I'm afraid this news just isn't as important as yesterday's news that Metal Gear Online lets you wear a cat as a hat, but bear with me: there's cash. Konami has partnered with ESL to create a tournament that they're calling the Metal Gear Online Global Championship.

Beginning December 1, players in each of the four included regions—North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia/Australia—will be able to participate in weekly online tournaments.

Each month there's $1,000 USD available for each region, and the tournaments are due to run until the end of February, so that's a total of $12,000 in prize money overall.

It's not the most an esport has ever had to offer by any means, but it ought to give us an opportunity to get a good look at Metal Gear Online ahead of its PC release early next year. If you happen to own the game on console and you'd like to enter, you can do so via the ESL site. Just pick your region—or "edition"—and go from there.