We're here at the MLG Fall Championships in Dallas, TX and things are getting set to kick off here at 5:30. The Venue, as is typical of Major League Gaming, is as epic as ever. Though this time they seem to have taken out all the stops, providing an experience that gets you as close to the action as possible.

The Venue

The Dallas Convention Center has more than ample space for the competitions being hosted here, impressive seeing as its the most they've ever done, at six games. With the extra space they've occupied it with upcoming releases and current hits, giving fans plenty to do if they tire of watching their favorite gamers go head to head. 

Planetside 2 Beta

God of War Ascension Beta – we had a chance to sit down with this one. The multiplayer's pretty fun so far – more on this later.

As part of their effort to bring the action closer to both the viewer at home and the spectator, MLG is trying something a little different with Halo this time around – they've eliminated the stage altogether, allowing players and spectators alike to mingle with each other, and truly interact in a way we've never quite seen before. You can see what I mean if you check out these pictures:

A giant screen hovers over the competition at the floor level, letting spectators watch closer than ever before.

The presence of Halo 4 at this tournament has drawn quite alot of players looking to test the game before its street date of Nov 6th.

The StarCraft 2 tournament is also getting in on this, putting two featured matches on stage rather than just one at a time. This gives spectators much more face time with their favorite pros than we're used to seeing. It also has the added benefit of players being able to concentrate better in the enclosed booths rather than the sidestages that have been used in the past. 

The StarCraft 2 Stage – as you can see, with four booths rather than two.

The League of Legends stage was one of the few unchanged. As they say, if it's not broken, don't fix it. As we saw in the LoL Season 2 Playoffs, when you don't use these enclosed booths seen below, you end up with allegations of cheating and fan criticism. So, despite these booths being heavily criticized on their inception, people have come to accept them.

The Players 

Scarra, the captain of Team Dignitas' League of Legends squad, prepares for battle in the League of Legends Invitational, researching on what appears to be MobaFire, but could be Twitter.

Scarlett, the North American StarCraft 2 World Championship Series Champion prepares for Group Play that she qualified for quite convincingly in the NA Online Qualifier. This was after dropping out of the MvP Invitational due to internet issues with playing on the Korean server.

ThorZain of team Evil Geniuses is coming off of a slump after winning Dreamhack Stockholm – he'll be looking to make a comeback here in Dallas for sure, coming through the open bracket.

Kevin "QXC" Riley is coming off a hot streak coming into Dallas having just won the North American World Cyber Games regionals. Hopefully this will carry over to the open bracket..

We'll be back with more later on tonight as we head into the beginning of the competition! You can tune in at Major League Gaming's website at www.majorleaguegaming.com/live.

Dustin Steiner is GameZone's eSports Editor! Follow him on Twitter @GZSteiner and check out Video Gaming Hard Corps, where he is a local tournament organizer for the S. FL. Fighting Game Community.