XBox 360 League - The Major Leagues And Challenges

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)

Founded in 2002, it's the foremost in video gaming leagues. It provides annual tournaments for people to compete in, usually with six major games. The most recent of the Halo series is always present with the latest tournament using Halo 3 and Halo: Reach. Furthermore, if the game is not exclusive to a single console, but instead present on at least the PS3 and any other one, the PS3 version will always be used. The tournaments take place both online and offline, with many live events held all over the world. However, these live events sometimes only apply to specific games, consoles or players.

The Games

Halo has been the mainstay of the tournaments since the start with Halo: Combat Evolved. It's a first person shooter with many non-realistic elements, which means it's very fast paced and focused primarily on twitch-based skills. The close-quarter maps amplify this and it is considered an exemplary competitive game. Over the years it's been updated and Halo 2, Halo 3 and Halo: Reach have all made their debut.

Call of Duty is another game of exceptional popularity and has also been used in several iterations. Modern Warfare provided a good deal of competitive gaming and features realistic scenarios in contrast to the sci-fi Halo. The gameplay is still somewhat unrealistic, however, and is still very much twitch-based. Modern Warfare 2 has also been used and the upcoming Black Ops is expected to debut next year. Gears of War strays from the mold as it provides third-person cover-based shooting, but focuses on team-based play. It can, however, provide matches for free-for-alls and pairs and is a very good example of controlled competition. The sequel is currently in place with Gears of War 3 likely to be put in place when that is released.

Rules And Cheating

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 Societies, Procedures And Rules

For some of us, playing games is a way of life and many of this demographic may often wonder at a life where playing games is actually productive. It would come as surprise for these individuals, then, to learn that there are, in fact, almost a dozen major video game leagues that have hundreds of attendees and competitors every year. Millions of dollars of prizes are given away annually to the winners, meaning it's not just a passing fancy, but a completely viable way of life, provided you're the best of the best. These leagues utilize some of the most competitive games around, not all of them new, and people from all over the world compete, both in person and over the Internet. The participants can take part as either teams or individuals, depending on the league and game in question.

The Major 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.

Competition

Video game competitions function like most major competitions. The competitors face off against other competitors in a bid to challenge the reigning champions. Once the competitors are weeded out and only the best remain, these then face off against the champions. If the champions defend their title, they are rewarded with the prize money, as are the competitors if they win. There are variations in each tournament, such as champions being consider competitors and facing off against the teams until only one team remains. Once a team have beaten the champions or the champions have retained their throne, then the prize money is awarded. Sometimes it's money, but it's also commonly dished out as items worth the same amount, such as graphics cards, computers, etc. The events are then arranged for the following year with the new or old champions being written in to defend their titles.

Rules

A considerable offense, cheating will obviously mean instant disqualification of you and your team if you're part of one, unless it's proven the team had no awareness of the player's cheating. If they are allowed to continue, then they may be able to seek a replacement player or have to remain handicapped. Cheating can be present in a number of ways, such as manipulating in game data or exploiting glitches in the game to provide a distinct advantage to themselves.

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.