2.6 Million Tune in to MLG's Latest Esports Event

[Steven Bogos]

2.6 Million Tune in to MLG's Latest Esports Event

On top of the livestream viewers, spectators in the five-figure range were present for Major League Gaming's first major event of the year.

Esports has come a long way from impromptu tournaments arranged at LAN parties or arcades. Major League Gaming is one of the biggest esports gaming leagues around, hosting year-round tournaments in a number of games, and a regular number of "circuit" events in large cities. It has reported that 2.6 million fans tuned in to its latest event via livestream. As well as the livestream audience, hundreds of thousands of fans flocked to Texas to watch the event live.

The tournament featured three tournaments in League of Legends, Starcraft II, and Call of Duty. The recently released Heart of the Swarm expansion pack for Starcraft II was featured at the tournament, driving interest in the title upward.

The 2.6 million viewers watched around 6.5 million hours of content during the tournament. MLG no doubt raked in a considerable profit, reporting that its ad completion rate is at 95.35% with a 2% click rate. It partners with popular gaming streaming service Twitch.tv to bring livestreams to its viewers.

MLG has struggled to find a firm footing in the market in the past, and with the recent cancellation of IPL 6 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122499-IGN-Cancels-IPL-6], many esports fans were wondering what the future held for esports events. Thankfully, this resounding success suggests the future is quite bright for competitive gaming.

Source: The Next Web [http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/03/20/major-league-gamings-epic-esports-weekend-2-6-million-tuned-in-to-its-last-competitive-gaming-bacchanalia/]

Image: MLG

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[uchytjes]

While it is really nice to see that gaming has taken root as a sport I really don't care for the culture that surrounds e-sports in general. It may just be that I've enjoyed single player games more that multiplayer but I've never liked the air that surrounds e-sports.

 

[Candidus]

Life the Godslayer. I'll never forget watching that series with more than 130,000 others. <3

That viewership is a big win for e-sports.

 

[Me55enger]

While it is really nice to see that gaming has taken root as a sport I really don't care for the culture that surrounds e-sports in general. It may just be that I've enjoyed single player games more that multiplayer but I've never liked the air that surrounds e-sports.

From what little experiance I have with esports, I feel we as the Gaming Community let the wrong people get ahold of the public side of Gaming.

If this is Gamings "first contact" with the public, then I feel the Industries' struggle to be recognised as a valid format by both the wider world and academia will be hampered for years.

Because as a gamer I think the kind of people it promotes, advertises and rewards are massive dickbags. But thats both my opinion and a generalisation.

 

[Frostbite3789]

"the air that surrounds e-sports" WHAT?

The people that watch esports are as varying as sports.

But... perhaps such a closed-minded person is better off away from other people.

Just ignore it. People who think this are stuck in some strange mindset that e-sports is still "MLG 420 360 NO SCOPEZ BRO" and haven't watched a single event. They'll claim to have, but it's disgustingly obvious that they haven't.

For instance, the Season 2 World Championships for LoL were handled extremely well. And had a $2 million prize pool. Seems pretty valid to me.

 

[Strazdas]

Ah, more people making show and profiteering from vacuum of real gaming sports.
at least now we can claim all those bullies at school were nerds too right?

 

[deth2munkies]

I was there. It was OK, but could really use things for the spectators to actually do to make the experience not almost strictly worse than the Livestream.

 

[Setrus]

So...how long until there are steroids invented for this too?
It'll probably be something for increased hand-eye coordination, brain activity and non-linear thinking...but beware, it'll make your nipples tiny or non-existant, depending on dosage.

 

[Vivi22]

While it is really nice to see that gaming has taken root as a sport I really don't care for the culture that surrounds e-sports in general. It may just be that I've enjoyed single player games more that multiplayer but I've never liked the air that surrounds e-sports.

From what little experiance I have with esports, I feel we as the Gaming Community let the wrong people get ahold of the public side of Gaming.

If this is Gamings "first contact" with the public, then I feel the Industries' struggle to be recognised as a valid format by both the wider world and academia will be hampered for years.

Because as a gamer I think the kind of people it promotes, advertises and rewards are massive dickbags. But thats both my opinion and a generalisation.

Huh?

