The History Of Competitive Gaming

MLG Pro-Circuit - Columbus

How many hours of play time do you have in your favorite video game? It takes roughly ten thousand hours of practice to become an expert at something. Top competitive gamers put in long practice hours, and have earned the title "pro gamer". What exactly does this title mean though, and how did it come to exist?


Competitive gaming started in the early eighties, when tournaments for popular Atari games like Atlantis were hosted, with some prizes being about $10,000. The first major tournaments were hosted in October, 2000, and were called The World Cyber Game Challenge. This annual week-long tournament brought competitors from 17 countries to compete in Korea. In 2004, the fourth World Cyber Games came to the United States, in San Francisco, and competitors battled it out for $400,000.

Two years earlier, in 2002, Mike Sespo and Sundance Giovanni started what is the largest competitive gaming company to date: Major League Gaming. They showcased the biggest titles on their legendary pro circuit. Currently, thousands of players flock to all corners of the US throughout the year to try to snag a spot at prizes up to $100,000. Only games like Halo, Call of Duty, Starcraft, League of Legends, and Mortal Kombat make the cut.

Dave "Walshy" Walsh - Former MLG - Pro.
Now acts as a Commentator for MLG.

MLG hosts six events each year, their last is the National Championship. The greatest players are crowned with a first place trophy, as well as $100,000 prize. For Halo, iconic competitors like Dave Walsh "Walshy", Dan Ryan "Ogre 1", Tom Ryan "Ogre 2", and Tom "T Squared" Taylor have won this title.

However, over the past few years the Halo franchise's competitive popularity has shrunk. Major League Gaming has only had a handful of events that include it since the launch of Halo: Reach. Since the shrink of the arena for competitive halo, a much smaller company, Arena Gaming League, has started having events of about 50 teams at small LAN centers. They are planning on having 10 LAN tournaments this year, and I expect nothing but growth from them.

Call of Duty has also not been doing so hot on the MLG Pro Circuit as of late. Creators of the game have held online qualifiers for events called "CoD XP", an alternate LAN tournament to the MLG events. The first event was in 2011, and the Modern Warfare 3 tournament prizes totaled $1,000,000, with first place receiving $400,000 alone! Another online qualifier is in progress for their second event coming up in April; it will utilize the game's League Play. The top 8 teams in the games online Championship Series ladder will be sent to the finals. 24 other top teams from events like MLG will then be sent to compete also.

Competitive gaming is continuing to evolve. One possible advance that will be coming in the future is a vote to have the competitive games that we know and love featured in the Olympics Winter or Summer Games. So gear up, and game on athletes, eSports is growing, whether we like it or not.

- Submitted by Carter "Cxrtmxn" Davis

Editor's Note - Carter will be writing articles for Gaming Cuisine in regards to competitive gaming, eSport's news, and many other subjects in regards to this topic! So expect an introduction article from him soon!