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Forums > Global Forums (English) > Announcements

iGP Manager 26: New League System Explained

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A Unified Ecosystem
iGP Manager 26 unifies all managers into one league structure. Instead of separate Rookie/Pro/Elite divisions and separate languages, everyone races in the same ecosystem and is grouped by skill (XP Level first, Reputation/RXP second) to create fair, competitive grids. The old tier divisions are gone; what matters now is how well you race and develop your team.

Tiers as Access
Tiers now unlock features rather than deciding where you can race: Rookie (Tier 1): Default tier, access to iGP Leagues after 3 tutorial sprint races. Pro (Tier 2): Can join player-hosted leagues. Elite (Tier 3): Can create and host leagues. VIP (Tier 4 - New Subscription): A recurring subscription to automatically unlock all features of other tiers, plus: Race in up to 3 leagues at once. Earn sponsor tokens per league race (no daily limit). Create VIP-only leagues and set minimum tier requirements on a league. AI driver chat and 1 free league boost per month.

Your tier is now effectively your “lanyard” in the paddock, while league matchmaking is purely skill-based. The exception being hosted leagues, where managers can join.

iGP Leagues & Hosted Leagues

iGP Leagues

  • Auto-generated, ranked leagues using skill-based matchmaking

  • Instant join when you select a time slot

  • Synchronized, bi-monthly global seasons (1st & 15th) with ~15 races



Hosted Leagues

  • Player-created, persistent communities

  • Use the same synchronized cycles by default, or go custom with boosts

  • Pro can join, Elite can host 

  • Hosts can opt-in to the auto-assignment system if they stay on the default schedule cycle or go closed/private if they have custom season lengths



League Boosts: Community-Powered Premium Features
League Boosts are a new IAP resource that work very much like Discord server boosts: anyone can boost any league from their own inventory to unlock extra features for that league.

Key points

  • Boosts sit in your manager inventory until you allocate them

  • 1 boost = 1 season of support for a league

  • You don’t need to be a member of a league to boost it

  • VIP subscribers get 1 free boost per month



Calendars & Global Cycles
All ranked leagues are synchronized to bi-monthly global cycles (1st and 15th of each month). This:

  • Keeps seasons around ~15 races with daily events

  • Aligns the whole community for future global events

  • Simplifies migration and matchmaking



Boosted leagues with 20+ boosts can optionally switch to custom season lengths and track lists. Those become unranked by design, focusing on community fun and flexibility instead of RXP progression.

1-Car vs 2-Car Leagues: Economy Balancing
To keep operating costs fair across different league formats, iGP Manager 26 adds economy modifiers:


  • 1-car leagues: standard wages, higher repair parts costs (2.0×)

  • 2-car leagues: reduced wages, reduced repair parts costs



These modifiers are shown in the GUI and applied when you sign contracts and repair cars, and are explained in the league info, contract dialogs and repair tooltips. The end result is that both league types offer similar overall running costs, so you can choose based on preference, and 2-car leagues become equally appealing again.

Migration: What Happens to Existing Leagues?
All existing leagues are preserved and moved into the new structure:


  • Hosted leagues keep their ID, host, members and standings

  • Tiers are merged into single unified tier at the end of the current season or split into a second league, depending on the total managers

  • Legacy tiers (rookie, pro, elite) are cleared once the league is migrated



No communities are deleted, and no history is lost. The migration simply reshapes the structure to match the new unified model.

Translation for multilingual leagues
As mentioned above, there are no language restrictions on the new iGP Leagues. In the event that someone is commenting in another language in the league, there is a built-in translate function on their comments on the league wall, like the translate buttons seen on most social media sites. Equally, they can translate your replies.

