The Superliga Americana de Rugby (SLAR; English: American Rugby Superleague) is a professional rugby union competition and the top-level championship for many countries in South America. In the 2020 season it will be contested by five teams with a team each from; Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay with a future team from Colombia joining in 2021 after playing an exhibition series against the 5th-placed team at the end of the season later in May 2020. Officially sanctioned by Sudamérica Rugby, which is consequently part of World Rugby, the league was officially launched in November 29, 2019. Starting in 2021, SLAR is being held in parallel with Major League Rugby (in the United States and Canada) in order to provide quality competition in the Americas for the sport of rugby union, with MLR as the "northern conference" and SLAR as the "southern conference". History SLAR was first announced in April 2019, with in mind of forming between six and eight professional franchises, two each in Uruguay and Brazil meanwhile Argentina and Chile will get a franchise each with plans to add two teams in 2021 with an additional team in Argentina and one from Paraguay. In November, SLAR's plans are changing, as they are expecting a league of seven clubs, two each in Brazil and Uruguay with one team each in Argentina, Chile, and Paraguay. At the official announcement, SLAR confirmed the number of the teams for the 2020 season will be set at five for the regular season due to the economical issues but SLAR is expected to be expanded at some point in the future, possibly in 2021 when the Cafeteros Pro (Colombia) will join at the end of the regular season to play a home and away series against the 5th-place finisher in the 2020 season before joining the league full-time. Competition Format In 2020, Superliga Americana de Rugby was to span four months from February through May. For the first season, five of the six clubs Ceibos , Corinthians, Selknam, Olímpia Lions, and Peñarol planned to take part in a double round-robin regular season, playing twice against each other team, once at home and once away, for a total of eight games. The top four teams would qualify for the championship playoffs to determine a season champion. The fifth place regular season team would have played a series against Los Cafeteros Pro to determine the fifth-place team. However, on March 17, 2020, the season was postponed until 2021, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like Super Rugby, Major League Rugby, and the Pro14, this league has no promotion and relegation.