eSports

Major League Gaming have announced their 2012 Pro Circuit season structure and it's drastically different than what we saw from the eSports league last year. MLG was the premiere eSports league in 2011, garnering over 3.5 million stream viewers throughout tournament weekends, but this year the league has hit a turning point and they're doing things differently. The new structure for the ninth MLG season will be divided into four seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. The change from the 2011 to 2012 season is a great step forward for the company, and will bring more eSports coverage to fans while celebrating the hard work of competitive gamers.

• NEWS: Major League Gaming Brought In 3.5 Million Viewers During Their 2011 Pro Circuit Season

"We’re finally at a place where we have an engaged community," said MLG Co-Founder and CEO Sundance DiGiovanni. "This allows for more regular competition, players getting a chance to do more, and brands getting supported more frequently. This is something we’d hoped to do sooner in our lifetime as a company. More competition means more regular events, and that's pretty cool."
 
As of right now the only game that has been confirmed for MLG 2012 is Blizzard Entertainment's real-time strategy game StarCraft 2, which was by far the most popular title at all of the MLG Pro Circuit events last year. However, DiGiovanni did mention the league is currently looking at first-person-shooters and fighting games for the Pro Circuit season this year and we'll have more details to follow that soon. For now, let's break down how the StarCraft 2 Winter Season is going to work.

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Gaming peripheral company Razer have announced their new gaming mouse, The Razer Naga Hex. The Naga Hex is designed to bring your MOBA, action-RPG and hack and slash gaming skills to the next level. Inspired by the Razer Naga MMO gaming mouse which sports a 12-button thumb grid on the side, the Hex features six large thumb buttons, "optimized for the user interfaces found in action-RPG and MOBA games."

“I love RPG and MOBA games.  And I believe that having the right abilities available is the difference between slaying enemies and winning, or dying a miserable death and having your character wiped in hardcore mode,” said Robert ‘RazerGuy’ Krakoff, President, Razer USA. “That’s why we designed the Razer Naga Hex – we believe that the six mechanical thumb buttons are going to help gamers stay ahead of the competition with the best ergonomic control.”

If you're not familiar with what a MOBA game is, think League of Legends or Dota 2. With the Hex, you'll be able to perfect your champion's moves on the fly and become a force to be reckoned with.

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SteelSeries, ones of the leading competitive gaming peripheral manufacturers have revealed their 2012 CES lineup. The list includes the two headsets, the SteelSeries Flux and the Siberia v2 Frost Blue, as well as a wireless gaming controller, the SteelSeries Ion, and three mice, the Kana, the Kinzu V2 Pro Edition, and the Kinzu V2. Let's take a look at each one after the break.

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Fighting game fans grab your joysticks: The Evo 2012 tournament details have been announced. Not only will Evo feature a full list of excellent fighting games, but the Road to Evo tournament season has been extended to give even more people a chance to show off their best moves.

First off, here are a list of games on the Evo 2012 Roster:

• Street Fighter X Tekken
• Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition, Version 2012
• Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3
• Soul Calibur 5
• King of Fighters 13
• Mortal Kombat 9

The guys over at Shoryuken said it best when describing this slate of titles, "This is maybe the most exciting roster we’ve ever had. It’s got tried and true tournament games with balance refreshes, two series reboots that both show great potential, and a great variety of play styles from old school 2D to the zaniness of Marvel to an updated take on classic 3D fighting."

After the break you'll find the list of tournaments as well as a breakdown of how each tournament on the Road to Evo will determine how players are seeded.

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If you didn't watch the live stream of SoCal Regionals 2011 Tournament that was hosted by Level|Up, then shame on you. However, here at G4tv, we are very forgiving and because of that we're sharing our picks of the best matches at SoCal Regionals in Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition 2012 and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Do take into consideration that there were many amazing matches at Socal Regionals 2011, but these 4 matches were the ones that made the crowd get HYPE!

OnlineTony213 vs. Alex Valle

 To see our other picks be sure to continue on after the break.

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The SoCal Regionals 2011 Tournament Live Stream will cover all the fighting events from SCR, running at approximately 10:00am until close on Saturday 12/17, and 9:45am until 10pm Pacific on Sunday 12/18. Dozens of matches, all the best fighters and running commentary from the experts at level|up, who have put on one of the West Coast's most popular tournaments!

Look below and see the masters in action!

Socal Regionals - Level|Up Live Stream Channel 1:

To watch the second channel of SoCal's live stream and to know the general schedule of the tournament continue after the break.

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It's that time of the year again when we all listen to some of our favorite Christmas songs. This year, professional StarCraft 2 player, Drew "col.drewbie" Moysey took it one step further, and with the help of some friends he's put out this hilarious Christmas Album, "A Very Drewbie Christmas." He sings classics like, "Winter Wonderland", "Jingle Bell Rock" and some new tunes like "Zerglings Roasting On An Open Fire" and "Santa Baneling". I even make a small cameo in the video.

If you want to support this silly nerd, go check out his stream where he plays StarCraft 2 all day long. For those new to SC2, we've even posted some of his StarCraft 2 tip videos, going over Terran vs. Protoss, Terran vs. Zerg, and Terran vs. Terran.

