In an press release by MLG today, it was announced that the organization had secured around $10 Million in funding from Legion Legion Enterprises (www.legionblog.com), a private equity firm that invests in, acquires and develops companies appealing to the 16-24 year old male demographic of digital mavericks.

With the increase in required funding by MLG, gamers are forced to consider the financial stability of the organization in terms of revenue. With this addition, Oak Investment Partners now invests over $52 Million. The Legion investment is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2011.

Below is the official release from MLG:

New York – December 20, 2010 – Major League Gaming (MLG), the world’s largest professional video game league and largest provider of cross-platform online videogame competition today announced an initial close in a $10 million financing commitment to be completed in Q1 2011. The investment was led by Legion Enterprises (www.legionblog.com), a private equity firm that invests in, acquires and develops companies appealing to the 16-24 year old male demographic of digital mavericks. Legion’s investment strategy is focused directly on a demographic group it deems to be the first in a wave of digital natives which drives the firm to make investments across four key verticals: music, sports, video games and over-the-top television. Oak Investment Partners, MLG’s primary institutional investor, joined Legion to fuel MLG’s rapid globalization and development of extensive consumer and social media offerings. The investment will bring MLG’s total funding raised to $52.5 million.

MLG’s continued growth online and in live events, ongoing success in securing global sponsors and worldwide media partnerships, and strategic acquisitions have bolstered its position as the dominant competitive video game property and made it an attractive investment property. MLG now reaches roughly 4.5 million consumers each month online, produces thousands of videos per year, and reaches more than 600,000 unique viewers per live broadcast of each weekend event during the Pro Circuit competitions. To augment the online experience for its growing community, MLG recently unveiled a freshly designed majorleaguegaming.com and will roll out extensive social networking and video capabilities over the coming months.

“At MLG we are dedicated to providing our community with the ultimate competitive video game experience both on and offline,” said Sundance DiGiovanni, CEO and co-founder, MLG. “Over the last eight years we have set out to build competitive gaming into a global, cross-platform business and thanks to investments from companies like Legion Enterprises and Oak Investment Partners, that vision is well on its way to becoming a reality.”

MLG enables a large and growing community of fans and a roster of top sponsors to connect with and celebrate the approximately 40 million consumers in North America who have a passion for playing video games as a competitive social activity. Over 95% of these viewers are male and under 30, making MLG’s live tournament broadcasts three to six times larger in the 12-34 male demographic than nearly every primetime cable property including national broadcasts of traditional, regular season sports.

Over the past few years, MLG has made strategic investments that continue its advancement in the competitive video game space including GameBattles, which is now the largest online destination for competitive console and PC gaming featuring tournaments, ladders, forums and Agora Games, the game tech company that powers online communities for some of the most popular video game franchises including “Call of Duty,” Guitar Hero,” “Transformers,” “Dance Dance Revolution,” and “MAG.” Agora technology currently tracks game-play statistics for more than 40 million gamers around the world.

About Major League Gaming

Founded in 2002, Major League Gaming (MLG) is the dominant media property exclusively targeting the approximately 40 million consumers in North America who have a passion for playing video games as a competitive social activity. The company exclusively represents the best professional gamers and gives millions of aspiring gamers around the world an opportunity to compete, improve their skills, and socialize through our thriving online competitive community and live Pro Circuit competitions. For more information: www.majorleaguegaming.com.

About Legion Enterprises, LLC

Based in New York City, Legion Enterprises LLC is a private equity firm that invests in, acquires and develops companies that create digital products appealing to the 16-24 year old male demographic of digital mavericks.  With a rooted knowledge of the target audience and strong grasp on the evolving digital space, Legion’s seasoned executive team plays a leadership role and oversees the development and success of each investment.  The focused portfolio of companies and offerings cross four key verticals: music, sports, video games and over-the-top television and currently include: Legion Networks, an array of digital products and programming available on myriad platforms and devices, including a series of original video slated to launch in 2011; and ShapeMix Music LLC (www.shapemix.com), a Boston based developer of mobile music applications including the ShapeMix music mixing app slated to launch in January 2011. For additional information visit: http://www.legionblog.com, http://www.legionnetworks.com and http://www.twitter.com/legionnetworks.

More information about the announcement can be found by clicking here.