Joining & Multi-League Play
When you choose a league time slot, iGP Manager 26 immediately:

  • Searches for an existing suitable league based on your RXP and level 

  • Places you there instantly if a good match exists

  • Or creates a new iGP league for that slot and drops you straight in



VIP managers can belong to up to three leagues at once, as long as schedules don’t clash. This opens up more racing and more ways to earn rewards, balanced by increased operational costs (contracts, parts, fuel) across those leagues.

Why This Feels Different In-Game

  • You race in a single, global system instead of isolated tier pools

  • Tiers are about what you can do, not who you race against

  • League boosts give communities shared control over premium features and will expand beyond the customisation currently supported while helping to sustain development

  • Calendars are synchronized by default, making it easy for us to build community-wide seasons and events

  • Migration keeps your league identity and history intact while modernizing the structure



We also expect to release a long-awaited community-wide event system in 2026 and to announce several partnerships along the way. This restructuring is a major step in that direction. The new league system is designed to keep grids healthy, competition fair and communities empowered, while giving us a strong foundation for future global events and features.
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What will happen to leagues with 1 race per week?
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F
What will happen to leagues with 1 race per week?

All leagues will be moved into the new schedule of daily races unless the league is boosted to unlock custom schedules.

What do boosts cost? The best value pack is 20 boosts for £9.99. That can buy a whole league 1 season of all features unlocked (including custom season lengths and races). Here's the important part: anyone can contribute boosts, even people outside the league. So, if 10 people all contribute boosts, effectively it only costs each person £1 per season to have a fully boosted league. If you have more than 10 people contributing, the costs become so negligible it's hardly worth mentioning.

There are three tiers of boosts on leagues, the first tier only costs 5 boosts (~£2.50 per season), the second tier is 10 boosts (~£5 per season) and so on. Each boost tier unlocks more features, including stuff like league banners, XP bonuses and more (meaning it negates some of the need for XP boosters, helping to save everyone in the league money). Playing for free on the default cycle may be preferable for most people, but if you want deep customisation, XP bonuses and more that's what the boost system will be for.

Remember, this is just one of the features boosts unlock. There will be more than are currently available and more features added over time. In iGP Manager 26 there will be a screen with a FAQ and comparison of the boost levels and everything explained clearly.
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I understand the logic behind this, i don't fully agree, but money is needed to pay the rents. The most hardcore managers will be willing to pay the VIP/Boost to have their leagues in their terms, and the casual ones could join a league and enjoy without much pretensions, fair enough. Can you tell us the rest of the VIP benefits and the other new or changing features in another post?
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Jack
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What will happen to leagues with 1 race per week?

All leagues will be moved into the new schedule of daily races unless the league is boosted to unlock custom schedules.


Thank you for the answer. There's another question:

There's one line on the teaser that a little confusing:
Jack
Hosts can opt-in to the auto-assignment system if they stay on the default schedule cycle or go closed/private if they have custom season lengths

Does this mean that there's still an option of going with custom length if league decide to go private or that mean that you can go private only if you have custom length?
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Let's say the current season ends on January 5th. What happens until January 15th? Do we just sit there and do nothing? Thanks in advance for your reply.
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On the face of it, the proposed new league system means well, however it appears that established, competitive leagues that are currently near (or at full capacity, with generally 10+ managers racing live) would see their rich, long racing histories, league rivalries and friendships between managers, being broken up indefinitely 😕

And then there is the question of custom rules. Some players literally can not race at certain distances due to time limitations (or prefer longer races at a slower speed, x1.5 speed) and/or strongly prefer non-refuelling/refuelling, and on whether to have a two tyre rule system in place, or not.

And we all have different real life schedules as well; some managers can not race weekends, or can only race 1-2 days a week. They literally can not commit to racing 7 days a week to stay competitive with the new proposed league system, and the risk (alongside the factors listed above) is that these managers will ultimately leave this game.
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F
There's one line on the teaser that a little confusing:
Jack
Hosts can opt-in to the auto-assignment system if they stay on the default schedule cycle or go closed/private if they have custom season lengths

Does this mean that there's still an option of going with custom length if league decide to go private or that mean that you can go private only if you have custom length?

