The first new announcement was about the end of the ladder phase, which is going to be pulled on February, 28th, due to conflicts with the end of the iCCup DotA season. The end time on that day is going to be around 21.00 CET.
Next up on the list is what will happen after that time.
Being on top of the ladder pays off, as the top six players are going to be allowed to pick their own groups out of the players of the top fiftysix. Starting with the first and going down to the sixth each player can pick three of the top 56 to be in his group after the ladder stage.
After six of the fourteen groups have been determined like that, the remaining thirtytwo players are going to be randomly put into groups of four, creating the restly eight groups.
The group format is going to be the same as back in the AoV Invitational, putting two players against each other, having four players in the group that makes two matches. The winners and the losers of these are going to play each other, while the winner of the clash of the previous winners is going to advance from the group, the loser of that match will face the winner of the loser's match, and the winner from that match will also advance.
The maps for this are going to be Fighting Spirit and Hitchhiker for the first two matches, Colosseum II for the winner's match, the loser's match is going to be played on Destination and the last match between the loser of the winner's match and the winner of the loser's match is played on HeartBreak Ridge.
After that the round of thirtytwo will be played, where four more players are going to be added to the list of players. That round is going to be played in a best of three and the startmap is going to be Icarus.
The round of sixteen and eight are both in a best of five mode, starting on Empire of the Sun, with the second map as Othello, in the round of sixteen and Neo Medusa followed up by GrandLine SE in the round of eight.
The semifinals are going to be a best of seven already, starting on TauCross, with the second map being Benzene and the third set as Bloody Ridge.
The grandfinale isn't going to be any less than a best of nine, starting with Python, Match Point and Sin Peaks of Baekdu.
Of course, after the set maps are played, the next map is loser's choice.
Obeying to the rules seems to be harder than most people think, currently there are 400 players in the team, but that is only a small number compared to the 130 players that have already been failed to follow the rules, not including currently pending cases.
Besides that, also somebody new joined the staff, to be specific the casting staff, of the ISL. He is known as Diggity and will cast the games alongside with Sayle from iCCup.
The biggest announcement at the end.
The total prize pool has been raised from $700 to $1000, all due to the community putting money into it! There is also the possibility for it to raise even further and hence be more spectacular.
Divided between the first four places, the distribution is $500 for the winner, $250 for the runner up, $150 for the third and also $100 for the fourth.
The fifth to eigth place are going to get 25 bitcoins each, whereas each is suppossed to equal $1. Bitcoins are a digital currency and more information can be found on the according wikipedia page.
After all this excitement you should calm down and get back to laddering to get a shot at the great prizes! Good Luck.
Links
teamliquid.net - Source
en.wikipedia.org - Bitcoin information