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)
Major League Gaming (MLG) is one of the primary leagues available to players all over the world. Founded in 2002, they're bigger than most other leagues and host events throughout the world, allowing individuals to watch live games between competitors. For everything else, you can participate or watch online as the challengers and champions compete through some of the most competitive games available. Hosting between four and six game tournaments annually, Major League Gaming provides something for everybody. 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
The Halo series made its debut back with Halo: Combat Evolved, which was used in the earliest MLG tournaments. Today, both Halo 3 and Halo: Reach have their own tournaments featuring four versus four team battles on varying maps. It provides high-intensity, twitch-based gameplay in a first-person shooter (FPS) format. Joining these two games comes the venerable Call of Duty series. Starting off with Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2 is the current Call of Duty game on show. It features similar gameplay to Halo, but in a more realistic setting and somewhat more depth. 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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