Major League Gaming

''This article is about the professional gaming company. For the Halo 3 playlist, click here.''

Major League Gaming (MLG) is the largest organized league for worldwide professional competitive gaming and tournaments. The privately held company was founded in New York City in 2002, and has now attracted competitors from over 28 countries worldwide. MLG uses several media outlets to popularize their tournaments, mainly through TV, via ESPN in the USA.

MLG also posts videos, tactics, leaderboards, tips from professional gamers, and other content on the Internet. Fans can visit MLG's website to upload their own videos to the site, and to access the content of their favorite game that MLG currently focused on, such games including Gears of War 2, Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, Call of Duty 4, Halo 3 and Halo: Reach.

MLG also runs a video series in partnership with ESPN called MLG/ESPN Top Ten, in which ten short clips of unusual or exceptional Halo 3 multiplayer matches of the week are presented in a quick, concise manner. Fans can submit their own videos to be considered for inclusion.

Tournaments
MLG's main function is to organize competitions and present leaderboards of the top competitors in a game. MLG's most famous tournament series is the MLG Pro Circuit, a series of five events that occur each year. In these events competitors of all games compete at various locations (usually a major city in the United States, though one event has been held in Toronto, Canada). Because MLG is fully sponsored, players competing in an MLG tournament are provided with all necessary equipment, including televisions and video game systems, but not game controllers. Some players may choose to bring their own equipment anyway to practice before the competition. Typically, each MLG tournament is held over the course of a weekend (Friday through Sunday), with the only exception being the Playoffs/Championship, which occurs over a period of four days.

Pro Circuit Ladders
Players wishing to participate in an MLG tournament compete in online tournaments called Pro Circuit Ladders. Pro Circuit Rank Points can be earned by winning Pro Circuit Ladders; these points determine seeding for the Pro Circuit events and often offer cash prizes. The Pro Circuit Ladder is split into two groups: the Ladder Competition and the Playoff Bracket. Top teams in the Ladder Competition, who compete over several weeks of tournaments, earn a spot in the Playoff Bracket. The Playoff Bracket is a double-elimination tournament to determine an overall victor. To enter Pro Circuit Ladders, players require MLG/Gamebattles Credits, which can be purchased from the MLG online store.

Leaderboard
Here are the current MLG Pro Curcuit teams and their seed going into the upcoming event at D.C. Team captains are listed in bold.


 * 1) Instinct (Elamite Warrior, Cloud, Roy, Lunchbox)
 * 2) Final Boss (Victory X, FearItSelf, IGotYourPistola, Ogre2)
 * 3) Status Quo (Flamesword, Ace, Enable, Assault)
 * 4) Triggers Down (Hysteria, Bestman, ToTz, Neighbor)
 * 5) Believe The Hype (Maniiac, Demon-D, Tizoxic, Snipedown)
 * 6) Dinasty (APG, Destin, Clutch, Heinz)
 * 7) Str8 Rippin (Tsquared, Ghostayame, Defy, Naded)
 * 8) Carbon (Walshy, SK, Soldier187, Chig)
 * 9) Heaven and Earth (Strongside, Sypher, Dersky, Cpt. Anarchy)
 * 10) Warriors (Brake, NocturnalKernal, Robbie B, Snake Bite)
 * 11) Purgatory (Gilkey, Karma, KillerDrew, Mimic)
 * 12) Darkest Hour (Twilight, Goofy, Batmayne, Areallygoodnoob)
 * 13) Ambush (Frosty, IceVayne, SneakyBeaver, SuperStr8Sick)
 * 14) Legends (Thuggishkilla, Elumnite, Arkanum, Legend)
 * 15) The Other Guys (Jesse Peace, Revamp, Piggy, Aries)
 * 16) Cadegory 5 (Thrust, Zoowuu, Nightmare, Ashes)

Gameplay
MLG uses Halo 3 's Forge in order to create MLG-specific map variants for use in their events, the MLG Matchmaking playlist, and GameBattles. Between the Default maps and MLG maps lie many differences. These included: Player spawns, player characteristics, weapon placements, weapon spawns, no vehicles, and no equipment.

MLG Playlist
On March 12, 2008, MLG announced that an MLG playlist would replace Team Hardcore in Halo 3 's Matchmaking. The playlist was released online as a ranked playlist on March 31, 2008. The MLG playlist, along with the other Hardcore playlists, were moved to the Ranked Playlists after the Hardcore Playlist was retired as of August 4, 2009. MLG currently runs version 8 settings of the Major League Gaming Circuit.