MLG’s Sundance Reveals Some 2011 Season Details via Twitter

The King of MLG - Sundance DiGiovanni

The other night the Major League Gaming Founder/CEO Sundance DiGiovanni invited followers on Twitter to ask any question about the 2011 MLG Season and said he’d answer a few.

MLG_Sundance Sundance DiGiovanni

Ask me anything – I might just answer…but not tonight – I’m going to make some pop corn and watch some Oscar screeners. Peace ya’ll.

Today he posted those answers which include hints at the date and location of the first event as well as outlining what games the season will feature. I’ve reorganized the responses along with commentary below.

Q (via vKilo): where’s the opener? Lol

A: not on the east coast.

Q (via Chiig): Opener. Where!?

A: not the west coast.

Q (via XvXdominicanXvX): whens the next MLG?

A: *****

Not East Coast and not West Coast could mean the opener is just about anywhere, but based on places MLG has frequented in the past I’d say it is either Columbus, Dallas, or Chicago with the highest likelihood being Dallas. The date has five asterisks which means the first event will likely be in either March or April. If I had to guess I’d go with April since March would only give us a month and a half to prepare.

Q (via arCtyC): What are the games on the Pro Circuit for 2011 season?

A: SC2, Reach an most likely Black Ops. Looking at a couple of additional titles depending on support.

Q (via StopTakingMyName): Black Ops at going to be at MLG events 100%?

A: 99.5%

Q (via bobman15): What is the fate of wow at mlg?

A: might move it to an online circuit. Not 100% certain yet.

Q (via _shope): Will Quake Live be at any MLG events next year?

A: there is a chance that it might make an appearance.

Q (via JoshuaGTR): when is v3 coming out?

A: as soon as we resolve the sprint issue.

This all falls pretty much in line with what was stated on vVv’s The Losers Bracket when they interviewed Sundance last month. Call of Duty: Black Ops will be featured on the PS3 through the support of Sony and a lot of the top teams already made the jump in Modern Warfare 2. Starcraft 2 was a no-brainer for MLG as it is poised to become a huge hit not only in Asia but also in North America and Europe. Halo Reach was never really in question of not being on the 2011 circuit and I assume when Sundance says “sprint issue” he means the current debate as to keep or remove sprint from the MLG gametypes after v1 had no sprint and v2 included it.

Additional titles would likely be referring to MLG’s plan to feature throwback and exhibition titles alongside the core offering. We don’t have any details yet on what games will be included or what the exact plans are, but the Losers Bracket interview also talked a bit about the possibilities there. It sounds like it is still very much in the air as to what MLG will do in that regard.

World of Warcraft getting pushed over to the online side could indicate a drop in stream numbers, but isn’t terribly surprising considering they’ve only ever featured WoW as an invite-only tournament with just eight teams. If they can manage to hold that event online and still get a stream up not much would be lost from the change in venue.

Will Dr Pepper return as an MLG sponsor in 2011?

Q (via Dan_TFoX): Any new sponsors this year?

A: yes.

Q (via _Esca__): Will you be announcing the price for the Season HD stream pass at the end of this month?

A: something along those lines. Yes.

Q (via iTz_Janderson): can I have a free hd pass for the first event… Please!

A: promise me you’ll buy an MLG membership in April and the answer is YES.

Q (via Pineyyyyy): Any updates or news on the MadCatz controller?

A: soon. Will share once we get through the next design phase.

MLG announcing some new sponsors was another no-brainer since it seems like every season more and more companies jump on board or switch places. The interesting tidbit here is the “announcement” of paid MLG memberships coming out in April. The league has talked about the idea a bit in the past and prior to the 2007 season all of the VoD was unlocked with a paid subscription. It will be interesting to see what all ends up being put into the MLG membership system and what perks can be expected. I wholly expect that it will be optional and that a lot of the base content you get now will continue to be free, just with premium goodies for the paid members.

We’re still waiting to hear details about the MadCatz controller, so hearing a “soon” is encouraging as Razer is set to start accepting pre-orders for the Onza this month. I’m sure once the Onza starts selling MadCatz will be looking to get a product out on shelves pretty quickly to compete for gamers wallets. I’m looking forward to seeing what MadCatz has to show us in the coming months.

That’s it. I’ll be updating the post over the next day or so if we get anymore information, but it was nice of Sundance to give us a pretty good idea of what to expect for the start of the season.