Great news for Snute and for Team Liquid if its true and it all pans out.

And to everyone bashing competitive gaming, if it attracts sponsors and brings in money, then it deserves to be taken serious, SC2 tournaments handed out over 2 million dollars in prize money last year, coupled with salaries that western teams pay that isn't something to scoff at.

If you don't like eSports that's fine but don't mindlessly bash on it, there are enough reasons already to take it serious, you could even make a claim that any hobby is a waste of time, why play football or watch it on TV when you know you'll never get to that level to win money? Its a waste of time, right?!

Another very good article from gamespot. The sad part is, even here on the forums there seems to be a huge number of people who don't get it. Unless you've worked 80+ hours per week for several months you aren't in a position to comment in such a way about the quality of life of game devs, or even worse to casually trow out a "its just a job" remark. You also can't compare the job of game devs to that of say a doctor/surgian and an actor. For one the doctor knows that sick people and emergency cases can pop up at any given moment and he knows he must at times work overtime, but he does so to save people's lives. An actor may also work a long time on a movie, but his job is not nearly as had as a doctor or a game dev, and the actor also gets huge amounts of money for their work. The job of a game dev doesn't have to be hard, there is no logical reason for it to require so many hours per week for so many months to finish a game, the crunch time is artificially created by idiotic market analysts and stockholders who don't care about anything but profit, and they drive the devs like slaves to make some stupid yearly quota. It's sad if you people really can't see these fundamental differences and think its ok for people to be treated like animals just for the sake of profit, a ever growing symptom of our ever sickening society.

@ klitfelt The streams are usually free to watch. The quality is subjective depending on the tournament, the Intel Extrem Masters from last week was in 360p quality and you needed to pay like 19 dollars for 720p quality. Other events may give 720p quality for free but offer other services for money. If you really like SC2 check out teamliquid.net you'll have plenty of streams from pro gamers and also streams from the tournaments when they go live.

I actually tuned in to MLG Anaheim on all 3 days and watched all the Starcraft 2 tournament, if I was a resident of the US I would probably have went there in person. I have to say it was a lot of fun, the games where fantastic and the commentators where great, but the atmosphere was beyond words to describe. So much passion, so much enthusiasm under one roof, you could feel it trough the stream, it was incredible. I don't get all the negative feelings towards e-sports and especially this stupid notion that e-sports breeds a community/following of people "useless" to society. First of, you can be a full time worker, businessman, etc and still come home and enjoy watching the pro gaming scene, its just like coming home and tuning into a game of football or basketball. While e-sports might raise hype and encourage kids to try it, its the sole job of the parents to make sure their kids don't become video game junkies, that they grow up with a clear focused mentality. If the kids fail in life, the parents failed their kids, you can't trow the blame squarely on the likes of TV, e-sports, drugs or others. The majority of the pro gamers are actually in their early to late 20s, they are fit, healthy, they have strong personalities a lot of focus and great dedication. You can't call pro gamers parasites to society since they do provide one benefit, entertainment.

I fully agree with Kevin VanOrd from gamespot on this article. He explained perfectly why music is a integral part of a game, almost as much as the gameplay, the story and the characters. The music can make or break a game, just like it does with movies. A perfect example is Wall-E, a cartoon that, with relatively little dialogue, but with clever and subtle use of sound and music managed to convey a strong message. The music completes your experience, it creates and builds upon emotions and enhances them to new levels. It can make exploration and discovery a joy. It can make a romantic scene truly unforgivable, deepens your sadness and sorrow. When used at the right time, music can uplift your spirit to beyond what you thought was possible, it can make you a hero, ready to give his life for the greater good. Yes music can do all that, and I believe that, just as blockbuster movies like Lord of the Rings or Pirates of the Caribbean would be hollow without their music scores, so would games like God of War 3 feel less remarkable if the music didn't come together with the gameplay and the characters to create a truly remarkable experience, one that you can remember for years to come with joy and passion.