Several weeks after leaving Fnatic, Rasmus “Gux” Stahl has found a new home in the Lions. In the move that was rumored since the departure, GuX will fulfill the role as the 5th and final member of the Lions roster.

Rasmus will be replacing Richard “Xizt” Landström, who left the Lions for Fnatic two weeks ago in the roster shakeup.

Lions 2011

 Niklas “niko” Johansson
Frej “kHRYSTAL” Sjöström
Emil “FYRR73” Karlsson
Björn “threat” Pers
Rasmus “Gux” Ståhl

The new Lions for 2011 will play at the Intel Extreme Masters 5 European Championship Finals at the Kiev CyberSport Arena on Janurary 20-23.

Earlier today, the groups for Intel Extreme Masters 5 European Championship Finals were drawn. 12 teams will battle it out for over $50,000 in cash as they decend upon Kiev, Ukraine. Of those 12 teams, only 7 will advance to the IEM Grand Finals. Because of the odd number of advancing teams, the 4th place team in each group will battle it out to move on.

Group A	Group B
MYM	Cph Wolves
eSahara	Full-Gaming
mousesports	Alternate
SK Gaming	Natus Vincere
Frag eXecutors	fnatic
mTw	Lions

The European Championship will take place at the Kiev CyberSport Arena on January 20-23, 2011.

Earlier today, Mousesports announced their signing of former ALTERNATE player, Manuel “approx” Zeitz. The announcement comes after both Navid “Kapio” Javadi and Fatih “gob b” Dayik announced their planned departures from the organization.

This acquistion leaves Mousesports with only one more spot to fill, with various rumors floating around as to who that player will be. Mousesports will have well over a month to practice as a team, as they do not compete on LAN until the Intel Extreme Masters 5 European Championship Finals in Kiev.

Mousesports 2011

Manuel “Tixo” Makohl
Roman “roman” Ausserdorfer
Manuel “approx” Zeitz
Finn “karrigan” Andersen
TBD

The groups for Code S were picked this morning and both foreigners, Idra and Jinro have been placed into Group H. There are eight groups of four and the top two from each group will advance.

Source: GomTV 

With Starcraft 2 being a huge success around the world, new players are joining battle.net on a daily basis looking to play against their friends, family and co-workers. For those users, Blizzard has released 3 videos providing lengthy introductions to each of StarCraft 2′s three playable races.

Zerg Overview

Protoss Overview

Terran Overview

Since the removal of the roster from the myEG.net website, speculation has surrounded where team would now call home. Fortunately for them, Dynamic announced today, via their website, that the former-EG team would dawn the Dynamic tag as they participate in ESEA Season 8.

After a long departure from the TF2 scene, we at Team Dynamic are proud to announce our return.  Helping us bring our name back to the top is a team comprised of six veteran players that are no stranger to anyone that has followed TF2 competition since it began.  Today, we officially announce that Dynamic has picked up the squad last seen playing under the Evil Geniuses banner.

All six members have been playing together since before the last season of ESEA.  Long time veterans of Team EG, cyzer and Reptile, picked up dummy a few seasons back when destro couldn’t find the time to compete any longer.  Then, before the last season, the three added CB, ducky, and bloodsire (previously of Muscle Milk and Moolians and Area 51) to round out a starting six.

With the next season of ESEA quickly approaching, it won’t be long before we’re able to see this team in action once again.  With an all-star lineup, Season 8 is shaping up to provide fans a number of good quality matches for Dynamic.  Keep checking into teamdynamic.biz/ and #teamdynamic in IRC for the latest updates on all our teams.

To fulfill their roster, the team also announced the addition of Len “CB” Talarico, Nick “ducky” Robson and Jay “BloodSire” Sire to join Nick “ducky” Robson, Tim “dummy” Olson and Adam “Reptile” Dopko.

Team Dynamic 2011

Jay “BloodSire” Sire
Len “CB” Talarico
Paul “CyZeR” S
Nick “ducky” Robson
Tim “dummy” Olson
Adam “Reptile” Dopko

Source: Dynamic

Earlier this week, Fnatic announced the addition of Marcus “Delpan” Larsson and Richard “Xizt” Landström as replacements for Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund and Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg who went to join SK Gaming. The team also parted ways with Rasmus “Gux” Ståhl, leaving the team with only 4 players as of early today.

