Anyone who has seen The King of Kong knows how serious videogaming can be. The Ghandi of gaming, Billy Mitchell, reminds us: “Video games can be fun…but competitive gaming, when you wanna attach your name to a world record, when you want your name in history, you have to pay the price.”

He’s talking about Donkey Kong and other classic arcade games, but the same idea could be applied to Major League Gaming. MLG is the largest governing body for professional gaming in the world, and 2008 showed a large increase in player participation, as well as impressive growth in the numbers of attendees to each event.

According to MultiPlayer Daily Games News, the number of online matches in 2008 was 4.4 million, up 625% from 2007. The broadcast audience was 503,000, up 1337% from 2007. And the average number of attendees of each competition rose to 15,000, up 500% from last year.

These facts are a little misleading as the league has only been around since 2002, but the amount of growth is encouraging. Furthermore, due to the impressive numbers MLG is putting up, Oak Investment Partners has put another $7.5 million into the business after its initial $25 million investment in 2006.

The numbers and new cash flow are all good news for Major League Gaming. And with all this growth, it seems like it’s time for me to make up an intimidating name like Captain Anarchy and join a–oh wait, that’s already taken. So are Shockwave, FearItself, and Legend Pimps . Well…I’ll come up with something. Maybe you should too.