I'm probably using the term private/closed too loosely. This did not have the same meaning as password-protected. What I was trying to distinguish between is the automated league assignment system (where you simply click a time you want to race and you're instantly placed) and hosted leagues where there is more flexibility.

If you host a league in the new system, if you're using the default schedule, you can still choose to opt-out of the auto-assignment system so you won't organically receive players. This is what I was referring to. If you opt-in then you can receive players randomly who are just clicking on times they want to race, not who searched out your league specifically.

Lvr
Let's say the current season ends on January 5th. What happens until January 15th? Do we just sit there and do nothing? Thanks in advance for your reply.

There will be a "mini-season" to bring it into sync with the new system. In that case, a 10 race season. If the gap is 3 days or less, it will idle for that period. I think the shortest season we're going to do was 3 or 4 races, but it will be a one-time thing.

Once every league is into the new system, the entire community becomes synchronised, unless they boost and build a custom season length etc.
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Peter
On the face of it, the proposed new league system means well, however it appears that established, competitive leagues that are currently near (or at full capacity, with generally 10+ managers racing live) would see their rich, long racing histories, league rivalries and friendships between managers, being broken up indefinitely 😕

And then there is the question of custom rules. Some players literally can not race at certain distances due to time limitations (or prefer longer races at a slower speed, x1.5 speed) and/or strongly prefer non-refuelling/refuelling, and on whether to have a two tyre rule system in place, or not.

I really don’t see this.  Firstly, established competitive Leagues will be tier 3 so will be able to continue and if required subscribe to go tier 4 so not sure why you think they will break up. (EDIT) I missed the part about League splits, although I suspect it won’t cause too many issues.  Most current Pro Leagues are full inactive managers and filler accounts with just a few active managers.  Maybe hosts should be asked to remove all fillers & inactives by 13th Dec meaning most Leagues won’t require a split (I know there will be a few that will, but without this change the game is dead)


For customisation again there is an option for that.  it might not appeal to all, but is an option nevertheless.

My view is that the new system is designed to appeal to new joiners who will more than likely be accustomed to this way of running leagues from other mobile games.  Established managers and Leagues have the choice of continuing as they are, using boosts/subscriptions if they want or joining the new iGP leagues 

As someone who through a combination of RL commitments and boredom with the existing game stopped playing last year I am enthused to start playing again on the 14th
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HCR
This is a comprehensive overhaul of iGP Manager's league system, designed to address several core issues in online racing management games: fragmented player bases, dead tiers, and a lack of community tools. Here’s a breakdown of the key implications and strategic goals: (Correct me if I'm wrong).

You're not wrong. You're right!

Events are one of the things I'm most looking forward to setting up once we're in the new system. At some point in 2026, we'll be announcing partnerships with major brands to bring you guys some great rewards. This is the year it all comes together, all the ideas become reality.
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Jack
F
There's one line on the teaser that a little confusing:
Jack
Hosts can opt-in to the auto-assignment system if they stay on the default schedule cycle or go closed/private if they have custom season lengths

Does this mean that there's still an option of going with custom length if league decide to go private or that mean that you can go private only if you have custom length?

I'm probably using the term private/closed too loosely. This did not have the same meaning as password-protected. What I was trying to distinguish between is the automated league assignment system (where you simply click a time you want to race and you're instantly placed) and hosted leagues where there is more flexibility.



Thank you for the answer. 

Sad to say, but forcing people to play every day isn't the good solution imo.
1) Most of the leagues I know are 5 days per week. People are used to relax those two days or play another lesgue (2)
2) Before that, there was 1 race per week leagues that tries to unite our local community under some rules (S1 Grandmasters, for example) Now it will be much harder to do that.
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Hello Jack, I'm glad there is now more information about the update. It would have been nice to have a little more time but I understand the desire for it to be a surprise. I have the following questions:


  1. Could there be more clarification on league unification/split. Exactly how many managers are needed for a split to happen instead of a merge? Who hosts the 'second' league if one is created?

