XBox 360 League - The Largest Tournaments And Titles

Some individuals go through life doing very little with their spare time. They work, come home and watch TV and play games. While others have hobbies, you're intent on winning the next big video game. Fortunately for some, this isn't as unproductive as you might think. While you'd have to be exceptionally good, there are plenty of opportunities to make money and win prizes with your honed video gaming skills. There are various leagues all over the world with varying levels of games, players and rewards, including an Xbox 360 league. If you think you're good enough and you want the time you've spent playing any one of the Halos to mean something, then you could consider entering a league and trying to qualify.

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 is the mainstay of many gaming leagues and the MLG is no exception. It provides close-quarter maps and large maps, both of which focus on twitch-based gameplay and either free-for-all matches or objective-based ones. This allows Halo to be one of the most flexible games in the tournaments and along with its massive player-base, it's perfect for most gaming leagues. Call of Duty shares top place with Halo in terms of players as it has reached phenomenal levels of popularity over the years and provides the same pace and competition as Halo. Both Halo and Call of Duty are both utilized in their latest forms, with Halo 3 and Halo: Reach being used as well as Modern Warfare 2, though next year will likely see Black Ops being used. Call of Duty is a prime example of both team-based competition and free-for-all competition.

Gears of War is strictly an Xbox 360 series, but has proven that good gameplay beats any limitations. Unlike the previous two entries, Gears of War is a cover-based third person shooter and revolves around players working either alone, in a pair or as a four man team trying to kill their opponents. It provides a high degree of competition and is perfectly suitable for such gaming leagues.

Rules

Cheating isn't favorable in any sport and video game leagues are no exception. While it's somewhat easier to do, cheating can become very subjective. There are controllers with macro buttons that allow the player to simply press once to dispatch a prearranged set of keys or combinations. This provides the players with an inhuman advantage, but as it's sold legally and not banned by online governing bodies such as Microsoft, many consider it to be fine, while video game leagues are gradually banning such devices.

Video Game Leagues, The Primary Companies, Competition And Regulations

A dream amongst younger individuals and maybe older ones, the thought of making a living simply by playing video games is usually a dud one. There are many possibilities, such as video game testing, but the reality behind that is that it's terrible hours, terribly boring and only a small chance of promotion. However, for those who wish to look further afield, video game leagues might provide the reality to your dream. Allowing players to compete against other challengers, these leagues offer serious sums of prize money and items to those that win said leagues. It is, however, a very difficult process, as you will be competing against the best and most serious gamers the world has to offer, either in person or over the Internet and on your own or as part of a team.

The Main 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.

The Process Of Elimination 

Like all sports, gaming leagues follow a set process to filter out the losers from the winners. Essentially, the competitors and challengers fight it out, either with or without the champions, until only two are left. If the champions were not involved, this is where they join in, as either the last competitors faces off against the champions or the remaining two challengers compete. The last remaining player or team is declared the ultimate winner.

The prizes are not always monetary. They can sometimes be physical items such as graphics cards, consoles and other items of varying monetary values. The following year sees the champions written in to face either returning or new competitors.

Cheating

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.

Recently, hardware has come under scrutiny as well, since hardware has come a long way since standardization. It's possible to purchase controllers that provide macros, which allows the player to press a button once and have that button repeated faster than is humanly possible. Furthermore, it's easier for such macros to reduce large combinations of keys into a single button press. These have been banned from gaming leagues due to the obvious advantages provided.