These montages started hitting YouTube in the early-2000s, along with a flood of copycats, usually amateur players crudely editing together their own footage. In the same way sports broadcasters produce edited highlights of matches, MLG produces montages of players’ most impressive gaming moments: impressive kills, deft bits of strategy, that sort of thing.
MLG refers to Major League Gaming, a professional e-sports organisation-like FIFA for professional video game players.
These videos have become very popular in recent years, and there are plenty of laughs to be had, but like everything else, they come with a dark side. It’s a prime example of the MLG video: a short, humorous montage of clips from a popular film or TV show, overlaid with text, memes, and video game assets. “Dear FAZE POTTER, you have been accepted at Hogwarts school of MEMES AND QUICK SCOPING” Such is the opening of ‘Harry Potter and the Noscoper’s Stone’, a short film which, at time of writing, sits at 3,219,168 views on YouTube.
