MLG Anaheim 'largest North American eSports event'
Pro gaming organization says last weekend's Pro Circuit Spring Championship attracted 4.7 million viewers online, 20,000 in person to watch League of Legends, Starcraft II, and fighting game competitions.
While much of the industry recovered from the Electronic Entertainment Expo last weekend, Major League Gaming held what it's calling "the largest North American eSports event," the MLG Pro Circuit Spring Championship in Anaheim, California.
MLG today released a variety of stats for the in-person and online viewership of the three-day competition, which featured League of Legends, Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty, and a trio of fighting games: Mortal Kombat, King of Fighters XIII, and SoulCalibur V.
MLG reported that more than 4.7 million unique viewers tuned in to the Pro Circuit Spring Championship online, and another 20,000 fans attended the event in person. The group nearly doubled its all-time peak concurrent online viewership, hitting 437,000 streams and besting the 241,000 concurrent viewer peak of the 2011 national championship event. In all, more than 5.4 million hours of MLG video was streamed over the weekend.
The upcoming MLG summer season has not been detailed yet, but it will feature Starcraft II and League of Legends. The Summer Championship weekend will take place August 24-26 at a location yet to be announced.
They always lie with their numbers. Everytime I see their numbers they're so inflated. Lol. Stop trying to lie to get people interested.
I just wish I could play a game online and feel like I did good.I could never seem to put it all together and I don't necessarily have to win but man I'd suck.Still love the game.
4.7 million viewers online? Nonsense, Mayweather fights don't attract that much online.
dizzyrhino it just goes to show tht e-sports is gaining popularity. Which is great :)
Excitement, rivalries, dramas, dedication, twists and turn overs, happy ends and disappointments... eSports can offer them all just like any other form of entertainment. So (?°?°)?? ??? sEports!
Also, Stephano is the best!
SciFiRPGfan Agreed. Stephano is the best.
SciFiRPGfan Pfsh! DRG FTW!!!!!!
FragRaptor WASSUP!!! I'M NESTEA!!!!!
RaiKageRyu *sigh*. Professor Tea. I missed him this MLG. ;_;
FragRaptor Not for long, not for long... :) #August
SciFiRPGfan MKP!!
keep making gaming a legit sport! im excited for the future
AznWarrior480Don't get me wrong I'm sure all those players are fantastic at what they do....but legit sport? Please. How can you call this a legit sport when most Americans still have issues calling Soccer (which I played for 20+ yrs) an official sport....and that's an ACTUAL sport. Enjoy your pipe dream though
Mantiskilla007 Too bad there were more people watching MLG this weekend than soccer (In North America) ever. You mad?
Guess what? Esports are legit. They take just as much dedication (or more) than "real" sports. These people are practicing 12+ hours a day to stay at the top of their game. Yes, its not as physically challenging, but there is a mental challenge and reflex challenges involved.
These teams are getting big time sponsors just like any other sport too.
I'm sorry 'your sport' didn't take off here, but that doesn't diminish the insane growth esports has seen over the past 5 years.
colt_a I did it for Frash Frash MLGeeeeeee
Mantiskilla007 I love soccer and starcraft Q_Q
Mantiskilla007
Sport: An activity involving physical exertion and/or skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others. This qualifies.
Mantiskilla007 If Poker can be considered a sport and showed on ESPN, then I don't see how gaming is any different. Personally I would rather watch 2 players go at it in MK rather than watch people play Poker any day.
Is there a place where I can watch the replays of the LOL and SCII matches?
I have watched SCII here and there and enjoyed it, so why not give that and some of the other games another shot?
Kinthalis http://tv.majorleaguegaming.com/events/17-spring-championship#1424/1505/1;89747 Sick games from Flash, who has been playing the game for a few months. Amazing things the BW Pros can do in so little time.
Is eSports (or competitive gaming) for everyone? Nope. Obviously 4.7 Million were interested enough to check it out at some point during the weekend and if that doesn't speak to the legitimacy of this particular form of entertainment, than I don't know what will. I will be the first to admit that I am not the biggest fan of SC2 of LoL but I appreciate all the hard work and training these guys put into it. I did the same thing when I competed and if it's something you enjoy, you support it. No one is shoving eSports down your throats here people. I had the chance to do on floor interviews and MC the fighter stream and it was amazing. The hype that you get from the crowd is breathtaking and a feeling unlike any other. It's a community that's passionate about one thing:
Competitive gaming.
I don't expect to change the minds of those who are negative toward the subject but for this who are unsure if this is something you might be into I implore you to go to MLG.tv because there is something for everyone. At the end of the day it's all about gaming and hopefully that message has not been lost in this post.
:D
GoldenboyFTW GOLDENBOY FOR THE F'IN WIN
Haters gonna hate. Do you guys realize MLG has been going on for 10 years now? TEN YEARS. This isn't cricket or "some eurasia thing" (/rolleyes).
Anyway, after reading some blogs, I think MLG needs to do a little better job taking care of its not-Korean players (had a lot to do with trying to run two tournaments simultaneously), but overall it was very good. I didn't get to attend, but the production value was quite high on the stream.
