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Major League Gaming adds Call of Duty to ESPN's X Games lineup
Alongside the skateboarders, BMX bikers and other extreme athletes at the upcoming X Games Austin, a comparatively sedate group of gamers will be furiously gunning one another down in a Call of Duty tournament that Major League Gaming hopes will become tradition. According to ESPN, the tournament will feature MLG's top five Call of Duty: Ghosts teams, as well as the top three teams from the recent Call of Duty championships. These eight teams will battle it out, first in double-elimination, then single-elimination matches. At first glance this seems like an odd combination - ESPN describes itself as the worldwide leader in sports, while Call of Duty matches are defined by players sitting largely motionless for lengthy stretches of time - if you dig into the history of things it starts to make sense. Major League Gaming CEO Sundance DiGiovanni once served as the resident gaming expert on ESPN's morning talk show Cold Pizza, and DiGiovanni's long-standing relationship with the network served as the impetus for this partnership. "The [Call of Duty] subject matter is mature and it's not something that is going to be right for everybody, but there's a huge section of the audience that plays these games," DiGiovanni said. "You'll see when these games are released -- one of the main places they are advertised is on the ESPN networks." DiGiovanni makes a valid point, but it remains to be seen if ESPN's traditional X Games audience will come for the wicked-sweet kickflips and stay for the rampant killstreaks. [Image: Activision]
Hit List Q&A: Major League Gaming CEO, Sundance DiGiovanni
In the "Hit List" from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, the video game industry's top talents describe their current gaming addictions, their most anticipated releases and more. This week: Sundance DiGiovanni, CEO of Major League Gaming. Sundance DiGiovanni, Co-Founder and CEO of Major League Gaming, is a seasoned executive, recognized thought leader in video game culture, and veteran creative director with more than 18 years of experience in the media, technology and video game industries. Sundance focuses on the global growth of competitive video gaming, expansion of MLG as a digital media property, and the its distribution platform MLG.tv that is bringing this burgeoning sport to an ever-growing community worldwide. The company operates MLG.tv, the #1 online broadcast network for professional level competitive gaming; the MLG Pro Circuit, the longest-running eSports league in North America; and MLG: Play, the largest cross platform online gaming tournament system with 8 million registered users across the globe. At the upcoming 2014 D.I.C.E. Summit in Las Vegas, Sundance will discuss the growth and evolution of eSports, the similarities with traditional sport, how eSports has become the go-to sport for many, and how free to play games are impacting the eSports space. He will also discuss the future of the eSports landscape and how new consoles, new games and a wider global audience will catapult eSports into the mainstream in the next 5 to 10 years.
