Over at eSportsMax, this weekend's Major League Gaming Anaheim has been covered pretty extensively. For the full report, be sure to head over to eSportsMax to see what the fine folks over there have been saying, as several members of the staff are reporting directly from the event. For the quick and dirty, here's a brief overview recapping the weekend's activities.

Before MLG Anaheim started, eSportsMax wrote up a detailed schedule for the weekend, which included links to the live streams for each event. All streams take place on on MLG's own channel, mlg.tv, which is now reporting profits.

With Major League Gaming reporting gains for the first time in years since the launch of their lucrative MLG.tv platform, it will be interesting to see exactly how extravagant this new MLG will be. In my past experiences, MLG has almost always offered a spectator experience that is second to none, but this was in an era before we were filling up stadiums and arenas.

We start off with the Scarlett vs Polt StarCraft 2 match, the first match of MLG Anaheim. Anaheim started off with major delays and recaps while technical difficulties were figured out. Once the battle finally began, we saw Polt push off on an early advantage against Scarlett. Scarlett turned the tides, and with a resource lead, took game one. Polt worked to readjust strategy for game two. Initially, it looked like Scarlett could adapt as well, but the game eventually fell to Polt. Game three keeps up the intensity, but eventually we see Polt pull ahead and win this rematch between the two rivals.

In the day one recap, Call of Duty: Ghost is covered and the matches detailed. First up was Epsilon vs Team Kaliber, with Team Kaliber taking the lead with 3-0 in the series. In TCM vs FaZe Red, with FaZe Red winning the series 2-1. Next up is Denial eSports vs OpTic Gaming. Much like the first match, OpTic also took their series for 3-0. Last we have Curse Australia vs FaZe Black, where FaZe Black came out with a 3-0 series as well.

For a break from scoreboards, Dustin “Deitis” Steiner's opinion piece, MLG and the FGC: Following Smash's Example, dives into criticism MLG has been receiving recently from a fan perspective and whether or not how MLG is set up is best for the community. The verdict, without spoiling the piece, is that while there were issues this year, if MLG can sort out the kinks, we could see something that benefits everyone.

Another scoreboards break includes an interview with NH Legacy:

Saturday morning began with a bad start, with info booths not updating player matches. Since players were not able to know what booth they were expected to be at, many ended up with no-show disqualifications. Eventually, the DQs did get reversed and tournaments did start, but not without confusion and disappointment.

Day two also saw Curse Black vs FaZe Red, which can best be summed up with the opening paragraph from the article:

Starting off day 2, the first matchup between Curse Black and FaZe Red set a ridiculous precident as Curse pulled off a comeback series that fans can only dream of. Down 2-0 in the best-of-five series, they came back to win it in a replay of game five. It took nearly two hours to complete, but it was worth it.

CT_ZeRo, the E3 Invitational Champion, was interviewed Deitis on day two:  

MLG Anaheim hasn't been kind to Curse Austrailia and day two was no different. While Epsilon also lost in a 3-0 match on day one, they eventually overcame favorite Curse AU, making this Curse AU's second 3-0 loss for MLG Anaheim.

While Scarlett wasn't the winner in her match against Polt, it seemed to be the warm up she needed to dominate Life in this ZvZ series. With a 2-1 lead over Life, Scarlett advances in the lower bracket.

In more Scarlett news, she made a last minute racial switch to Protoss, which confused her opponent, stunned spectators and netted her another victory. While rules allow for this switch, it hasn't been seen and is seen as a rather ballsy, yet risky move.  

In the finale for the CoD Ghost championship, it was a showdown between OpTic Gaming vs Evil Geniuses. While OpTic started the first game strong, they ended up losing the series 3-0. OpTic moved on to the losers finals, where they defeated TCM Gaming 3-0. In the Grand Finals, a rematch between OpTic Gaming and Evil Genius ended up with OpTic taking a 3-1 win, which reset the bracket to a best of five. In the final series, Evil Geniuses came out on top, winning the tournament.

After an eight-year lapse, Super Smash Bros makes a return to MLG. The first match out of the open brackets, which was delayed due to a glitch in the bracket software, was Hungrybox vs Axe, where Axe took the series 3-1. Next up, Hax vs Leffen. The series was close, but Leffen ends up with a 3-2 win, with an extra match to break the tie. In Mew2King vs Armada, Armada takes a 3-0 win. PPMD vs Mang0 ends with Mang0 taking a 3-2 win after overcoming the tie-breaking round. Moving up in brackets, we see Mew2King vs Axe with Mew2 taking a 3-1 win. In PPMD vs Leffen, PPMD wins 3-1 and moves on. Mew2King vs PPMD goes to Mew2, 3-2. In Mang0 vs Armada, Mang0 wins 3-2, which takes us to Semifinals. Mew2King vs Armada ends with Armada taking the win 3-2. Armada moves to the Grand Finals against Mang0, but Armada only ends in second place. Mang0 takes the gold with a 3-2 series win.

After reading through tournament recaps and wading through stats, have a break with Deitis interviewing Justin Wong moments after his first MLG victory, which has been 15 years in the making.  

Deitis also catches up with Mang0 to discuss the Smash victory he took from that intense tournament.  

In the final interview from MLG Anaheim, Deitis talks to Empire Arcadia members.

That concludes this year's MLG Anaheim! For everything eSports, be sure to see what the fine folks at our affliate site, eSportsMax, are up to, where anything and everything eSports gets covered daily.


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Vendolyn's been playing MMOs since 1999, although Vendolyn in-game often becomes a long-term shelved alt. When she's not gaming, she's likely marathoning some questionable TV show or babbling about music to no end. She really likes goats.

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