User:Ciaraparsons1/sandbox

X Games Austin 2014 was a four day action sporting event that took place between June 5–8, 2014, at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. The Austin 360 Amphitheater was also used as an additional venue for the X Games to house other events. The X Games were originally announced to take place on May 15–18, 2014, but were moved to June by ESPN to create a more favourable broadcast window. During these games, the sporting event introduced video games as a form for competition as a first in X Games history. Participants in this new division of competition competed for the chance to win a real X Games medal in "Call of Duty: Ghosts". OpTic Gaming was awarded the first X Games gold medal in the sporting event's history.

Highlights
BMXer Jamie Bestwick won his ninth consecutive gold medal in BMX Vert event. At 14 years of age, Skateboarder Tom Schaar becomes the youngest to win the Skateboarding Big Air event, pulling off a 900 at the top of the massive ramp. Skaterboarder Nyjah Huston ties the highest score ever in the Skateboarding Street event in X Games history.

Video Games
The introduction of video games to the X Games and the subsequent partnership with the Major League Gaming (MLG) proved to be a first for the sporting brand. Traditionally the summer X Games has featured a variety of action sports such as Skateboarding, Rally Car Racing, Off-Road Trucking, BMX Riding, and Moto Cross. The MLG aspect of the X Games included a "Call of Duty: Ghosts" tournament between the top five "Call of Duty" teams stemming from the MLG Pro Points ranking, along with the top three teams from the "Call of Duty" championship that was held in Winter Park, Florida. The winner of the first ever X Games MLG event was OpTic, with Team Kaliber placing second, and the Evil Geniuses placing third overall.

The X Games partnership with MLG is a response to the growing video game culture and competition in North America, as a large portion of the sporting event's audience and prime demographic engage in video game activities. Tim Reed, senior director of content strategy for the X Games, says that the partnership took a year to develop and was part of their efforts to expand their reach as a sporting event. "As X Games looks to grow and launch into the festival event we're producing, this is great added content to the overall plan," Reed said. When speaking of the collaboration Reed said that, "It made sense from X Games' perspective," where he continued by saying that, "The audiences are similar.... So it all kind of lines up with [the X Games] audience."

MLG CEO, Sundance DiGiovanni, also mirrored positive comments about their newly formed partnership with the X Games saying, "We're looking to build something here that hopefully becomes a tradition at both the summer and the winter X Games over time."