StarCraft II Proleague, also known as StarCraft Proleague or Proleague for short, is the longest running StarCraft league in the world and the most prestigious team league. Hosted by the Korean eSports Association (KeSPA), the league is played offline in South Korea. Proleague began in 2003 with the game StarCraft: Brood War before switching over to StarCraft II in 2011. It is currently broadcast by SPOTVGames.
In 2003, the game broadcasting company MBCGame created the KPGA Team League, the first major team league in StarCraft professional competition. 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 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 bracket to determine the champion.
NARRATOR
Once upon a time,
In a far away land,
A young Prince lived in a shining castle.
Although he had everything his heart desired,
the Prince was spoiled, selfish and unkind.
But then, one winter's night,
an old beggar woman came to the castle
and offered him a single rose
in return for shelter from the bitter cold.
Repulsed by her haggard appearance,
the Prince sneered at the gift,
and turned the old woman away.
But she warned him not to be deceived by appearances,
for Beauty is found within.
And when he dismissed her again,
the old woman's ugliness melted away to reveal a beautiful enchantress.
The prince tried to apologize,
but it was too late, for she had seen that there was no love in his heart.
And as punishment, she transformed him into a hideous beast
and placed a powerful spell on the castle and all who lived there.
Ashamed of his monstrous form,
the Beast concealed himself inside his castle,
with a magic mirror as his only window to the outside world.
The rose she had offered was truly an enchanted rose,
which would bloom until his twenty-first year.
If he could learn to love another,
and earn their love in return by the time the last petal fell,
Then the spell would be broken.
If not, he would be doomed to remain a beast for all time.
As the years passed,
he fell into despair and lost all hope,
For who could ever learn to love .... a beast?