Founded 1997 Country United States | Commissioner Nolan Bushnell | |
Sport Command & Conquer: Red Alert
Quake
StarCraft
StarCraft: Brood War Owner(s) Total Entertainment Network Sponsor(s) Advanced Micro Devices
Microsoft
Nvidia | ||
The AMD Professional Gamers League (PGL), founded around 1997, was one of the first professional computer gaming eSports leagues. The PGL was run by Total Entertainment Network and was sponsored by AMD The first professional tournament they held was for StarCraft in September 1997. The league was official unveiled at a press conference at Candlestick Park in San Francisco on November 3, 1997. It was sponsored by Microsoft, Nvidia, and Levi Strauss & Co.. The organization raised over $1.2mil USD in sponsorship money.
Nearly 1,400 players took part in the first Quake tournament, which took place online. The first-ever Professional Gamers League Finals took place on January 30 and January 31, 1998 in Seattle, Washington at the Sega GameWorks super-arcade. Two games were played in this competition, Command & Conquer: Red Alert and Quake. Both tournaments featured 1 on 1 play with David "DeepBlue" Magro winning the Red Alert tournament and Dennis "Thresh" Fong winning the Quake tournament. Both players won $7,500 and new AMD computers.
In 2000, Gamers.com acquired the PGL from Pogo.com.