The opening tournament at Major League Gaming's new Columbus arena is this weekend. But if you didn't get your tickets weeks ago, you're out of luck: The event is sold out.

The opening tournament at Major League Gaming�s new Columbus arena is this weekend. But if you didn�t get your tickets weeks ago, you�re out of luck: The event is sold out.

�That�s not a bad problem to have,� said Mike Sepso, MLG�s co-founder and president, as the company rushed to finish the arena in time for this weekend�s Call of Duty: Ghosts Pro League tournament finals.

Columbus is the first location to have a dedicated video-game tournament space outside of the 12-year-old company�s New York studios, he said.

Although the arena is more of a grandly equipped TV studio than a conventional arena � located in an unmarked office building across the street from a Jani-King franchise � it�s the new flagship for MLG.

�We decided on Columbus because we�ve had a great history there,� Sepso said, �and it doesn�t hurt being close to OSU and lots of colleges.�

Major League Gaming �really started here, in the Midwest,� said Pickerington native Chris Puckett, an executive producer at the MLG.tv Columbus Arena, who became a professional gamer when he was 15.

�I remember in high school, going to colleges not for the parties but for the tournaments,� Puckett said. �It was nice � we�d drive to OSU, play some tournaments and I�d take all their money.

�So this became the destination for serious gamers,� Puckett said. �If you wanted to get better, if you wanted to play the best, you had to fly to Columbus, Ohio.�

At 14,000 square feet � slightly larger than the typical CVS store � the new MLG.tv Columbus Arena at 2188 Citygate Dr., near the intersection of Stelzer and Agler roads, is big enough to hold 200 fans in bleacher-style seats.

The building also holds a small gift shop and a large studio set that includes two soundproof booths for competing teams of gamers, two large video screens to show the action, and above it all, a commentator booth.

�It�s big enough so that we can go up to 500-plus fans if we need to,� said Adam Apicella, executive vice president of properties, as he stepped around workers who were scurrying to focus some of the rotating red and blue lights.

The organization often holds events in much larger spaces.

�Our major events, we attract 15,000 to 20,000 people, two or three times a year,� Sepso said.

But the company lacked a dedicated space for smaller events and chose Columbus in which to build one.

Most of the fans who will watch the tournament in person are from the Columbus area, said spokeswoman Katie Goldberg said. But the audience will be vastly larger, thanks to online streaming, a key element in Major League Gaming�s growth. Fans all over the world will watch live via MLG.tv, via apps for iOS and Android smartphones and for Xbox and Xbox One.

�The past two or three years started to explode because of online video,� Sepso said. �While we early on did bring MLG to television, the reality is our audience lives online. We think MLG is the first professional sports league to go mainstream without television, the first to break into the mainstream via digital. That�s what powered our growth in the past year.�

The league�s website, MLG.tv, launched its video streaming a year ago and was an immediate hit, said Jorge Luis, editor-in-chief of gaming publication GAMbIT Magazine.

�Viewing interest is incredibly high,� Luis said. Asia in particular has seen �an immense growth in competitive play since the mid-1990s, with many events (primarily in South Korea) being nationally televised.�

For example, last year�s League of Legends Season 3 World Championships, which had a $1 million prize, drew 32 million viewers via online streaming and on TV stations in China, Korea and other countries.

�That put us in the position we�re in now, to create opportunities to hold these events on a more regular basis,� Sepso said. �We thought, as long as we�re doing something every month, (creating a dedicated arena in Columbus) makes sense. If over the next 18 months we�re closer to doing an event every week, that would be fantastic.�

The Columbus facility is �a really good test for what�s the right fit,� he said. �I don�t know if there are 200 nights a year yet. But it�s getting there.�

The Columbus arena should be a boon for the game as it provides a more intimate setting for both fans and competitors, Luis said.

�Competitive gaming is a strange beast,� Luis said. �Having a custom-built location for major events should help to entice major teams and new players to join the MLG Pro Circuit, (because) most stadiums simply aren�t tailored for this style of competition.�

While video gaming might be a strange beast, it is a lucrative one. Major League Gaming has been offering millions of dollars of prize money in the competitions each year for the past few years.

During this debut tournament, eight of the best Call of Duty teams in the world will compete for $75,000 in prizes and a first place prize of $30,000.

�It�s crazy,� Apicella said. �Some of these kids (players) make seven figures a year. We have kids competing for hundreds of thousands of dollars. It�s pretty serious.�

Because of the growing audience in Asia, Major League Gaming is building a third venue � in China � to join the Columbus arena and the original MLG Studio in New York City. The 15,000-seat arena in China is set to open in 2017 on Hengqin Island, off the coast of Macau.

�We really want that (China facility) to be the Madison Square Garden of e-sports, something that will be much more focused on big, live events,� Sepso said.

�But that�ll take at least three years to build. We�re just breaking ground on the site now."

tferan@dispatch.com