Krone

This wasn't anything incredible, but Major League Gaming used to produce top 10's similar to ESPN back in the day for Halo and I was fortunate enough to make it on one. Funny thing is, the play they put on there actually ended up being used in the opening montage for a couple of future events as well which was kind of mind blowing for me. Play #8 lads.

The best part about it was I remember hitting that clip like it was yesterday. Early in the morning and after I landed that I looked for the triple kill, couldn't find it, and literally just set my controller down. Probably my favorite accomplishment to date just because back in the day all my friends would watch these and one of them actually happened to watch it before I even knew I made it on there.

A lot of these guys though make enough money to where they can sustain a healthy living while working out 'as a hobby' of sorts. For me, I work 6-8 hours a day. Tack on another 6-8 to practice and you're looking at 12-16 hours of what you could call "work" - not including running errands, showers, making meals and the such. So it's almost like a double edge sword. Sure these guys are pro for a reason, but they're also pro because they can put in all that time due to their success. That's not to say that some people aren't just naturally gifted at console shooters and the such, but when you can only practice for half of the time because you have to go to a real job, it already puts you behind the 8 ball.

Take the next Call of Duty for example - Black Ops 3. I was amazingly good at Black Ops 2, back when that was the only thing I had to focus on. But once you have bills to pay, mouths to feed, you can't rely on just becoming big over night. So that pro that get's the game opening night has the ability to play it for 16-18 hours a day where as the people striving to get there can't because of school or work. That's why I feel you never really see a lot of 'newer' players become pro unless they are younger - because they don't have those responsibilities. And if they do have those responsibilities, then they are either already pro or probably never going to reach it unless you literally play til your eyes fall out (which is what I've been doing and has led to insomnia/anxiety and such).

Put it this way. Every Sunday there are online 'big money' tournaments for CoD hosted by GameBattles. I'm talking $3,000-$4,000 for first place. If you win two of those in a month, you're already looking at $750-$1500 alone off of tournaments. That's not counting other smaller side tournaments or the big LAN's. Hell, CoD has a big tourney every year with first place taking home $400,000. Split four ways and with a sponsor getting a share, you're looking at $60,000 per person. That's more than I will make in the next 2-3 years combined off one weekend of gaming. Then take into account $50,000 tournaments x3, maybe a $100,000 tournament and you're talking a good chunk of change. That's from CoD alone and I know the PC gaming gives out some pretty damn impressive prize pools (with crowd funding as well) that exceed that. 

Then you've got streaming where people make money off ad revenue, donations, and or subscribers. Add on the profit from YouTube and a lot of these guys are making money hand over fist.

Lastly there's the equipment. For someone like me, I have to buy a Scuf controller for the XBox ($200) + a top of the line headset ($250) and a monitor ($150-$200) and you're already at $600. That's a ton of change to drop on that shit. These pros, they get free headsets, controllers, hell even expensive ass gaming chairs that save them an asinine amount of money.

For being hotter than 99.99% of the earth's population.

I'm not sure if any of you know who Yanet Garcia is (I'd imagine so since it's the internet). The Mexican weather girl that god famous for obvious reasons.

Go figure, her boyfriend is a competitive Call of Duty player. Even gamers can get the ladies 

You'd be surprised at how many people actually work out more than "pound energy drinks". I don't think it classifies you as an athlete either, but I also never implied that.

I also wouldn't classify poker as a sport.

Exactly. It's pretty much just the rule sets. 

Granted, this isn't CoD, but still. League of Legends really does have it's fanbase.

And CS:GO tournament from this past weekend had 660,000 viewers on Twitch. I'm almost sure that's more than Ring of Honor draws on a cable channel so it's gotta have a little something there.

For instance (CoD only) certain abilities are banned that would be considered cheap. One would be Exo Ping which allows you to see where other opponents are on the map. Competitive views this as taking away gunskill and communication, making it 'cheaper'.

In Halo, there is no mini map in competitive which forces better communication and teamwork. Also, in Halo, power weapons spawn in different spots than 'public matches' to help better promote map movement and map control.

There are three competitive gametypes in CoD. Hardpoint (which is King of the Hill), Uplink, and Search and Destroy. Team Deathmatch isn't one because you don't 'need' map control and after getting a kill could theoretically camp the entire game which wouldn't be enjoyable from a spectators standpoint. You also can't use modified weapons which unbalance damage/accuracy to keep the playing field level.

