XBox 360 League - The Major Organizations And Games

Video game leagues have grown in popularity over the last decade and have now become fully-fledged tournaments and competitions with vast numbers of prizes, both in item and monetary form. In some countries, gaming tournaments are amongst the primary forms of entertainment and large sums of money are not only given to the winners, but placed in bets as well. It's become a lucrative business and it's a chance for many individuals who think they have the skills to perform against some of the best players in the world. There are dozens of leagues for different kinds of gaming, such as PC-only or an Xbox 360 league. Some mix and match platforms, hosting only the latest or most competitive games to truly distinguish the champions.

Major League Gaming (MLG)

Major League Gaming (MLG) is considered one of the largest gaming leagues in the world and provides yearly tournaments in some of the latest games available. However, they put competition ahead of new games and may even utilize older games due to the high-level of competitiveness they instill. Major League Gaming utilizes the Playstation 3 consoles if the game is available on all the platforms, but if they do use other consoles if the game is exclusive to those machines, such as Halo or Gear of War. MLG has been known to hold events all over the world as well as online events.

What Games Are Used?

The Halo series is an arcade-like first person shooter (FPS) that provides many close-quarters maps and levels for players to face off against. However, there are also larger maps with vehicles and differing objectives, making the series perfect to suit many different roles. With it's insane popularity and large fan base, it's perfect to be used as standard fare for any major gaming league.

Call of Duty shares top place with Halo in terms of players as it has reached phenomenal levels of popularity over the years and provides the same pace and competition as Halo. Both Halo and Call of Duty are both utilized in their latest forms, with Halo 3 and Halo: Reach being used as well as Modern Warfare 2, though next year will likely see Black Ops being used. Call of Duty is a prime example of both team-based competition and free-for-all competition. Strictly an Xbox 360 series, Gears of War takes a detour from the usual first-person shooter genre and instead provides brilliant third-person cover-based shooting. With both Gears of War and Gears of War 2 providing a lot of support for team-play as well as mass free-for-alls, it's a tremendously competitive game and serves as a primary game each year.

Rules

The rules of any video game league are not unlike sports leagues. Cheating, however, is a very subjective system for video games. While obvious cheating such as manipulating the game to provide an advantage will clearly result in an immediate disqualification, there are other types that occupy a grey area. Some controllers, for example, provide macro buttons that allow the player to simply press the button once and it will play out a prearranged combination of buttons at any speed the player wishes. This provides an inhuman advantage, but is hard to monitor and can be considered cheating in some courts.

Video Game Leagues, The Main Unions, Processes And Regulations

A dream amongst younger individuals and maybe older ones, the thought of making a living simply by playing video games is usually a dud one. There are many possibilities, such as video game testing, but the reality behind that is that it's terrible hours, terribly boring and only a small chance of promotion. However, for those who wish to look further afield, video game leagues might provide the reality to your dream. Allowing players to compete against other challengers, these leagues offer serious sums of prize money and items to those that win said leagues. It is, however, a very difficult process, as you will be competing against the best and most serious gamers the world has to offer, either in person or over the Internet and on your own or as part of a team.

The Main Leagues

There are several major leagues that dominate the world of competitive gaming. The first is the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) has been around for six years and has awarded over three million dollars worth of prizes. It primarily focuses on the first-person shooter (FPS) games and is a venerable option. The World Cyber Games (WCG) provide annual events with tremendous amounts of money varying between four-hundred thousand and five-hundred thousand dollars. They provide dozens of gaming genres from strategies to FPSs. The Pro Gaming League (PGL) also stands with the larger leagues and focuses on the console gaming sector, though offering less prize money.

Competing

Like all sports, gaming leagues follow a set process to filter out the losers from the winners. Essentially, the competitors and challengers fight it out, either with or without the champions, until only two are left. If the champions were not involved, this is where they join in, as either the last competitors faces off against the champions or the remaining two challengers compete. The last remaining player or team is declared the ultimate winner. The prizes are not always monetary. They can sometimes be physical items such as graphics cards, consoles and other items of varying monetary values. The following year sees the champions written in to face either returning or new competitors.

Cheating

Cheating is a serious issue as with any major sport. Unlike other sports though, gaming makes cheating a lot easier as there are practically thousands of ways to manipulate a game into making it easier for the player. Some may utilize 3rd party programs, while others might exploit game glitches to provide themselves with an advantage. To combat such irregular methods of play, referees and judges are sometimes present to supervise players.

Hardware has also come under flak, as it can provide players with the ability to do more than they're normally capable of. For example, some controllers provide a macro button, which, when pressed, pressed a series or combination of buttons, preventing the need for the player to do so. This translates as the player performing tasks usually impossible.