I know I’m a bit late in posting this (the news actually came a couple of months ago), but it warrants a mention.

For you first-person shooter fanatics out there, Virgin Gaming (the same organization I wrote about late last year) is holding a tournament that has a whopping $1, 600, 000 tournament. That’s a One, a Six, followed by 5 Zeros, and all that cash can be won by being the best pro gamer whilst playing EA‘s Battlefield 3. Virgin were not kidding when they said that they wanted to cater to the console pro-gaming scene when they started earlier this year, as that is a lot of cash for a tourney that focuses on one game.

There are some setbacks though.

The first one is that you have to be 18 years or older, that’s a given as most major tourneys cater to pro-gamers of age. Sorry 5 year old Battlefield prodigies, though I wonder why you youngsters are playing a game rated for older audiences.

The second? The tourney starts next year, in 2012. Which is probably the reason why I myself didn’t bring this event up (though, that could be my relevant procrastination). Still, I can understand why Virgin Gaming would set it to that sort of schedule. Battlefield 3 isn’t even out yet (it hits stores on October 25th in North America, 27th in Australia, and 28th for Europe), so I guess gamers can get some practice before the competition starts.

And lastly, the third setback. The tourney only supports gamers from the console side of the pro-gaming spectrum, namely the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 side. Sorry PC gamers, there might be other competitions you can enter. It was expected though, as Virgin Gaming wants to give some pro-gaming love to the oft neglected consoles (not everyone plays Call Of Duty and Super Smash Brothers, haha).

And there you have it! Details are sparse, even since this news debuted in August/September, so look for more news as 2012 crawls into view.

If you want to register, visit Virgin Gaming [HERE].