Different rule sets (for CoD at least) and gametypes.

Believe me, there's nothing more annoying than having kids t-bag you or just talk shit. I was watching CS:GO and the ESL ONE Cologne this past weekend and their whole presentation and all was absolutely beautiful. I feel like it may sound farfetched, but I could definitely see console e-sports becoming as popular as actual sports with the accessibility of it to almost all casual fans. It's not like basketball or soccer where you need to go through 800 loopholes to get to a professional level. You can hop on a fair share of games and get the same action as the pros.

I didn't know where else to put this, but I figured it would be a nice little thread with the growth of e-sport titles in recent years. From ESPN covering LoL and CS:GO, to the console games, I've slowly but surely become hooked on competitive gaming.

It all started back in 2009 when I found out about MLG and Halo 3. The thought of being able to make money off of video games blew my mind and had me hooked from the word go. Since then, I've attended two Major League Gaming events (Washington D.C. in 2010 for Halo: Reach which had about 120 teams - and MLG Columbus 2011 for Halo: Reach which had 180 teams) which literally blew my mind. Stepping into a room with almost 1,000+ players who all shared the same passion as me was absolutely incredible. While I didn't exactly come out on top, it was an amazing experience that you would almost have to be in attendance to believe. Over the course of years, my gaming went from Halo to Call of Duty after Halo fell off in H4, but I had my share of local tournament wins, even winning a $1,000 tournament without dropping a map.

Next weekend, I will be traveling to Washington D.C. once more for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and UMG's $50,000 national championship. Now I'm not sure again how many people are familiar with console competitive gaming, let alone Call of Duty, but this is the third highest North American tournament excluding the MLG National Championship in New Orleans next month and the Call of Duty championships every April that take place in Los Angeles with a cool $1,000,000 USD on the line. To give you guys an idea of just how intense these things can get (and believe me, some of these people are major tools), I'll direct you all to a nice little trash talking montage as well as just what these events have to offer experience wise.

The only thing I dislike from that Owens entrance is the limitless arena where there's no roof or sense of dimensions. I think it was in SmackDown 2? Maybe 3 that they did a really solid job with that. That and the really awkward commentary (like anything else was expected).

Just got to level 33 with my Dragonknight last night. I really wanted to make a Templar or a Sorcerer, but the prospect of having to find all the Lorebooks again and rebuild a separate guy makes me feel like I should just put all the effort into my main character.

it better ship with all of Austin's old theme songs as well.

I'm not even sure what to say after that episode. Lots of deaths and a bunch of what if's came from it.

Now I wonder what happens to the show since they're caught up to the books. Admittedly, I've never read any of the books, but if the series is now all but caught up with them, what happens to the show from here? Does the show become spoilers for the books? Does the show go in a completely different direction from the books to keep people interested in both? Even if the book does come out before next season, I feel they're in big trouble. How are we supposed to know which is real and which isn't?

From my understanding, Shireen stays behind at Castle Black but is sacrificed in the show. So is she really dead because the show said so, or is she supposed to be alive. Too much to comprehend and with that being said, my thoughts on the finale.

Spoilers for S5E10 just in case anyone doesn't want to skim past this and read something they haven't seen.

-Extremely sad to see Jon Snow die. Even if he does return as a White Walker or something of that nature, I feel he was the most powerful 'real' character they had. I want to see a human overcome the odds this kingdom has presented them with. I guess you can't win them all and even though I knew it was coming, it was still hard to see. Ollie you bastard!

-Brianne leaving as soon as Sansa lights the candle. Of course.... Why wouldn't she. Same with the way she came across Stannis. I would've rather just had Stannis die in the forest or at the hands of Ramsey, but the man was a gambler down to his final minutes. I guess that's what you get for burning your daughter you sick bastard. Laid it all on the line and cost your family their lives over some witch-craft.

-Cersi... Holy shit I felt bad for her. That's one thing this show is AMAZING at. It can give you the biggest villain in the world but still make you feel sympathy for them. Here's to Tommen becoming the mad king v2.

