thrilled to partner with Caesars to bring video games to the forefront.”
“Atlantic City is the top entertainment destination on the East Coast, and the location of Caesars Atlantic City at Center Boardwalk is prime for events such as the IGN Pro League tournament,” said Don Marrandino, Eastern Division President for Caesars Entertainment. “We are thrilled to host this one-of-a-kind event in October and look forward to a fantastic weekend of intense video game competition.”
“Playhem is incredibly excited to be providing the online challenge gaming and tournament functionality for this ambitious and momentous initiative,” said Ryan DeSanto, Co-Founder of Playhem.
The IGN Pro League is a franchise that reflects how video gaming has become a legitimate and prestigious profession. Launched in April 2011, IGN Pro League has attracted more than 1.2 million unique visitors and nearly 6 million page views to its tournaments. IPL 1 invited 16 of the top StarCraft players in North America, and IPL 2 – Across the Atlantic – convened 32 of the U.S. and Europe’s best StarCraft II players to its online competitions, vying for their part of a $50,000 prize pot. The IPL 3: Origins event at Caesars in Atlantic City, as well as the previous two IPL installments, can be accessed online at https://www.ign.com/ipl.