In a blockbuster announcement, EA Sports and Major League Gaming have teamed up to “create a new era of competitive gaming”. For the uninitiated, MLG is the major leader in competitive semi-professional videogame tournaments. Known mostly for Halo and fighting games like Street Fighter or Smash Bros, the tournaments usually have gamers go through a rather large field of competitors for cash prizes. MLG’s main competition had been EA Sports with its superior power and influence over gaming in general. EA Sports held many similar tournaments utilizing its sports library, especially Madden, which as we know is a juggernaut of a franchise to have control over.
Now, instead of undermining each other, these two forces of competitive gaming have teamed up for EA Sports’s Challenge Series on the Playstation 3..This live and online tournament will be open to new players thanks to MLG which will host several qualifying events during the summer. The Challenge Series event will be held August 29 and 30. The cash prices will total in $170,000 and will be provided by Sony.
This partnership should add some legitimacy to both parties. EA has the industry sway and MLG has the competitive gamer’s interest as a force that holds fair, well organized, open professional tournaments. The team up did get the attention of Best Buy who will be sponsoring this event. If the event is a success we should expect to see many more unified tournaments in the future. Perhaps an MLG style Madden tournament officially sanctioned by EA Sports is in the cards for the future.
In the US, competitive gaming has suffered from being somewhat unorganized and relatively unpopular. This partnership adds some much needed legitimacy and organization to the sport of pro gaming. If these two titans of competitive gaming continue to work together, it could really go a long way to make competitive gaming a legitimate sport.
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