The AMD Professional Gamers League (PGL), founded around 1997, was one of the first professional

computer gaming A personal computer game, also known as a PC game or computer game, is a type of video game played on a personal computer (PC) rather than a video game console or arcade machine. Its defining characteristics include: more diverse and user-deter ...

eSports Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...

leagues. The PGL was run by

Total Entertainment Network Total Entertainment Network (TEN) was an online game, online gaming service that existed from September 1996 until October 1999. T E Network, Inc., which created and operated the TEN service, was formed from the merger of Optigon Interactive and O ...

and was sponsored by

AMD Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for business and consumer markets. While it initially manufactur ...

. The first professional tournament they held was for ''

StarCraft ''StarCraft'' is a military science fiction media franchise created by Chris Metzen and James Phinney and owned by Blizzard Entertainment. The series, set in the beginning of the 26th century, centers on a galactic struggle for dominance am ...

'' in September 1997. The league was official unveiled at a press conference at

Candlestick Park Candlestick Park was an outdoor stadium on the West Coast of the United States, located in San Francisco's Bayview Heights area. The stadium was originally the home of Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants, who played there from 1960 un ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

on November 3, 1997. It was sponsored by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

Nvidia Nvidia CorporationOfficially written as NVIDIA and stylized in its logo as VIDIA with the lowercase "n" the same height as the uppercase "VIDIA"; formerly stylized as VIDIA with a large italicized lowercase "n" on products from the mid 1990s to ...

, and Levi Strauss & Co. The organization raised over $1.2mil USD in sponsorship money. Nearly 1,400 players took part in the first ''Quake'' tournament, which took place online. The first-ever Professional Gamers League Finals took place on January 30 and January 31, 1998, in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

at the Sega GameWorks super-arcade. Two games were played in this competition, '' Command & Conquer: Red Alert'' and '' Quake''. Both tournaments featured 1 on 1 play with

David "DeepBlue" Magro David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

winning the ''Red Alert'' tournament and

Dennis "Thresh" Fong Dennis Fong (), better known by his online alias Thresh, is an American businessman and retired professional player of the first-person shooter video games '' Quake'' and ''Doom''. He is a co-founder of Xfire, an instant messenger and social netw ...

winning the ''Quake'' tournament. Both players won $7,500 and new AMD computers. Season 3 hosted the first ever Starcraft World Championship where 128 players from around the globe competed online from August 14 - September 6, 1998. The final 8 competitors played live in San Francisco, CA. Jay "Gadianton" Severson took first place playing random and going undefeated in the double-elimination bracket to win $8500 and a new AMD computer. In 2000, Gamers.com acquired the PGL from Pogo.com, after PGL had been inactive for a year.

References

1997 establishments in Washington (state) Defunct esports competitions StarCraft competitions Defunct sports leagues in the United States Quake (series) competitions {{Esports-organization-stub

See also

References