Video game leagues are nothing new, but they're so unknown by the majority of the population that their existence is generally only spread by word of mouth. Only those that monitor such news channels or are very much into their gaming will know of such leagues, their titles and the sorts of games they include in their lineups. In actual fact, gaming leagues are extremely lucrative, both for the industry and for the competitors, with prizes worth up to half a million dollars being offered every year by certain leagues, such as the PS3 league Major League Gaming. The only requirement is that the player pays the entry fee and then they are given a chance to qualify.
MLG (Major League Gaming)
It's safe to say that the Major League Gaming collective is probably the biggest gaming league in existence today. It's been going strong for eight years now and provides consistent, annual tournaments with the latest games, though never sacrificing quality. They hold live events throughout the world, but also provide online video and audio for those unable to attend such events. The tournaments act in a similar way, sometimes taking place live, but most of the time online. Major League Gaming hold between four and six tournaments on a yearly basis. To provide some level of standardization for players, Major League Gaming focuses on the Playstation 3 as their console of choice. For games that are exclusive to other consoles, their native machines are used. For example Gears of War is only on the Xbox 360 and, hence, would be played on Xbox 360s. Live events see that the participants are provided with all the equipment the player needs.
The Game Lineup
Halo has become a very venerable series, especially with MLG who have featured these games from the start of their annual tournaments. Even today, they provide Halo action with both Halo 3 and Halo: Reach having two separate tournaments to themselves in four versus four team matches. The Halo series is known for its twitch-based first person shooter style based in a science-fiction realm. To complement this, MLG also include the Call of Duty series, grounding the topic to a more realistic environment, yet providing similar gameplay with Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. Fighting games have long been the focus of many gaming tournaments and with Tekken 6's debut on MLG this year, this is going to be no exception. Joining Tekken 6 is Super Smash Bros. Brawl, providing only slightly differing gameplay, but consistent rules. Unlike most of the other present games, Tekken 6 has never had any of its iterations present on MLG.
The first real-time strategy game to be in any of Major League Gaming's tournaments, Starcraft II won't disappoint. A booming success in Korea, both its predecessor and the newly released sequel are created by the venerable Blizzard. It has excellent support for competitive gameplay and this will be no different.
Major League Gaming has seen many of the earlier games as part of its original lineups. Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 came before the latest iterations. As did Call of Duty Modern Warfare and Super Smash Bros. Melee. Games that have also had tournaments are Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas, Gears of War, World of Warcraft and Shadowrun. The following competitions should see even newer iterations, such as Call of Duty Black Ops.
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