Major League Gaming (MLG) has announced that they intend to separate from Blizzard for all future eSports tournaments. The two co-hosted the first season of the StarCraft 2 World Championship Series (WCS). MLG handled the North American branch of the tournament known as WCS America. But this year they have made the seemingly wise decision to branch off and host their own tournaments.
Rumor has it, WCS is a huge drain on resources for host organizations.
While Blizzard was supposed to help out MLG with the tournament, it has been said that they came up quite a bit short on the financial end of things, forcing MLG to dump loads of money into the project with no hope of a return. No wonder they headed in a different direction.
Of course, the rumors didn’t stop the North American Star League (NASL). The much smaller and less influential organization has grabbed the reins and is ready to jump into the fray. Typically, replacing larger with smaller when it comes to finances would seem a bit counter-intuitive. Luckily, NASL has past experience successfully hosting a similar style tournament so their expertise may just come in handy.
Don’t worry. MLG isn’t dropping out of the tournament business altogether.
Instead of teaming with Blizzard, the organization has chosen to host their own large-scale tournaments. The first to hit the scene? The MLG Spring Championship. It will take place in Anaheim, June 28-30.
But let me know what you think. Do you expect NASL to pick up the slack? Or are you already committing yourself to MLG in anticipation of a WCS crash and burn?
