Major League Gaming Corp. (MLG) is a professional esports organization. MLG is headquartered in New York City, New York and was founded in 2002 by Sundance DiGiovanni and Mike Sepso. MLG has held official video game tournaments throughout the United States and Canada. The Boost Mobile MLG Pro Circuit was a television broadcast of Halo 2 MLG tournaments in 2006 and 2007, ESPN.com, and other broadband sites. The company has also been involved in television production, and game development. MLG's aim is to elevate computer and console game tournaments to viable competitive and spectator events.
Tom Taylor, known by the gamertag Tsquared, is a former professional gamer and captain of one of the most successful teams in Major League Gaming (MLG) history, Str8 Rippin, and was also the coach of Status Quo during the 2010 National Championships in Dallas where he helped them place 2nd behind Final Boss. Making him one of the only players to also coach an event. He was signed to a US$250,000 contract by MLG and earned between $120,000 and $150,000 each year in prize money and endorsement deals. He has founded his own company, Gaming Lessons, which tutors prospective professional gamers on various video games, specifically on the Halo series. Several other professional gamers from MLG are also employed by Gaming Lessons as instructors. He also runs an active YouTube channel with over 10,000 subscribers and 24 hours' worth of content.
Ken Hoang, also known as Kenny, SephirothKen, or Liquid`Ken, is an American professional Super Smash Bros. Melee player and television personality. Hoang was widely considered the most dominant Melee player in the world during the early years of the game's competitive scene in the early to mid-2000s. Hoang primarily plays Marth in Melee and is credited for pioneering several gameplay techniques integral to the game's competitive play, including the "dash dancing" movement technique and the "Ken Combo", an effective Marth combo for which he is the namesake. Hoang's dominance in the game earned him the nickname "The King of Smash".
Dan Ryan is a retired professional Halo player, widely considered one of the greatest professional Halo players of all time. He had 32 Halo championship tournament wins and maintains the position of the highest-average placing professional player in Halo esports history.
Ryan Danford is an American former professional Halo player known by the handle Saiyan. He was influential in the early days of professional video gaming or esports and played for the champion teams Shoot to Kill, Team 3D, and Final Boss: In 2006, Major League Gaming stated, "One of the true veterans of the league, Saiyan has been a force in Major League Gaming's upper echelon since its onset." Saiyan retired from professional gaming in 2007.
Team Liquid is a multi-regional professional esports organization based in the Netherlands that was founded in 2000. With the release of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, Team Liquid signed their first professional players.
Tom Ryan, known under the pseudonym Ogre 2, is a retired professional Halo player from Columbus, Ohio. He is widely considered to be the greatest Halo player of all time. He and his twin brother Dan are known as the "Ogre Twins". In 2005, the Ogre Twins won the gold medal in Halo 2 at the World Cyber Games. His esports tournament history includes in Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Shadowrun, Halo 3, Halo: Reach, Halo 4, Halo 5: Guardians, Halo 2: Anniversary, and Call of Duty: Ghosts.
Joseph Manuel Marquez, known by his gamertag Mango, is an American professional Super Smash Bros. Melee player and streamer from Norwalk, California. Known for his aggressive, high-risk playstyle, he is widely considered one of the game's greatest players of all time, and is one of the "Five Gods" of Melee, along with Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma, Adam "Armada" Lindgren, Kevin "PPMD" Nanney, and Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman. Marquez began his career playing Jigglypuff, however he has primarily played Falco and Fox since 2011. He has been part of the Cloud9 esports team since 2014.
Jason Sheldon Zimmerman, known by his gamertag Mew2King, commonly shortened to M2K, is an American professional Super Smash Bros. player from Cinnaminson, New Jersey. He has won more than 70 tournaments during his career, primarily in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Zimmerman is one of the "Five Gods" of Melee, along with Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma, Adam "Armada" Lindgren, Kevin "PPMD" Nanney, and Joseph "Mang0" Marquez and is also widely considered one of the greatest Super Smash Bros. Brawl players of all time. He has also competed at a top-level in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Project M.