  2. Can players still manually search for leagues? Even ones with auto-assign on?

  3. Has the search engine been improved in any way?


  4. What is the behaviour when a league goes down/loses a tier? Do you keep what features you had? If not how intense/invasive is the transition process?

  5. If a current host isn't an elite (using the new definition) will they lose their league?

  6. Will auto-translation exist in race chat? If not will 3rd party translation tools be usable?

  7. Have there been any changes to the host activity and league participation rules?

  8. Do hosts FINALLY have a way to see the league/leagues they are hosting?

  9. What is AI driver chat?


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Leo
Hello Jack, I'm glad there is now more information about the update. It would have been nice to have a little more time but I understand the desire for it to be a surprise. I have the following questions:



  1. The system will attempt to merge Pro/Elite into a single tier. If the population spills over the limit, the remainder will be split into a new league.

  2. This is what unlocks in Pro, you can find leagues and change leagues if you're willing to take penalties for league hopping (one of the most significant being 10% atrophy for swapping).

  3. Not really, no. I can look into that if you have suggestions.

  4. If a league moves up/down in boost levels it is a hard switch at the season end. You can go from custom seasons/lengths back to standard ones in one go, much like will happen in the migration. It will utilise the same process.

  5. All hosts will be allowed to keep their leagues regardless of how they were established in the old system.

  6. Not yet, recommendations for similar systems in other games are welcome, whatever works best. I understand Roblox has such a system as well as others.

  7. Host inactivity is the smae as before. Participant inactivity is defined as: Prepared for less than 1/4 of races in the season AND last login was more than 7 days ago. Managers that meet that criteria will be automatically removed from a league at the end of the season.

  8. Fair point. I'll add it.

  9. This may not be ready at launch, it will run somewhat like the AI Assistant in terms of UI/UX but it's essentially a way to talk to your driver about the race. They will have knowledge of how the race went, the lap-by-lap data etc. and be able to help you get insights into the data. Essentially, you can talk to them about any race they've participated in. One reason I say this might need more time is it's hard to give the AI enough information for it to really feel like a conversation, but I'll work on it.


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Jack
Leo
Hello Jack, I'm glad there is now more information about the update. It would have been nice to have a little more time but I understand the desire for it to be a surprise. I have the following questions:



  1. The system will attempt to merge Pro/Elite into a single tier. If the population spills over the limit, the remainder will be split into a new league.



And the limit is still 32 cars? (16 players in 2-car and 32 in 1-car)
Also I assume the host of league A will automatically be host of league B?
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One question, Jack: a league like mine, the Intercontinental Series, which wants to continue running from Monday to Friday and not at weekends, and which also has six leagues (currently F1 to F6), would also have to purchase 20 IAPs x 6 per month? That's a minimum of £60, which is too much to pay per month in my opinion.
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Overall everything is quite good, but I completely disagree with forcing leagues to race on Saturdays and Sundays.

On those two days people don’t like to play; they want to be with family, friends, go out, and do many other things.

Everything else seems fine to me.
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Leo

And the limit is still 32 cars? (16 players in 2-car and 32 in 1-car)
Also I assume the host of league A will automatically be host of league B?

Yes and yes.

Balerion
Overall everything is quite good, but I completely disagree with forcing leagues to race on Saturdays and Sundays.

On those two days people don’t like to play; they want to be with family, friends, go out, and do many other things.

Everything else seems fine to me.

I understand, but it's not "forced", you can either boost yourself or join a league that's already boosted for free.

The challenge here is not quite what it seems either, we wanted to "combine" the community into one cohesive whole, which no matter how we designed it, works best when leagues are synced. Think of all other major games that have "seasons", themes and events, such as Fortnite etc. When leagues deviate from a unified cycle, there's actually no way to really have a coherent hall of fame and more. It really messes with our ability to host community-wide events too.

