Major League Gaming, which bills itself as the world's top professional video games league, announced late last month that its 2010 season would be "greatly expanded" in comparison to previous years.
Professional gaming events, in which the action is displayed to spectators on a large-scale HDMI projector, will be held in Orlando, Chicago, Columbus, Denver, Raleigh, Dallas, and Washington, D.C. Major League Gaming also said that it had not yet decided on a location for its national championship showdown, but indicated that the event would occur in early 2011.
The league said that "over the course of 2010 more than 9,000,000 online matches will be played at mlgpro.com across more than 40 games on all platforms." Additionally, the organization stressed its appeal to the coveted 18-24 year-old male demographic, and urged marketers to consider it as an option.
Competitive video game playing is more common in Asia than the U.S., with particular emphasis on Blizzard's venerable Starcraft real-time strategy game. Important matches in South Korea, for example, regularly draw large and enthusiastic crowds.