Tom "Tsquared" Taylor had an amazing triple kill spree vs. Rhythm at MLG Providence in Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary on the updated Pit match. The following video is actual tournament footage, and whether you're a Halo fan or not, it's incredibly impressive.


If you want more Tsquared in your life, then you'll be happy to learn the MLG Champion and competitive gaming legend will be returning to X-Play in 2012 with exclusive pro-tips for the year’s biggest shooters. Tsquared will be breaking down Halo Anniversary, Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3 to give you the edge in online multiplayer. Are you excited, eSports fans?

I'm sure you've enjoyed G4's Fighting Words on a semi-regular basis, but you're really going to like what we have planned for you this Friday. We'll be streaming a live version of the web-show featuring fighting game pros Daniel "Clockw0rk" Maniago, Shady K and a mystery fighter joining host Ernie Moreno on a live stream, right here at G4tv.com.

The pros will be playing Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 with our readers, giving out tips and answering fan questions. 

• The Game: Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3
• The Time: Friday, December 9 at Noon PST
• The Details: Pro gamers will be taking on all comers (that we have time for) in the Xbox 360 version of Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, as well as giving out pro-tips and answering fan questions, live, on G4tv.com.
• How To Enter: Get on Xbox Live and send a friend request to G4TV7. Make sure you actually own and have played Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. We'll check your history.
• Questions for the pros: If you have any questions for the pros, get on Twitter and tweet us @G4TV using hash-tag #fightingwordslive.
• The Prize: Bragging rights, baby. It's one thing to brag to your pals that you cleaned Clockw0rk's clock, but if you  do it live, they'll HAVE to believe you.

Major League Gaming had its largest season ever in 2011, reaching more than 3.5 million unique stream viewers and 97,000 live spectators during their six combined Pro Circuit weekends. The 2011 Pro Circuit National Championships in Providence, Rhode Island drew in a staggering 241,000 peak concurrent online viewers and 3.6 million hours of videos were consumed over the weekend when pro gamers faced off for over $600,000 in Call of Duty: Black Ops, StarCraft 2, and Halo: Reach.

For an in-depth breakdown of all of MLG's achievements this year, check out the awesome infographic after the break.

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If you like the watching the Olympics and you like watching Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, then you're going to love theStream.tv and Cross Counter TV's 64 man (or woman) tournament. theStream.tv streamed over four hours of live, uninterrupted tournament madness. If you missed the tournament you can check out the archived videos below, and you can also check out theStream.tv for more.

PART 1

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All weekend you can catch Major League Gaming's Providence Pro Circuit Tournament right here on G4TV.com. Some of the best professional gamers will be competing in StarCraft 2, Halo: Reach, Call of Duty: Black Ops, and League of Legends. It's the National Championships, people! Get pumped as this time around more than $600,000 in prizes are at stake.

The broadcast schedule is as follows:

Note all times are listed in Eastern Standard Time (EST).

Friday: 5 PM EST - 1 AM EST
Saturday: 11:30 AM EST - 10:30 PM EST
Sunday:  10 AM EST -  9 PM EST

The stream defaults to StarCraft 2, to watch the other games use the dropdown menu within the stream! If you want to check out the stream in crystal clear HD, you can purchase an MLG Silver or Gold League Membership.

• Check out the StarCraft 2 open bracket here.
• Check out the StarCraft 2 championship bracket here.

• Check out the Halo: Reach open bracket here.
• Check out the Halo: Reach championship bracket here.

• Check out the Call of Duty: Black Ops open bracket here.
• Check out the Call of Duty: Black Ops championship bracket here.
   
• Check out the League of Legends championship bracket here.

For the full schedule breakdown of each game, you can click after the break. Let me know what you think about how the tournaments are going throughout the weekend via my Twitter!

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In honor of the first time that anyone under 50 has been excited to go to Providence, Rhode Island, Mayor Taveras has declared November 18th Major League Gaming Day. The day is meant to commemorate the National MLG Championships which are being held there from Nov 18-20.

“The 2011 Pro Circuit has been the most action-packed, exciting season in both MLG and e-sports history," said Sundance DiGiovanni, CEO, Major League Gaming. He continues, "Our National Championships will continue to deliver some of the most entertaining match-ups of all time,”

The championships will conclude the most watched MLG tournament season ever. Throughout the year, the last four Pro Circuit competitions resulted in more than 11.1 million hours of video consumed, with a peak of 181,000 concurrent viewers watching MLG Orlando. This time around, thousands of the world's best StarCraft 2, Halo: Reach, Call of Duty: Black Ops, and League of Legends gamers will be there competing for more than $600,000 in prizes.

We'll have the stream and full schedule of the event here for your enjoyment as usual. Are you excited for the MLG National Championships this weekend? Who do you want to win in each game?

Walmart shoppers will get more than discounts on toilet paper when they stop by their local store on November 7th. Beginning at 8 pm Monday night shoppers will have the chance to participate in CoD: Mordern Warfare 3 tournaments before the game is released. Nearly 3,000 stores  will be throwing MW3 tournaments. After you've played a few hours you'll be able to pick up the title when it's release at 12 a.m. November 8th.

Check out WalMart's game center for more information on prizes and stores that will be holding tournaments near you.