2018 PRO Chess League season

The 2018 PRO Chess League Season was the second season of the PRO Chess League. It began on January 17 and ended on April 8 with the Armenia Eagles defeating the Chengdu Pandas to claim their first title. This season introduced new qualifications to join the league and an all-star game.

Qualification

In order to combat the large league, Shahade decided to cut the league from 48 teams to 32 teams as he believed the inaugural season was "a bit too large and chaotic".In order to determine which teams would return, he used the following:

  • 24 teams invited
  • 6 teams per Qualifier Tournament
  • 2 teams per fan vote

Qualification tournament

The qualification tournament took place on November 3 with two qualifiers. The event format was a 13 round individual swiss (time control 3+2), with a team's score decided by summing the scores of their four team members. The top three teams from each qualifier automatically qualified, and the fourth to sixth placed teams were placed into a fan vote to decide the final qualifier.

Super Saturday and Super Sunday

For 2018, the PCL introduced a new match format which allowed teams to play outside of their division. In these matches, each team played one single four-game match against eight other teams. The standings were decided on game points, with the top 6 teams being awarded a match win and teams finishing 7th-10th being awarded a match draw. In addition, the winning team was awarded a $500 bonus.

Standings

The top four teams from each division qualify for the playoffs while the two worst teams are relegated from the league and will have to partake in the qualifiers in order to rejoin the league.

Playoffs

After the regular season, the top four teams from each division qualified for the playoffs with the teams being seeded 1–4 in their division. In addition, the teams that won their division were invited to play the final two round in San Francisco at the Folsom Street Foundry.

Division Semifinals
March 13		Division Championship
March 21		Semifinals
April 7
San Francisco		PCL Championship
April 8
San Francisco
            
E1ArmeniaArmenia Eagles10.5
E4EstoniaEstonia Horses5.5
E1ArmeniaArmenia Eagles8*
Eastern
E3IndiaMumbai Movers8
E2IndiaDelhi Dynamite7.5
E3IndiaMumbai Movers8.5
E1ArmeniaArmenia Eagles8.5
A3United StatesSt. Louis Arch Bishops7.5
A1United StatesWebster Windmills7.5
A4United StatesMinnesota Blizzard8.5
A4United StatesMinnesota Blizzard6
Atlantic
A3United StatesSt. Louis Arch Bishops10
A2United StatesPittsburgh Pawngrabbers6
A3United StatesSt. Louis Arch Bishops10
E1ArmeniaArmenia Eagles12***
P2ChinaChengdu Pandas11
P1United StatesSan Diego Surfers5.5
P4AustraliaAustralia Kangaroos10.5
P4AustraliaAustralia Kangaroos7
Pacific
P2ChinaChengdu Pandas9
P2ChinaChengdu Pandas8*
P3United StatesDallas Destiny8
P2ChinaChengdu Pandas9.5
C4SloveniaLjubljana Turtles6.5
C1SwedenStockholm Snowballs7.5Third place match
C4SloveniaLjubljana Turtles8.5
C4SloveniaLjubljana Turtles9.5A3United StatesSt. Louis Arch Bishops9.5
Central
C2FranceMarseille Migraines6.5C4SloveniaLjubljana Turtles6.5
C2FranceMarseille Migraines9
C3FranceCannes Blockbusters7
  • *Advanced due to higher seed
  • ***Triple overtime victory

Awards

All-Star Game

The 2018 All-Star Game was on September 8 with stage 1 and on September 9 for stage 2. The following event format was used.

  • Stage 1: Round-robin tournament where every player plays one game against everyone else from other three teams, total of 12 games (Time control = 3|1)
  • Stage 2: Knockout round. Seeding determined by total number of points in stage 1 (Time control = 3|0)
First roundSecond roundFinal
1Pacific Division4
2Atlantic Division42Atlantic Division3
3Central Division24Eastern Division2
4Eastern Division4

References

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2018_PRO_Chess_League_season&oldid=1244561828"
Uses material from the Wikipedia article 2018 PRO Chess League season, released under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.