MLG Columbus expected to have the most spectators in league history

This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

Last year's 2013 MLG Spring Championship in Anaheim broke attendance records with 21,000 fans over the three-day event featuring Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, League of Legends, and StarCraft 2. MLG's EVP of Properties Adam Apicella told onGamers that this weekend's Columbus Championship may beat out Anaheim.

“We expect the MLG Championship in Columbus to be the largest or second largest in the MLG history in terms of spectators over the course of the weekend. Our VIP passes have completely sold out – and our general admission passes are selling at a record pace. To put things in perspective, the Spring Championship in Anaheim in June had 21,000 spectators over the course of the weekend and we expect the Columbus event to draw an equal size or even larger crowd."

This weekend's Columbus event marks the debut of Dota 2 and new title in the Call of Duty franchise, Ghosts, as well as marking the first event since 2011 not to have StarCraft 2, and since June of 2012 not to have League of Legends.

"The excitement for both the Call of Duty: Ghosts tournament and the international Dota 2 tournament has been incredible", Apicella said. "With Dota, we have taken a very interactive stance with the community and players to ensure we are helping build the Dota 2 scene in North America and providing players and fans with the best infrastructure possible. Working with Valve, we took things a step further and offered the MLG Dota 2 bundle to enable fans to directly contribute to the prize pool. We are currently at $128,282. We started at $50k the night of November 7 and have increased $78k in 15 days. We are excited to see how the prize pool increases this week leading into the finals on Sunday, November 24.”

The event begins live at 5 PM EST / 2 PM CST, head over to read the full event schedule. Watch the entire event live on MLG.tv. onGamers staff Cody 'Evoli' Conners and Matthew 'Cyborgmatt' Bailey are live at the event and will be providing coverage throughout the weekend.

Image Credit: MLG.tv