Major League Gaming
|
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| Current season | MLG 2012 Pro Circuit |
| sport | E-sports |
| abbreviation | MLG |
| League foundation | 2002 |
| Country countries | International |
| Website | majorleaguegaming.com |
| Qualification too | GSL Code S |
Major League Gaming (abbreviation: MLG ) is an American e-sports -Liga, which was founded in 2002 by Sundance DiGiovanni and Mike Sepso. The Major Gaming League has been the largest esports league in the world since 2011 in terms of audience numbers. In the first few years the focus was primarily on console games , but in recent years PC games have taken a more dominant role. On December 21, 2015 shares worth 46 million were US dollars by Major League Gaming at Activision Blizzard sold.
history
Major League Gaming was founded in the USA in 2002. The basic idea was to network competitive computer gamers. The founders recognized the interdependence between good players and good organizers at an early stage, especially since individual tournament rules develop very quickly in every game and there were hardly any financial incentives for the players in the early years.
The first national championships took place in 2004. At that time, the largest tournaments were played on consoles. The Halo series and Super Smash Bros. with players like OGRE 1, OGRE 2, Walshy, or Ken.
In 2006 the championships moved to Las Vegas and this year the general awareness increased enormously. In 2008, several games were broadcast on regular American TV on ESPN .
Over the years, more and more computer games have been played both online and at events. In 2010 at the MLG event in Raleigh , Starcraft 2 was officially added to the MLG Pro Circuit shortly after its release. This was not a surprise, as the MLG already organized the "MLG KotBH Showmatch Series" in the beta phase of Starcraft 2. Starcraft 2 quickly replaced Halo on the main stage at MLG events.
In 2011, MLG was able to report on the most-watched season in e-sports history with more than 3.5 million viewers, making it the world's largest e-sports league.
In 2012, many partnerships followed with, among others, the television broadcaster CBS or the Korean Starcraft organization KeSPA , which support further growth of MLG.
In early January 2016, Activision announced that it had bought Major League Gaming for $ 46 million.
Play in the MLG Pro Circuit
Major League Gaming supports a wide variety of games on multiple platforms (currently: Xbox 360 , PlayStation 3 , PSVITA , Wii , Nintendo DS , PC and mobile phone ). However, only selected games are part of the Pro Circuit. Games in the Pro Circuit enjoy more attention, more prize money and, in contrast to the other "Game Battles", are not played online but at offline events in New York , Las Vegas , Dallas , Anaheim , Raleigh , Columbus OH , Orlando , Washington DC and Providence .
The composition of the computer games in the Pro Circuit changes from year to year.
Starcraft 2 and Major League Gaming
Starcraft 2 is currently the main computer game of the MLG Pro Circuit (as of 2012). This can be seen in the prize money as well as in the media presence. For example, the prize money for the first place winner in Starcraft 2 in the 2012 Spring Championship was US $ 25,000 for a single player. The second highest prize money was won by League of Legends at $ 20,000 (total), although the prize money is split between 5 players, which corresponds to a solo prize money of $ 4,000 for first place. The second highest solo prize money was won by Mortal Kombat at $ 10,000.
Prominent commentators accompany the events:
- Day9
- djWhEAT
- Husky Starcraft aka Mike Lamond
- Artosis
- Tasteless
- Rob Simpson
- JP McDaniel
- Grubby
- and more
Starcraft 2 Pro Circuit Events Winner
| year | Location | winner | Prize money |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Raleigh | HuK | $ 2,500 |
| 2010 | Washington DC | Idra | $ 2,500 |
| 2010 | Dallas | Jinro | $ 6,250 |
| 2011 | Dallas | NaNiwa | $ 5,000 |
| 2011 | Columbus | MMA | $ 5,000 |
| 2011 | Anaheim | Mvp | $ 5,000 |
| 2011 | Raleigh | bomber | $ 5,000 |
| 2011 | Orlando | HuK | $ 5,000 |
| 2011 | Providence | Leenock | $ 50,000 |
| 2012 | New York City | MarineKing | $ 10,000 |
| 2012 | Columbus | MarineKing | $ 25,000 |
| 2012 | New York City | viOLet | $ 10,000 |
| 2012 | Anaheim | DongRaeGu | $ 25,000 |
| 2012 | New York City | Taeja | $ 10,000 |
| 2012 | Raleigh | Leenock | $ 25,000 |
| 2012 | Dallas | Life | $ 25,000 |
| 2013 | Dallas | Life | $ 25,000 |
| 2013 | Anaheim | Polt | $ 10,000 |
| 2014 | Anaheim | Trap | $ 15,000 |
Expansion of the MLG
Further growth of the Major League Gaming Organization can be assumed based on the more and more frequent events. Other clues are the implementation of qualification opportunities during the MLG events for other tournaments, such as GSL Code S or for the Battle.net World Championship Series.
Furthermore, the MLG organized the first official Starcraft 2 tournament with exclusively former Starcraft: Broodwar greats such as Flash or Jaedong at the 2012 MLG Spring Arena Championships in cooperation with the KeSPA and thus the MLG also promotes the change of prominent Starcraft players to Starcraft II.
In addition to Starcraft II, League of Legends also predicts a steadily growing stream of viewers , as this team game is already attracting a large number of viewers in South Korea .
At the end of March 2016, the first major tournament in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was held.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ MLG press release
- ↑ MLG sells “substantially all” assets to Activision Blizzard for $ 46 million, DiGiovanni replaced. Thiemo Groom in esportsobserver.com, January 1, 2016, accessed on January 1, 2016 (English).
- ↑ MLG video on your own creation
- ↑ OGRE 1 in the MLG Wiki ( Memento of the original from August 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ OGRE 2 in the MLG Wiki ( Memento of the original from August 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ gotfrag.com: Press release on the ESPN partnership ( Memento from December 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ MLG announcement on TeamLiquid still saved
- ↑ KotBH on Liquipedia.
- ↑ MLG press release on the 2011 audience figures , accessed on August 10, 2012.
- ^ CBS partnership in Forbes Magazine
- ↑ gamespot.com: MLG CEO on Korean crossover deal, press release on the KeSPA partnership ( Memento from October 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Game Battles on MLG.com.Retrieved August 10, 2012
- ↑ 2010 MLG Raleigh on Liquipedia
- ↑ 2010 MLG DC on Liquipedia
- ↑ 2010 MLG Dallas on Liquipedia
- ↑ 2011 MLG Dallas on Liquipedia
- ↑ 2011 MLG Columbus on Liquipedia
- ↑ VoD final 2011 MLG Anaheim
- ↑ VoD Finale 2011 MLG Raleigh
- ↑ VoD Final 2011 MLG Orlando
- ↑ VoD Final 2011 MLG Providence
- ↑ VoD Final 2012 Winter Arena
- ↑ VoD Final 2012 Winter Arena Championship
- ↑ VoD Final 2012 Spring Arena 2
- ↑ VoD Final 2012 Spring Arena Championship
- ↑ VoD Final 2012 Summer Arena
- ↑ 2012 MLG Summer Raleigh VODs
- ↑ 2012 MLG Fall Championship on Liquipedia
- ↑ 2013 Winter Championship on Liquipedia
- ↑ 2013 MLG Spring Championship Recap
- ↑ wiki.teamliquid.net
- ↑ KeSPA tournament at the 2012 MLG Spring Arena
- ^ Report on audience numbers from LoL in South Korea
- ↑ Events | Major League Gaming. In: www.majorleaguegaming.com. Retrieved April 29, 2016 .
