The Korean eSports Association has announced that 2016 will be the final year of Proleague, the world’s first professional eSports team league that ran from 2003. Becoming recognisable as the year-long competition it is today in 2005, it formed the bedrock of eSports in Korea and eventually the inspiration for the global eSports industry we have today. Along with closing the league, KeSPA also announced it was stopping support for and effectively shuttering the StarCraft divisions of five of the seven pro teams that took part this year.
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The announcement was made through Korean eSports site Fomos, and is also available in English. It takes the form of a statement from Chairman Jun ByungHun who places the blame on a combination of lack of sponsorships after the 2008 financial crisis, high-profile issues with match fixing and a decline in the number of teams. The official discontinuation date is today, October 18.