Game

iGP Manager 26: New League System Explained

It can be free for everyone except one person in the league, or split into a tiny fee for everyone in the league. I recommend reading this post I wrote on page 1 because it sums up the many considerations that have gone into the decision. Synchronising the bulk of leagues will allow us to orient the entire community around cycles, seasons and to organise global events that sync with the overall flow of the game. That's a big part of the plan for 2026.

That's a great question. There will be community-wide voting on the rules, but the default race length will be 50% and race speed 2x. I should run a poll on the forum before we get started on what people want for the first season under the new rules. Once the game is live, it will be integrated into the community page.


At first I struggled to interpret this but I think I understand now. Anyone who hosts a league now can continue hosting it after the update, and they'll be the host of both leagues in the event of a split, so yes, it could make sense to transfer the one they are not in to someone else in that league.

There are essentially two types of league: iGP Leagues and Hosted Leagues. When searching for the latter it works similarly to now, you can filter preferred race days etc.

The questions about holidays are fair. We can introduce global off days where appropriate, and Christmas is an obvious candidate.

I’ll keep this short because a full blog on the update is going up today. I want to reset the conversation a bit because it is easy for a thread like this to drift into imagined worst case scenarios before anyone has seen the full picture. That is what is happening here. The focus has shifted to looking for problems, and the loudest reactions are coming from people who have enjoyed a free service for a long time and naturally want that to continue. It can continue. Most leagues will remain free. If you want custom season lengths, which is the only perk that fully decouples a league from the wider community, you can simply join a league that someone else has boosted. It is not a requirement that you personally fund anything. That is the design. One person can cover it for everyone, or a league can split it, or you can join a group where it is already taken care of. In practice, it will either be free or very cheap for most people. The boosts that include custom race durations, speeds, league rules and other settings all sit in lower, more affordable tiers, and I will provide clear details soon. So far, we've fixated on the literal top-end most expensive form of boosting. I lead with that to break the ice and get everyone mentally prepared for the shift.

The aim is to sustain the service we provide at scale, and if this model works, we can scale back monetisation of performance and cosmetics. In line with that, team colour and logo changes will be completely free in iGP Manager 26. Players have been asking for that for years, especially when joining new leagues.

We are finding a middle ground that works for everyone. You can continue playing for free and enjoy essentially the same experience. If you prefer a league that runs outside the shared cycle, the option exists but it is optional and can be covered by a single person each season.

The reasoning behind the change is straightforward. Total freedom in league schedules scattered the community into thousands of unsynchronised pockets. That made it impossible to run proper global seasons, events or leaderboards, and it created a heavy operational cost on our side. The new structure keeps the standard league experience free and aligned to a unified season calendar. Leagues that want to step outside that environment can still do so with boosts, and the XP perks that come with them spread across the entire league. Those XP perks alone are worth more than the cost of the boost, and would be roughly £32 in equivalent value if purchased individually. The system as a whole is balanced and the perks go far beyond calendar customisation.

I hope this helps bring the discussion back to what is actually being proposed rather than the runaway imagined version.

I can't think of any other games that would close their doors to being played 2 days a week. Imagine how short the seasons would be as well, 10 races at times. This way they are up to 15-16 races. As I've outlined it will still be possible not only to boost a league but to join a league which is already boosted (meaning race on the days you want for free, if the host or participants are already covering it). It's not black and white, there are many ways you could still race on the days you want without spending a cent.

I appreciate you also taking the time to hear me out, because this has to be a dialogue. I can tell you that the old system, as I can see it, from a 30,000ft level, was driving the game into the ground. We all agree it was absolutely necessary to make some radical changes, and we've tried to balance the considerations across the board.