Since many of you don't seem to understand competitive games (Minecraft and WoW ftw, amirite?), do you guys realize the kind of money top players and casters are making? Flash (winner of the Kespa invitational) is in the midst of of a million dollar contract. Forbes interviewed the owner of team Evil Geniuses. Day[9] was in their 30 under 30 list. Did you know the CBS has inked deals with basically every major "eSports" league? If competitive gaming isn't legit, please explain to me what will make it so. ^.^
Cydearrm Well to be fair the korean players are just winning all the "We will take better care of you" Qualifiers :P
FragRaptor It's more than that, according to @egincontrol :( http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/uxpf6/my_take_on_the_mlg_player_area_situation/
All the haters here are only proving that they know a lot about absolutely nothing. Forming opinions on things that you know nothing about is the epitome of ignorance and buffoonery. MLG was awesome and esports are growing more and more everyday. Great job, MLG!
Had an awesome time watching the stream this past weekend! Was an amazing event; can't wait for the next. Congrats on their numbers as well.
MLG is a league just like every other league on the planet. They are home to some of the best players in the world at what they do. Doesn't matter if they're not extremely physically active while competing, the fact is that they are COMPETING and they are competing at the highest level possible on the planet, and that deserves respect from everybody regardless if you're not a video game fan. IMO, professional gamers do exactly what people in NASCAR do. In NASCAR, are people making a lot of physical activity? No. They're just sitting in a chair and pressing pedals and turning a wheel. Everything else that happens is a result of those actions. In that regards, I believe if you respect NASCAR as a competition or sport you'd be ignorant to not do the same for eSports.
Alamlion I just wish MLG did a more GSL type thing sometime :(
MLG really stepped it up last weekend, with the Spring Championship! There were some bumps along the way but I definitely considered it a successful weekend, and even while watching on stream (I'm from the UK), you really got a sense of just how BIG the event was this time around.
To everybody hating on eSports: Look. We get it. It sounds crazy. But we're gamers too. We're no different than you. You all seem to think it's crazy. But have you tried watching a single match before you move on to collectively dismiss and bash on the whole community? If you tried it and didn't like it, then that's fine, that's your opinion. If you haven't, and you act like you know about it, then you just look ignorant. Go ahead, give it a shot, watch a match: http://tv.majorleaguegaming.com/events/17-spring-championship#1423/1502/1;89946 If you didn't like it, then at least you can say why.
Oh, and for the record: a lot of my friends who originally laughed at the idea of eSports and MLG now watch faithfully and love it. Do us a favor: give it a shot. There's lots of fun to be had.
killyouall11 Well said. And my I recommend to all those people to watch the KeSPA invitational Flash vs. SoulKey in the semifinals. Or even flash vs. stork that was a tense couple games.
For people getting hung up on "eSports" as the term, it's just a thing the west is borrowing from Korea. We know Starcraft and League of Legends aren't football or baseball. That's part of why we like it.We have a really supportive community, despite our occasional overreactions. We have players from all over the world who travel to events like these to put on a show. They win and lose, celebrate and grieve, just like in "real sports."
Like it or not, our generation and younger will be playing games in competitive settings.Quit giving attention to DashRender.
Lol at all the hate. Typical gamers, ready to dump on ANYTHING that they don't happen to like and the people who enjoy it.
eSports isn't my thing either, though I do enjoy watching a match ro two of SCII once in a while.
However you won't see me saying crazy stuff like some of the people below. I mean some dude seriously wants to burn people alive who like eSports.
Wacko.
Kinthalis well it's actually really nice these people don't watch eSports because then we don't have to put up with them. But you sound nice, you should tune in more! :)
Kinthalis Respect man. Happy to have someone who understands the idea of it but respectfully disagrees with it.
I loved watching this. Congrats to DRG.
DashRender619 Please, I would love to hear your argument on how this esport is horseshit?
DashRender619 I find it completely relevant to your IQ level that you cannot understand the logic of that statement and take it with a grain of salt.
Gamers posting on a gaming website complaining about other people "wasting their time"? Pretty pathetic.
DashRender619 I don't watch esports, either. However, watching esports is the same as watching football or basketball. In either situation, you're still watching someone else do something that generally has no importance in the grand scheme of life. To think otherwise is awfully naive.
RevKBA DashRender619 Very well put sir. Dash, I find it ironic that you think sun is relevant at all to the idea of sports in any sense of the word. A lot of stadiums cover thier tops now to stop weather and stuff like that and the game continues on normally. The act of being outside or being in the sun has nothing to do with traditional sports in the slightest. The sooner people understands what traditional sports are the simpler the idea of esports will be to you. Like it, hate it, it is here.
DashRender619 The amount and speed of multitasking required in games like Starcraft 2, the strategies and tactics in ANY Of these games, the mindgames involved, the execution involved for complicated techniques and hard combos in fighting games, and the sheer knowledge of matchups, frame data, different builds and battle outcomes is as astounding, if not moreso, than real sports.
Sorry, did something way more productive then watch league of legends......
DITHRICH Right because watching sports/esports is ever supposed to be productive.
DITHRICH >complaining about productivity on a video game site
tilroy I did not say i did not watch esports, just that it's more productive to watch a game that is actually interesting
Sometimes I like watching my dad play CoD. He's 54 and not a gamer by any means, and it's always entertaining. (He's better than you might think.)
But I'll pass on this.
roguebot IMHO CoD needs some major improvements in gameplay and spectator experience to be able to draw in a good crowd. As it is right now, it is fun to play, but ya.
roguebot If you ever play starcraft 2 or a fighting game significantly, youll really appreciate the skill, strategies and mindgames in these tourneys. T
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- Publisher(s): Blizzard Entertainment
- Genre: Strategy
- Release: Jul 27, 2010 (US)
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