The Fnatic organization has finally announced their 5th, as they are bringing in Faruk “pita” Pita formerly of Begrip and MYM fame.

Faruk had this to say about the his addition to the organization:

Today is a great day. Who would have thought this day would come when I started playing back in the days. To be able to play with idols such as cArn and dsn makes you think you are still dreaming.

Also reuniting with my old teammate Delpan is something I’m really looking forward to and playing with one of the best Swedish talents today, Xizt. I could write a whole book about what I’m feeling right now, but to spare you fans out there of falling asleep reading this, I will be short: I would like to thank the players of FnaticMSI and also the sponsors MSI, Steelseries, Bigfoot networks, UGAME and SLAPPA for the oppurtunity. I will do everything in my power to keep fnatic on the steady rock they have been the last years and prove to the world that fnatic will dominate 2011″ – Pita said in a statement on fnatic.com.

Fnatic 2011

Patrik “cArn” Sättermon
Harley “dsn” Örwall
Marcus “Delpan” Larsson
Richard “Xizt” Landström
Faruk “pita” Pita

According to a press release by Zowie Gear entitled “The legends are back!” the organization has announced the return of the infamous Ninjas in Pyjamas, but not in the way that most were thinking.

Both Heaton and SpawN will return to play on a team together, the team will NOT be competitive. Instead, they will play as the official ZOWIE team, representing the brand with some of the most legendary gamers that the game has to offer.

Below is the official release from Zowie:

To be honest.. We were going to wait with this announcement until January 2011, but due to recent events with a rumor stating that NiP would be revived with ZOWIE GEAR as a sponsor and SpawN and HeatoN making a comeback as two of the primary players, we have decided to make the announcement today, as we do not want to keep you hopefully waiting.

While we can say that the rumors surrounding “NiP” is completely untrue, it is indeed true that a team with SpawN and HeatoN has been in the makings. While some people might be disappointed about the purpose of this team, we would like to say that we did not create these rumors about NiP being revived as a competitive gaming team.

We are happy to announce that we signed contracts with legendary gamers Michael ‘Ahl’ Korduner, Christer ‘Fisker’ Eriksson and Tommy ‘Potti’ Ingemarsson a few months ago, however, the purpose of these contracts was not to create a new competitive gaming team that would challenge the teams that are competing for titles in competitive events.

Following the success of SpawNs and HeatoNs products we wanted to assemble a team consisting of the five most legendary players of all times to ensure that ZOWIE GEAR has the best gamers researching and developing on our future equipment for use in competitive gaming. The experience and dedication by professional gamers allows us to stay on top and provide the best possible gear available. Who has more experience and knowledge about gaming and gaming gear than these guys?

Where the original idea was to give you a wider range of competitive gaming gear developed by the most legendary players of all times, your interest and enthusiasm about a possible “NiP”-revival has made us consider the possibility of a showmatch between the ZOWIE team and a newschool team.

As it would be very difficult for us to convince these players to play a showmatch where they would most likely lose, we will need your help to make this happen. If you would like to see these players in action one more time, help us start a discussion in the forums you are frequently visiting and ask these questions:

Why should they make a comeback in a showmatch?
Who should they play against if they do decide to make a comeback?

This team currently doesn’t have a name.
What should their ingame tag be? Needs to include .ZOWIE

You may also answer these questions at our Facebook page www.facebook.com/ZOWIEGEAR where we have weekly competitions with prizes for our followers.

We are sorry if you are disappointed by the fact that this team was not created with the purpose of once again entertaining you in their effort to win titles, but we are confident that their future involvement in ZOWIE GEAR will bring you even better experiences.

If you do not know who these guys are, then we suggest you read about them below and watch the NiP Hard Wired CS movie here:

http://www.own3d.tv/video/41649/NiP_-_Hard_Wired

More information about the team can be found by clicking here.

Yesterday, GomTV.net released the list of Code A players and the 21 players who are tied with 350 points. The 21 players will be split up into three groups of seven, with the top four from each group advancing to Code A.

The group lottery will be held this week, with all the players and coaches attending.

Schedule: 

Dec. 14th, 6pm KST : Code A decision matches of Group A
Dec. 15th, 6pm KST : Code A decision matches of Group B
Dec. 16th, 6pm KST : Code A decision matches of Group C

Qualified Players

Below is the list of 21 players, where only 12 will make it into Code A.