-I'm not even sure what the hell happened to Arya. It looks like she went blind or something of the nature, but I can't see her going down too (along with the possible... deaths of Sansa and Reek/Theon). It seems like all the good people are falling left and right. Can't they give us at least a little bit of satisfaction! Well, I guess we got that from Sam and Gillie leaving, but I'd hate to think what would've happened had they still been there. Alliser is a real son of a bitch too. Why not just leave Jon outside the wall if you were gonna kill him.

I picked it up on the One last night. Loved Oblivion and Skyrim so I figured the countless days and weeks I out into this will be well worth it. Just creating my character felt amazing.

Holy shit, mods on Xbox One. That's awesome.

Saw that on twitter and was floored. Man was an inspiration and brought a different dimension everytime he stepped on the set. As cool as the other side of the pillow will forever be my favorite. RIP Stu.

This game has had a little bit of everything. Really good game.

Also gotta say Kirk Cousins is for real. I don't know what the future holds for RG3 (probably a future in Dallas if they don't get Jameis when he comes out), but it's certainly not playing again for Washington.

What the fuck are you talking about? IF the Cowboys don't get Winston, the likely #1 overall pick? Yeah, that won't be happening because they aren't going to have the worst record in the league. And the Redskins aren't going to move RG3 within the division, to their biggest rival.

Who needs a QB besides Dallas right now or within the next few years AND wants to take on the distraction that is Jameis Winston? Tampa Bay maybe? Other than that Dallas. Oakland is full in on David Carr so who else will snag him.

This game has had a little bit of everything. Really good game.

Also gotta say Kirk Cousins is for real. I don't know what the future holds for RG3 (probably a future in Dallas if they don't get Jameis when he comes out), but it's certainly not playing again for Washington.

That was ridiculous. Pure malicious intent there. That's the kinda shit that pisses me off. Just plain and dirty plays - hurting our QB none the less.

Excited to see Bridgewater make some noise for the AP'less Vikings. First game ever and it's in the Silverdome Superdome.

Scott Chandler with an amazing grab

After the long week its been for the NFL, I'm hoping some of the games today shift attention away from all that's gone on off the field but I highly doubt it. I can't remember any time being a sports fan that a league has been under so much scrutiny as the NFL and it's sad. I hear a lot of radio personalities claiming how the league is filled with thugs, yet a few bad apples take away from those that are anything but.

With that being said, I'm pretty excited for the Bills/Fins. Despite being an Eagles fan, northern NY is littered with Bills fans so naturally I'm constantly hearing about and watching them. A win over Miami and a 2-0 start would be next to incredible for Morrone.

That's what I was thinking lol

I just have no clue what happened to Foles. Some of his passes today have just been atrocious.

Halfway through the 1st quarter and the Eagle fans are already booing. What a classless bunch of twats. I hope they never see a Super Bowl ring.

That's horse shit. If you're playing as bad as they were in the first half, you deserve to get booed. Any good fan base would boo the huge shit they took on the field in the first half.

No. That is bullshit. No other fanbase boo's their team in the first half, of the first quarter, of the first friggin' game. There is a reason the Philadelphia fanbase is looked at as one of the worst in the league, and that crap is a prime example.

Man, I think that's ridiculous. If you have high expectations and you go into a game against arguably the worst team in the NFL, get your ass handed to your for thirty minutes, I think you have a right to boo. This isn't like the Browns, or the Vikings - this is a team that's projected by some to make it to the Super Bowl. When your expectations are that high and you are down 17-0 with FOUR turnovers, one of which I caught was in the red zone, you have ever right to boo...

And you know what they did, came out and turned it around. You can't accept mediocrity and expect to be great.

I'm 33. I've been an Eagles fan all my life. Those projections are incredibly hopeful. We haven't improved in any way, shape or form from last season. Our #1 receiver has been injured and is getting Rey Mysterio-like in his knee being held together by bubble gum and a prayer.

I'm just a decade under you and became a fan of the Eagles after McNabb joined them (since I'm a Syracuse football fan) and stuck with them ever since. I'd like to think we have that chance, but you're right. We've got some nasty teams standing in our way if we wanna make it to the Super Bowl, we've gotta be about as perfect as possible. I'm happy to see the defense stepping up in the 2nd half along with the offensive weapons doing some damage. Matthews had that big 30 yard catch, Ertz with the TD, and Sproles doing Sproles things. Now if Shady can kick it up a notch and Foles doesn't make below average passes we should be fine.