This is part one of a special report on Major League Gaming brought to you by GGA contributer Mike Drucker.
It's been big in Asia and especially Korea for years now. Professional gaming. Getting paid for being good at videogames; it may just be the dream of many a gamer. However, in America, tournaments have almost never been much larger than city-wide, and never consolidated on an international basis. They payouts have mostly been small pots made by the players themselves. And now, an upstart company, Major League Gaming, is trying to change that.
Major League Gaming has so far played their cards right. They've scored a spot on ESPN 2's show Cold Pizza. They've spent plenty of capital to get their project off the ground, and their forums show them to be pretty well known amongst the competitive crew.
However, now, the weekend of October 24th-25th, Major League Gaming has its first real test. According to the co-founders of MLG, they've put a large amount of money into the event, and the success of the upcoming tournaments really decides whether or not the business becomes either the NFL of gaming sports or the XFL.
The first tournament, in Halo, Soul Calibur II, Madden 2004, and Gran Turismo 3, takes place at GameTime Nation in New York City, New York, a small console-based gaming caf.
Hi, Mike here. I just got back from the "Meet & Greet" at the Major League Gaming Event.
Woo.
In case you didn't see that last part. Woo.
GameTime Nation may be one of the coolest facilities that I've been to in a long time. Now, I've been to quite a few LAN Party Cafes and whatnot. But, GameTime seems more focused on console gaming, which is fantastic. Plus, it is literally less than a block from my apartment, something I was thrilled to learn in the press materials sent to me beforehand.
Anyway, inside the dim interiors of GameTime Nation are two rows of flat HDTVs. Couches and special comfy chairs (which are pretty damn comfy) are lined up on wheels, easy to move and put together depending on the gamer.
The facility also had a projector playing previews and trailers for games, including Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. The facility works perfectly, and merits an article of its own to describe the intricacies and players who take trains for two hours to come and play.
At the door, I was greeted by James Little, the PR guy for Major League Gaming. Little was a bit hand in running the event, and also a big hand in allowing me to get involved with the event, so props go where props are due.
After that, I met the "Dream Team." Now, if you didn't know, Major League Gaming took a bit of a risk, and even some flak, for signing for Halo players to actual gaming contracts. Only one of the players was older than me; I'm 19. They're all pretty young guys.
However, that isn't to say that they aren't great players.
First "Dream Team" member I met was Dustin "Darkman" Langton. A Kansas State engineering student, "Darkman" is described by MLG as "the Michael Jordan" of Halo. And while his white face, beard, and puffy hair might dissuade most from the physical association, he does seem like a serious player.
Alex "Alex" Burden was dressed in a large orange jacket, and was all smiles. He also goes to Kansas State, and I was surprised to find out he was just about best friends with Darkman. Alex was probably the shiest of the players. He seemed like a nice enough guy, though. And you've got to respect someone who uses their real name as their gaming name.
Paul "Shizz" Baffi was the opposite. Well, that's not completely true. He's also a great guy. But what Alex was in humble silence, Shizz was in complete willingness to talk. The man, who is the oldest of the bunch and is also known for running gaming tutoring sessions, seemed the most scholarly with his modest goatee and glasses. However, Shizz loves to talk. He's got a lot to say, and as I saw in the practice games, he says it loud. I think I liked Shizz a lot because he reminded me of half my gaming buddies that I lost when I moved to New York.
Matt "Zyos" Leto is the unofficial leader of the "Dream Team." While, officially, the team makes decisions as a whole, the press kits and talking has so far mentioned Zyos in particular, especially after his $20,000 win in a Seoul, Korea Halo tournament. He's not nearly as talkative as Shizz, but he's got that leadership quality to him, and during some of the practice matches, he was pretty good at giving orders to his dream teammates.
All of the guys were friendly and rather modest considering they've all won a lot of money for videogames, and some of them being interviewed on television no less. And almost all of them mentioned that they never expected to be professional gamers.
However, when they played another professional team, lead by a player with the nickname "poon," they showed their true colors.
The team match was pretty one-sided. While I won't go into detail about a short for-fun match, let me say that if this is a preview for the next two days' gaming, this will make for some hard gaming.
Each of the four had their own roles. Zyos gave orders, directions, "go here" and "go there." Shizz was the man with the golden gun and was sure as hell going to tell people so. Whenever he got kills, he yelled in his loud, Texas accent, "triple kill!" Of course, to this his teammates would ask innocently, "Triple what?" There was much in the way of taunting.
Alex and Darkman seemed to be more the straight men in the match, quietly taking orders and going to work on the other team. While quiet, they did major damage, and the score on the screen showed so. Not one member of the team seemed to be doing an inordinate amount of the work. It was rather impressive.
The "Dream Team" delivered "poon" and his gang a whole can of whoop-ass. Although it was a friendly match, tensions rode high, especially with Shizz's trash talking. Well deserved trash talking, but trash talking none the less.
However, I believe the highlight of the night was my hour of "Dance Dance Revolution". While not technically part of the meet and greet, I paid five dollars and got DDR for an hour, just to kill a bit of stress and fat. Anyway, not only was I watched, but Shizz complimented me, saying that me playing him in DDR (I invited a versus) was about the same as him playing me one on one in Halo. Seeing Shizz play, and his trash talking, I took it as the highest form of praise.
While this was only the press meeting, I got to know the players and some of the founders pretty well. I'm looking forward to the actual tournament to see what goes down, and if the dream team can keep up their skills.
And I'm even more curious to see how the players do when they have to face each other in the free for all.
Well, that's all for tonight. Look out for part 2: the founders, the interviews, and the tournament day 1. I'll be back in touch.
[Read Part Two of Gaming Major League.
Mike Drucker was born in the wilderness of suburban South Florida. When he was younger, his parents were foolish enough to buy him and his sister a Nintendo Entertainment System. Taking it to it like someone who takes to something they like, thank you very much, Mike became a gaming addict. Initially planning to become a strategy guide writer as a child, Mike realized he sucked at games competitively. Later deciding to become a programmer, it became apparent Mike was a failure at software engineering. Finally settling on writing about gaming culture, Mike may still have no skills, but he's trying his darndest to break into the niche of videogame journalism.
Mike's currently a sophomore at New York University, majoring in English and Journalism (two separate degrees, mind you), and minoring in Creative writing. He's 19 years old is thrilled to be dating a fellow gamer, the mysterious (whose mystery is only exceeded by her power) Vicky Zadorozny.
Besides gaming, Mike reviews movies for a local newspaper, covers NYU sports for a different newspaper, and writes short stories for his hard drive and hopes.
His website is http://home.nyu.edu/~msd248.
Looking forward to the report on the tournament itself.
Posted by: Ernest Miller | 10/26/2003 at 09:11 AM
How do you "suck at games competitively"? Is there any money in that?
Posted by: misuba | 10/28/2003 at 10:49 AM
To your first question, very carefully.
To your second, you wouldn't believe the money in it.
Posted by: Mike Drucker | 10/28/2003 at 11:46 AM
sana pwede nang mag install ng the sims through internet!!!
for freeee
Posted by: ic | 11/25/2003 at 03:00 AM
obviously never heard of CXG or CPL have we.
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hey what's is up with ya'll!!!
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