Flushed with sounds coming from T.V.’s in every direction and competitive gamers yelling, senior Zach Cobb stares in awe at the stage in front of him with four 100 inch flat screen televisions, ready for the Halo tournament at the Major League Gaming , MLG, convention. After going to Quakecon, a convention where gaming companies show off their unreleased games, Cobb heard of popular tournaments going on in Dallas featuring multiple games such as Call of Duty, Halo and many other popular games taking place at MLG.

“Halo was already one of my favorite all-time games and when I play it at my house, I’m in the top three online,” Cobb said. “I went in confident, thinking they were just like the guys online, but they were just like me or better, even younger.”

Cobb’s favorite thing at the convention was the environment and people there.

“They were always cheering for tournaments and the competitors are really into each other even though that’s who they’re competing against,” Cobb said.

Cobb saw many age groups ranging from 20-30 year old men at the convention. He began contemplating on his hobby becoming a career. With a $100,000 reward for winning in the competitions, he considers taking gaming seriously in the future.

“If I ever form a team, and win, our career paths will definitely change because that’s a lot of money,” Cobb said.

Even though Cobb doesn’t see gaming as a career choice, he still plans on going to MLG annually. One of his friends, senior Shane Donovan, tagged along and thought it was an exciting experience.

“It was really fun to see all the new games and experiencing things that other people haven’t,” Donovan said.

While Cobb was playing Killzone 3, Donovan and another friend went to a Doritos stand to get free merchandise. He retrieved a Doritos hat, towel and shirt, and goes back to tell Cobb.

“We went back and got more stuff and when Zach saw one of the shirts I got, he thought it was the coolest shirt ever and went to go get free stuff. It was the funniest thing ever,” Donovan said.