SAN FRANCISCO, April 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- IGN Entertainment, the leading Internet media and services provider focused on the video game and entertainment enthusiasts markets, today announced that it will host a professional gaming tournament featuring the runaway hit  Starcraft® II: Wings of Liberty™ from Activision's Blizzard Entertainment. 

IGN will bring together 16 of the top-ranked Starcraft II players in a search for the best players in North America. The Starcraft II tournament will be streamed at http://www.ign.com/ipl from April 21-24 and April 28-May 1 (8:00 PM EDT). 

"Like sports, poker and other forms of competition – professional gaming requires a lot of time, talent and dedication. We want to start to build support in the North American market for competitive gaming. With the resounding popularity of Starcraft II, this tournament is a great first step," said David Ting, VP of Engineering for IGN Entertainment. 

In addition to involvement from Blizzard Entertainment, Well Played will serve as the production company for the IPL, and live-streaming of the event will be provided by Justin-TV. Playhem will provide the back-end technology allowing gamers of any level to participate in head-to-head matches and tournaments for cash and prizes.

About IGN Entertainment

IGN Entertainment, a unit of News Corporation, is the leading Internet media and services provider focused on the video game and entertainment enthusiast markets. Collectively, IGN's properties reached more than 39 million unique users worldwide February 2011, according to Internet audience measurement firm comScore Media Metrix. IGN's network of video game-related properties (IGN.com, GameSpy, FilePlanet, TeamXbox, Direct2Drive and others) is one of the Web's leading video game information destinations.  IGN also owns the leading men's lifestyle website AskMen.com, and provides technology for online game play in video games. IGN is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, with offices across North America, Europe and Australia. 

SOURCE IGN Entertainment