Mike Mejia is a great example of what hard work and dedication can earn you in the video game industry. Mejia, who started as a tester at Activision, is now senior producer at Sledgehammer Games working on the Call of Duty franchise. I had the opportunity to sneak a quick chat with him on camera during the crazy second day of the Call of Duty World Championship 2015.
We were both really excited about the unpredictable matches as the first half of day two unraveled. “It is great to see that level of competition,” he said. “I think it is a testament to what the game is bringing, all the new mechanics.”
Expanding on that, he said “We heard it from the players right before we were doing the road to COD Champs, where it’s kinda changed up the way they play. The tactics and the strategy has kinda evolved. That’s great for fans when they’re seeing it on the streams. It’s great for the players, and it kinda validates the team at Sledgehammer Games.”
Like it or not, the EXO abilities did change up the game, and made matches that moved at blistering speeds. Mejia said he didn’t think the shifts in mobility were would cause some pros to drop from Major League Gaming. “If anything it has actually raised the amount of teams,” he said. “More people are now playing. eSports in the culture of our gaming and it is actually getting bigger. That’s great not just for Call of Duty, but for eSports and gamers around the world.”
He said that he feels the current success of eSports and video games are shaping the people involved. “We’ve matured and we’ve grown up a lot,” he said. “I think people are starting to take notice, and it’s just great for our industry and I think that’s important.”
A lot of people may imagine that these championships are filled with the obnoxious trolls that beat you on the internet when you are trying to have some fun and relax, but that hasn’t been the case. Sure, there were some emotional moments when some well earned outbursts occur, but that happens in any sport when the stakes are through the roof. If there was bad sportsmanship, I haven’t witnessed it. It has been a professional atmosphere where the excitement is exceptionally high.