I'm honestly confused by this because I've been following professional Starcraft play for the last couple of years and I've got to be honest: the caster, the players, and the vast majority of the community that promotes the game, and games in general at these events and outside of them are some pretty nice and enthusiastic people who just love the game and love playing it and promoting it and growing the community.

If the majority of these people are the first point of contact for people with both e-sports and gaming in general, then I'd have a hard time finding better ambassadors. Sure there are some bad apples, but by and large the community is pretty stellar.

 

[Rblade]

life vs flash was something magical.

 

[fwiffo]

If this is Gamings "first contact" with the public, then I feel the Industries' struggle to be recognised as a valid format by both the wider world and academia will be hampered for years.

What about the event specifically hampers our struggle? We should get on that.

For me, it was great fun. Lots of entertaining, talented, and polite people. Also the games were pretty good ;D

 

[Pinkamena]

So...how long until there are steroids invented for this too?
It'll probably be something for increased hand-eye coordination, brain activity and non-linear thinking...but beware, it'll make your nipples tiny or non-existant, depending on dosage.

Where's the drawback?

 

[shintakie10]

While it is really nice to see that gaming has taken root as a sport I really don't care for the culture that surrounds e-sports in general. It may just be that I've enjoyed single player games more that multiplayer but I've never liked the air that surrounds e-sports.

From what little experiance I have with esports, I feel we as the Gaming Community let the wrong people get ahold of the public side of Gaming.

If this is Gamings "first contact" with the public, then I feel the Industries' struggle to be recognised as a valid format by both the wider world and academia will be hampered for years.

Because as a gamer I think the kind of people it promotes, advertises and rewards are massive dickbags. But thats both my opinion and a generalisation.

Huh?

I'm honestly confused by this because I've been following professional Starcraft play for the last couple of years and I've got to be honest: the caster, the players, and the vast majority of the community that promotes the game, and games in general at these events and outside of them are some pretty nice and enthusiastic people who just love the game and love playing it and promoting it and growing the community.

If the majority of these people are the first point of contact for people with both e-sports and gaming in general, then I'd have a hard time finding better ambassadors. Sure there are some bad apples, but by and large the community is pretty stellar.

SC has its share of jackasses that most professionals wish would just go away, though the only one that comes directly to mind is IdRA. Seriously, fuck that guy. You don't ragequit in the middle of a damn tournament, twice.

I'm not quite sure about the CoD esports group, but the LoL esports community is actually fairly solid. There was that whole issue with cheaters not too long ago, but honestly that was almost entirely on Riot. If you make it as easy to cheat as Riot did, people are goin to do it in a competitive environment. Should the players have known better? Sure, but they shouldn't have been put in a position to do so in the first place.

Even aside from that, it wasn't like it was widespread.

 

[TKIR]

So...how long until there are steroids invented for this too?
It'll probably be something for increased hand-eye coordination, brain activity and non-linear thinking...but beware, it'll make your nipples tiny or non-existant, depending on dosage.

Please, caffeine, energy drinks, pseudoephedrine and various other legal, prescription and illegal drugs. There are hundreds of performance enhancing drugs available for gaming.

 

[Charli]

I was watching while drawing. I've been enjoying it more each year.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

SC has its share of jackasses that most professionals wish would just go away, though the only one that comes directly to mind is IdRA. Seriously, fuck that guy. You don't ragequit in the middle of a damn tournament, twice.

I'm not quite sure about the CoD esports group, but the LoL esports community is actually fairly solid. There was that whole issue with cheaters not too long ago, but honestly that was almost entirely on Riot. If you make it as easy to cheat as Riot did, people are goin to do it in a competitive environment. Should the players have known better? Sure, but they shouldn't have been put in a position to do so in the first place.

Even aside from that, it wasn't like it was widespread.

I'd totally agree on that seeing as how IdRA acts like a total and complete tool throughout his SC career compared to WhiteRA who looks more composed and actually pulls off what he sets out to do during his matches but IdRA just flat out hissy fits when his strats backfire up in his face.

That and I love watching Husky/Day 9 and TB's casting moments and shows but tend to lean more towards TB but need to catch up on D9 and Husky sometime this weekend.

Can't get HOTS yet until my new gpu arrives >.<