This past weekend, Major League Gaming held their Canadian debut at the Northern Digital Expo, a video game show held at Toronto’s Exhibition Place. Yours truly was in attendance.

My original goal for attending, networking and handing out resumes. My end result, all resumes remained in my fancy new trendy briefcase I purchased last week. On the plus side, my briefcase purchase did not go to waste, it came with a full sized bottle of Alfred Sung cologne! Taking orders now, 25 cents a waft, $1 for a whiff, and $5 for a full blown inhale.

The show was actually pretty interesting. MLG was holding 4 events. Halo 2 FFA, Halo 2 4v4, Gears of War 4v4, and Rainbow Six Vegas 4v4. For those wondering where Counterstrike, Starcraft, or Warcraft 3 was in this mix, MLG is exclusively console based - no PC games. Both Jagonfox and I managed to catch some pretty high ranking Halo 2 4v4 matches, and walked by during the Gears of War 4v4 Championship (surprisingly very boring to watch).

MLG has some pretty well known teams that are consistently in the top rankings. We managed to catch the so called Canadian pro team North of 49 - so called because clearly they cant be the all pro team without me on it. We also saw Str8 Rippin’ and Carbon face off against each other, as well as Str8 Rippin pretty much straight rip apart the Canadian team.

If you aren’t familiar with MLG, it is pretty ridiculous. Some of these teams have $1 million contracts to exclusively game with MLG. These kids are making 6 figures a year, playing Halo 2. Apparently this was the last year for Halo 2, with Halo 3 being the main focus next year. Maybe I should start practicing so I can make six figures.

Either way, I know I could never compete with these kids at Gears, Vegas, Halo, or whatever. But where I do think I would do well, would be a Video Game Decathlon. A circuit of multiple games.

Here are my two proposed lists. First is the MLG list, meaning Xbox games, and second I have an overall list.

MLG Decathlon:

1. Halo 3
2. Rock Band
3. Fight Night Round 3
4. NBA Street: Homecourt
5. All-Pro Football 2k8
6. Street Fighter 2 (Live Arcade)
7. Command & Conquer 3 / Halo Wars (if worthwhile)
8. Worms (Live Arcade)
9. Gears of War
10. Forza Motorsport 2

I tried to focus on games that would allow the standard 4v4 team based play to continue. But there are some games I felt were worth throwing in, despite less people being able to play.

The Ultimate Video Game Decathlon:

1. Counterstrike Source
2. Starcraft / Starcraft 2
3. Fight Night Round 3
4. Halo 3
5. Forza Motorsport 2
6. Rock Band
7. Street Fighter 3 - 3rd Strike
8. Quake 3
9. Warcraft 3 - DOTA Mod
10. WoW (Full selection of Arena/PVP gear)

There are so many games I want to try and fit in under this list, but I just had to cut some of them out. I considered Guild Wars in place of WoW, since you don’t need to have pre-made characters, but then I figured it was too much of a niche and having the choice of gear on WoW characters would suffice. I even considered putting in Tony Hawk, even though I haven’t been a fan for quite some time. The game is popular - so some team Trick Battles could be interesting. Would also be nice to throw in All-Pro Football, over Madden, due to the ability to create custom and even teams.

I would be particularly interested in watching Team Forza (with your included dirty racing tactics and box outs) and Team Rock Band - singers included.