Kevin Nanney, also known by his gamer tag of PPMD and formerly known as Dr. PeePee, is an inactive American professional Super Smash Bros. Melee player. Nanney is one of the "Five Gods" of Melee, alongside Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman, Joseph "Mango" Marquez, Adam "Armada" Lindgren, and Juan "Hungrybox" DeBiedma. He is a two-time champion of the Apex tournament series and was ranked as one of the top six players in the world from 2010 to 2015, after which he was removed from rankings due to inactivity. Nanney uses Falco and Marth and is known for his intelligent and patient playstyle. A 2021 list compiled by Melee Stats, which was hosted on PGstats, ranked Nanney as the seventh-greatest Melee player of all time.
Joel Isai Alvarado, professionally known as Isai, is an American Super Smash Bros. 64 player widely regarded as the game's greatest player of all time. He is credited with developing the modern Smash 64 metagame and is renowned for his ability to play the game's entire character roster at a top professional level. His major tournament victories include Apex 2014 and Super Smash Con 2023.
Professional Super Smash Bros. competition involves professional gamers competing in the Super Smash Bros. series of crossover fighting games published by Nintendo. Organized tournament competition began in 2002 with Super Smash Bros. Melee, released for the GameCube in 2001; however, in the series' native Japan, there have been tournaments as early as 1999 with the original Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64. Later tournaments have featured the other games in the series, with the two largest and most popular Smash Bros. scenes revolving around Melee and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch. Smaller scenes exist for the original game and Project M, a popular fan modification of Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii, and to a lesser extent, Brawl itself. Major Smash Bros. tournaments include the GENESIS, Evolution Championship Series (EVO), Super Smash Con and The Big House annual series. Major League Gaming (MLG) has also previously included Smash Bros. games in its Pro Circuit.
Final Boss was a professional esports team that competed in Halo competitions sponsored by Major League Gaming (MLG) and other tournaments. With its most successful lineups consisting of a core of Dan "Ogre 1" Ryan, Tom "Ogre 2" Ryan and Dave "Walshy" Walsh, Final Boss is regarded as one of the best Halo teams of all time due to their numerous tournament victories and MLG National Championships from 2004 to 2010. They also hold the record for the longest consecutive event winning streak, with 8 straight tournament victories from 2005 into 2006.
Christopher Szygiel, better known by his handle PC Chris, is an American former professional Super Smash Bros. Melee player. He is best known for defeating top professional player Ken Hoang in grand finals of MLG New York 2006, in what was considered one of the greatest upsets in competitive Melee history at the time. Szygiel was documented in an episode of the 2013 documentary series The Smash Brothers. His handle PC Chris comes from his hometown of Port Chester, New York.
Counter Logic Gaming (CLG) was an American esports organization headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in April 2010 by George "HotshotGG" Georgallidis and Alexander "Vodoo" Beutel as a League of Legends team, and branched out into other games.
Str8 Rippin is a professional Halo team in the United States that competes in the Halo Championship Series. Str8 Rippin was first formed in 2005 for Halo 2 on the Major League Gaming (MLG) Pro Circuit. Their most successful period was during the MLG Halo 3 Pro Circuit, when they won several tournaments. Tom "Tsquared" Taylor was their longtime captain and was considered the face of the team for several years.
Nairoby Quezada, better known as Nairo, is an American streamer and retired professional Super Smash Bros. competitive player. He is widely considered one of the best players in the history of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. After starting his career on Brawl in 2011, he quickly established himself as one of the best players in the United States, and became regarded as one of the best Brawl players in the world the following year; he would remain seen as a top Brawl player for the rest of his career, and would achieve similar success on Wii U and Ultimate following their respective releases.
Splyce (SPY) was a professional esports organization and media company based in Rochester, New York. Their League of Legends team was a franchise member of the LEC, Europe's top professional league for League of Legends. Splyce announced its rebranding from Follow eSports in November 2015. On November 29, 2019, Splyce's parent company, OverActive Media, announced it had merged Splyce with its other esports subsidiary, MAD Lions, and that all of Splyce's teams would henceforth compete under that name.
Luminosity Gaming is a professional esports organization based in North America. It has teams competing in Call of Duty, Overwatch, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege, Super Smash Bros., Fortnite,Apex Legends and Rocket League. The team was founded in Canada by Steve "Buyaka" Maida in 2015, and is based in Toronto, Ontario.
