The premier professional console league answers our questions.

Thank you for taking the time to answer GWN’s questions.  To start off, for readers who are unfamiliar with MLG, please describe how the league works.  Why the console-only focus?  Who can enter the tournaments, when do they happen, and when is the championship?

Major League Gaming is the world’s first professional videogame league and the only sanctioning body for pro gaming. With the support of major sponsors, we produce a pro tour – the Boost Mobile MLG Pro Circuit - now in its 4th year that makes six stops in major cities across the U.S and showcases world-class competitors. MLG’s Pro Circuit currently features 3 game titles: Halo 2, Rainbow Six Vegas and now, Gears of War.
MLG. We currently have over 150 pros, and just signed our 13th pro to a $250,000 deal.

We focus exclusively on the console as the fastest, most dynamic segment of gaming, where players don’t have to spend many thousands of dollars on a custom PC that will quickly become outdated. Consoles are more affordable and therefore more accessible for most people. Focusing in consoles enables more people to participate at our competitions and for us to reach a wider audience.
 
Anyone can enter the tournament. The first day of the regular season tournaments is free for all which means that anyone has a chance to accumulate points and progress to the next round.

The schedule for this year’s Pro circuit is:
Charlotte April 13-15
Meadowlands June 8-10
Dallas July 22-23
Chicago August 17-19
Orlando September 21-23
Playoffs and National Championships TBD

What is the nature of MLG’s affiliation with GameBattles?

MLG acquired GameBattles in October 2006 along with its online community of over 800,000 different clans and over 40 game titles for online competitive gaming. Last week we also announced that MLG had acquired Gotfrag, the competitive gaming community’s leading online e-Sports news source. These acquisitions combined with the explosive growth of MLGPro.com have established MLG as the definitive leader in competitive gaming news, entertainment, community and competition on the web. (In fact MLG properties accounted for over 75% of all page views and visits in the online competitive gaming space in April 2007, according to data from Hitwise, the online traffic measurement service.)

Give our readers the backstory on the addition of Gears to the 2007 season.  How did MLG decide it was the right time to add a new game, and why did you choose Gears? What did MLG have to do to secure the right to use Gears in the 2007 circuit?

Gears of War is a very popular game in the community, and its high competitive nature was a good fit with MLG. We created a partnership with Microsoft Game Studios and Epic to use the game on our pro circuit tour.