Major League Gaming: Time to Be Taken Seriously?

Ah, professional video gaming… sounds a bit like an oxymoron to me. You never hear of someone’s son or daughter aspiring to be “professional gamers” when they grow up. Yet, low and behold, Major League Gaming hopes to succeed in doing just that. Since its conception in 2002, Major League Gaming, a console-only gaming league, has slowly been building up attention by holding tournaments for games such as Halo 2, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and more. However, most of MLG’s emphasis is on Halo 2.

For years, gaming tournaments have been sort of a grassroots movement for gamers to attain bragging rights, but the scope and reward of it all has increased greatly. MLG president, Matthew Bromberg, points out that MLG is very much like traditional sports leagues. “It’s a league. It’s seven cities and professional players are signed to the league and make money as pros. We have an ongoing pro circuit and there are rules and we have a players’ association.” Now, let’s not forget the attention MLG received in June 2006, for signing the country’s then top Halo 2 team, Final Boss, for an astounding $1 million dollars. Impressive, no doubt, but you know I find these contracts to be a bit ridiculous. I mean I’m sitting here up to my knees in books I recently bought for my new semester of college. I’m trying to obtain knowledge for a career that will keep me financially sound for years to come, but good lord if I knew all I had to do was be great at Halo 2 to make money, then by golly I wouldn’t be in college; I’d be spending months locked in a room improving my skills as Master Chief. I know… I know… I’m just jealous, but that doesn’t negate the fact that getting paid nefarious amounts of money for playing a video game is just absurd. Nonetheless, it is happening and MLG plans more surprises. We should all start getting used to this.


Now, with the kind of setup MLG has, as well as competitors participating from over 28 countries, it’s not hard to notice this isn’t some tiny grassroots movement anymore. This is global, competitive gaming. It’s gaming with aspirations of something much greater than just a couple guys and girls duking it out on Xbox’s. MLG wants to go mainstream. Matthew Bromberg states, “We spent about three years building what is the only professional video gaming league in the country. We believe that pro-gaming-wise, this will be the next World Poker Tour, the next Nascar…” And have they already? Well, they are making baby steps.

MLG announced in Spring 2006 that it had acquired a number of rather large sponsorship and programming deals. Most notably, a television broadcasting agreement with the USA Network to air seven one-hour episodes of MLG’s entire tournament season during the 2006 holiday season. The television show, named Boost Mobile Major League Gaming Pro Circuit, aired on Saturdays at 10 am. You have to hand it to this gaming organization. It’s quite a step forward for MLG to gain such exposure. They have handled everything rather well and it is clear that success with its television show is not only its goal but main focus.

So, I actually had the chance to watch a few of these episodes. Strangely enough, the first time, I had just woken up and turned on my TV, noticing I had missed half of the show already. Upon watching, it all seemed a bit cheesy to me. I had trouble trying to understand that there was actual commentary on how one of the Halo 2 team’s were executing their strategy. It was also strange at first to hear, “Oh and a gorgeous move by Ghandi! Ghandi is on a tear and Team Carbon is now only 4 kills away from victory.” The seriousness of it all struck me a little, but the second time around I felt different. The second viewing I watched showed me that MLG had promise. I was actually enthralled by it all. The battle between Team Carbon and Final Boss was fierce and I was rooting for Final Boss to win. I couldn’t believe I was doing such a thing. Surprisingly, I cared, and it scared me.