MLG brings “CoD: Ghosts” tournament to X Games Austin

To keep up with the ongoing growth of competitive gaming tournaments in the area , ‘X Games’ has collaborated with “Major League Gaming” and announced that a Call Of Duty Tournament is going to be a part of the X Games Austin in june.

MLG’s Call of Duty: Ghosts tournament is going to witness some heated competition between eight of the top professional teams worldwide , five of which are the best teams according to MLG Pro Points , and the other three are the “Call Of Duty” Winterpark,fla. tournament winners last month, the teams will compete in a group form of double-elimination with four teams advancing to a single-elimination bracket. X Games medals will be awarded to the winning teams.

MLG is one of the several professional video game leagues worldwide and the largest in North-America, it hosts tournaments for games like “League Of Legends” , “Call Of Duty”, and “Starcraft” , alongside some sports games like “NBA 2K14” . Teams of gamers make up MLG rosters and compete in online matches that are broadcast on MLG.tv . Major tournaments take place after that in venues like Anaheim Convention Center, where thousands of fans gather to watch the competitions in person.

Joe “Merk” Deluca a member of EnVyUs team will be present at the X Games Austin tournament after his team’s second place win in the CoD tournament last month. he said that the partnership between MLG and X Games makes a lot of sense. Deluca played in front of as many as 20.000 people over the weekend at MLG’s Anaheim Call Of Duty championships last year, but he says that the ability to compete for an X Games medal is what makes this MLG competition different from the rest.

“I want to win an X Games medal,” Deluca said. “That would be a dream in itself.”

Bringing gaming to the X Games was a good choice , because people who are interested in professional gaming are most likely fans of X Games and other action sports , said Tim Reed, senior director of content strategy for the X Games , add to that the growing popularity of e-sports and X Games has a thing that it hopes would deliver a popular attraction to the festival grounds at the Circuit of the Americas.
“It made sense from X Games’ perspective,” Reed said. “The audiences are similar: youth, fun to play with, and they like music, sports and gaming. So it all kind of lines up with [the X Games] audience.”

A Three-day ticket to X Games Austin is gonna cost 89$ and will allow its holder to enter MLG’s tent and other places in the festival. a ticket upgrade option is also there for reserved seats inside the tent , gifts bag , and other perks.

“Call Of Duty” Franchise is one of the best-selling games series in video games history, first person shooters like “CoD” have lots of realistic violence however, which makes “CoD” games not purchasable for those who are younger than 17 years old, ESRB rating rules applies to the X Games , it won’t be allowed for younger people below 17 to enter the X Games tent without a parent or a guardian .

MLG claims that there’s a growth of 1.500 percent in online video consuming over the past four years and a 600 percent growth in total audience over the past three. Most of the interest in e-sports come from South Korea , Japan and China , but video games tournaments are rapidly growing in the American market.

There’s also some cash to be made , with some of the top professional players earning above 100.000$ and are considered famous across the gaming community. One of MLG’s earlier goals was to cover up living wage for many of its professional players. now that it has been achieved, the league is looking into more ways to expand in areas where there’s already an interested audience , just like the X Games.

Austin’s event success would open ways for X Games and MLG to expand their relationships and a possibility of making video games a regular X Games attraction.

“Ideally, we get the [X Games] brand to travel in the gaming space and drive some engagement with an X Games audience,” Reed said. “If the tent is full and people are enjoying it, then it’s a success.”