In all other online games these things run on schedules you can't modify, iGP Manager is the only game which really lets you customise that. It caused fragmentation, lower engagement etc. In most games, the races/matches are daily. Using the boost system means it's still supported, but monetised, to better support development when a league wants to be fragmented off from the community. When you think about it at the level of the system, the overall community, and how cohesive the system is, we actually take a hit (lower engagement, fragmentation of the community etc.) so what we're trying to do here is ensure that if the way a league is setup is costing us engagement and users, then we are able to recoup the losses, while providing you with a host of benefits in exchange.

It's the fairest compromise we could come up with to address all the concerns on both sides, and by using a discord-style boost model, it's not like everyone in the league has to contribute. One person could cover it for everyone, while the rest inherit the perks for free, or everyone can contribute. If 12 people in a league all contribute it's only going to cost them £10 per year per person. That seems a fair price to pay for the realtime service and support we have to provide on our end.

We understand some may find it frustrating, but compromises have to be made to move the community forwards and get us back to strong growth in 2026. If there's one thing we all agreed on, it's that the old league system wasn't working.


Sergio
One question, Jack: a league like mine, the Intercontinental Series, which wants to continue running from Monday to Friday and not at weekends, and which also has six leagues (currently F1 to F6), would also have to purchase 20 IAPs x 6 per month? That's a minimum of £60, which is too much to pay per month in my opinion.

No, assuming you want the maximum possible perks, custom season lengths etc. it's £10 for the entire league per month. One person can cover it or everyone in the league can split it. I've described this in more detail above, but to be absolutely clear if you buy the £10 boost pack that will cover an entire month for an entire league. With that, you're also getting extra level XP included and other perks, which across a whole league is a lot of additional XP at a low cost, potentially saves everyone having to buy XP boosters or it can be combined with them.
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What happens if the league host is in Professional category after the update? Will you never be able to return to your league by being self-assigned to another if you did not have a place? If the maximum of 32 managers is maintained and all the Professional people cannot remain inside, are you harming the communities or will there be a way for them to be able to enter again when there are free positions? . Charging for having a calendar and personalized distances when they are things that were already available is an abuse.
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Hi Jack, are they any plans for the online marketing of the game? I believe that this update, so focused on engaging new players (i REALLY love that), will be useless without a great investment on content creation and online advertising. Hoping for the best to all of us!
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Jack
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What will happen to leagues with 1 race per week?

All leagues will be moved into the new schedule of daily races unless the league is boosted to unlock custom schedules.

What do boosts cost? The best value pack is 20 boosts for £9.99. That can buy a whole league 1 month of all features unlocked (including custom season lengths and races). Here's the important part: anyone can contribute boosts, even people outside the league. So, if 10 people all contribute boosts, effectively it only costs each person £1 per month to have a fully boosted league. If you have more than 10 people contributing, the costs become so negligible it's hardly worth mentioning.

There are three tiers of boosts on leagues, the first tier only costs 5 boosts (~£2.50 per month), the second tier is 10 boosts (~£5 per month) and so on. Each boost tier unlocks more features, including stuff like league banners, XP bonuses and more (meaning it negates some of the need for XP boosters, helping to save everyone in the league money). Playing for free on the default cycle may be preferable for most people, but if you want deep customisation, XP bonuses and more that's what the boost system will be for.

Remember, this is just one of the features boosts unlock. There will be more than are currently available and more features added over time. In iGP Manager 26 there will be a screen with a FAQ and comparison of the boost levels and everything explained clearly.


One question: I’d like to know the actual IAP costs for the following things:


- Playing from Monday to Friday.

- Playing at 50 percent race length.


Another thing I don’t understand because I couldn’t find it. When a season ends, there are supposedly break days. Will those still exist? I’m referring to host leagues.
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