This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

　　The Star Ladder series is set to return for the ninth season starting tomorrow on March 5th. The league which has been famously known for expanding upon their previous season will continue the trend by introducing three new divisions to the series, allowing for a global league.

　　This European season will see a total of eight teams attend the offline finals in Kiev, Ukraine, fighting for a base prize pool of $80,000. The prize pool will be open to community support and will see a total of $2.50 from each Dota TV ticket sold go directly to the pool.

　　The Dota TV ticket will also come bundled with an exclusive Lich set, a new SLTV IX loading screen and SLTV IX battle bonus.

　　Due to the increase of eight teams instead of four at the offline finals, a total of $40,000 will be set aside from the total prize pool in order to cover travel and hospitality expenses for the eight teams attending.

　　The offline LAN finals will once again make use of the Kiev CyberSport Arena and will be hosted on April 17th to the 20th. The online portion of the season will be covered in Russian by SLTV, in English by BeyondTheSummit and in Chinese by LGD.tv.

The Four Divisions

　　Europe and CISNorthern and Southern AmericaSouthern KoreaChina

Prize Pool Breakdown

　　1st place - 45%2nd place - 20%3rd place - 14%4th place - 8%5-6 place - 4%7-8 place - 2,5%* -$40,000 for travel support.

Participants in the SLTV Star Series Europe Season IX

Na`Vi	Alliance	Sigma.int	Fnatic
Cloud 9	MYM	Virtus.pro	Team Empire
RoX.KIS	PR	The Retry	NEXT.kz
Insane	Cleave	Relax	Courage