Major League Gaming Drops StarCraft 2 From Championship Event

Major League Gaming currently has no plans for StarCraft II to be among the games played at its MLG Championship event in November.

The news was revealed on Twitter today by MLG co-founder Sundance DiGiovanni. "Just so folks know - we are currently not planning to run SC2 at Cbus," he wrote, referring to the event taking place November 22-24 in Columbus, Ohio. "Should that change we'll let you know via official channels."

StarCraft II has been a prominent game for MLG over the past several years, being played as recently as last month at the MLG Summer Invite. The game played a major role in the rise in popularity of eSports in North America, but there have been indications of late that MLG might begin to move away from it while continuing to focus on the likes of League of Legends and Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

After coordinating the first-ever StarCraft II World Championship Series America, an expansive, Blizzard-backed series of competitive events, MLG decided to end the collaboration in June in order to concentrate on its own competitions. At the time of the announcement, that included the Spring Championship for StarCraft II players featuring what the Penny Arcade Report notes was a smaller-than-usual prize of $25,000. An MLG StarCraft II competition held in March, by contrast, offered up $75,000 in prize money.

With DiGovanni's tweet being MLG's only official statement on the matter, it's currently unclear what motivated the decision to drop StarCraft II from its upcoming event or whether it might return in the future. A subsequent tweet reassured fans of the game that Blizzard's World Championship Series will continue and the North American Star League will still run the game, meaning there will be places to turn for competitive StarCraft II play.

What do you make of MLG's decision to abandon StarCraft II for a significant competition? Does this lessen your interest in the event? Let us know in the comments.

Chris Pereira is a freelance writer who spends his spare time agonizing over the final seasons of The X-Files. Check out what he's saying on Twitter and follow him on IGN.

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