IGN officially cancels IPL6 eSports tournament, offering refunds to ticket holders

IGN today confirmed reports that its next major eSports tournament, IPL6, has been canceled. In a statement to Polygon, the company says its IGN Pro League is competing in a different environment than it was during its inception.

"When we launched IPL two years ago, the eSports landscape was very different with far fewer events than we have now," reads a statement from David Ting, general manager and founder of the IGN Pro League. "Now there are more tournaments than ever before competing for people's time and attention, so we're no longer in a position to commit the resources required to run another major independent event."

Ting writes that IGN is "working on finding a new home for the IPL team and IGN will continue to broadcast partner tournaments in the future." Vivek Shah, CEO of IGN owner Ziff Davis, wrote in a letter to employees last month that the company is "actively engaged in parties interested in acquiring IPL."

IPL6 was scheduled to take place at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas from March 28 to 31, and feature pro players competing in StarCraft 2, League of Legends and ShootMania Storm.

Ting says it will offer full refunds for IPL6 ticket purchases and room reservations at The Cosmopolitan.

"The past two years have been incredible, and we thank every one of the millions of people who tuned in to our events and coverage over that time," Ting writes. "Your support has been tremendous and we could not have done this without you. We went from $5,000 online StarCraft 2 tournaments to one of the world's best and largest eSports events.

"We sincerely apologize to our biggest fans who planned to be out in Vegas with us."