COLOGNE, GERMANY (Reuters) - It's not exactly an Olympic sport - not yet, anyway - but as the London Games drew to a close this past Sunday, thousands of professional videogame players geared up for an event that for some can be as lucrative as winning a gold medal. Videogamers have gathered in Cologne, Germany this week for the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) competition, a professional videogame tournament that runs through August 19.

The term “browser-based game” is not one that typically sits well with gamers. It brings up the repressed fact that there are tons of ignored invites on your Facebook asking you to help plant crops on Farmville, or go hold up a bank in Mafia Wars, or guide a football into the endzone in Return Man. But there is the occasional diamond in the rough, and Drakensang Online certainly shines in comparison to other games you typically play on Chrome, Firefox, or even (*shudders*) Explorer.

Johnathan 'Fatal1ty' Wendel and Fatal1ty Brand Partner, Creative Labs, announced today that they have joined forces to produce a series of online gaming tournaments that will be streamed live.  League of Legends, as one of Fatal1ty's must-play games, was chosen to kick off these multi-title, multi-platform video game tournaments. The inaugural event will run from March 9, through March 18, 2012.  

Major League Gaming (MLG) experienced an all-time high as 138,000 peak concurrent online stream viewers watched the Raleigh Pro Circuit competition held August 26-28, breaking previous MLG records. Viewers from 173 countries watched the live streams and more than 3 million hours of video were consumed throughout the weekend. Working with Streamworks, MLG was able to deliver uninterrupted 720p high definition, high-quality video streams of the  competition  despite Hurricane Irene. Streamworks will continue to work with MLG to deliver live and on-demand coverage of all 2011 and 2012 Pro Circuit competitions.