Championship Gaming Series
The Championship Gaming Series ( CGS for short ) is a former professional league for electronic sports from the United States , which was also played outside of North America.
Founded in 2007, the league belonged to the US satellite operator DirecTV and is operated in cooperation with British Sky Broadcasting in Europe and STAR TV in Asia. The league was organized like a North American sports league: there was a draft and the teams were assigned to cities. The first US American qualification tournament started on March 30, 2007, the first TV broadcast took place on July 9, 2007. On November 18, 2008, those responsible announced its end.
Disciplines
Four different computer / video games are represented in the CGS: a tactical shooter , a beat 'em up , a football simulation and a car racing game.
The following games were played in detail:
First season (2007)
- Counter-Strike: Source (PC)
- Dead or Alive 4 ( Xbox 360 )
- FIFA 07 (PC)
- Project Gotham Racing 3 (Xbox 360)
Second season (2008)
- Counter-Strike: Source (PC)
- Dead or Alive 4 ( Xbox 360 )
- FIFA 08 (PC)
- Forza Motorsport 2 (Xbox 360)
Regions
| title | location | |
|---|---|---|
| Region 1 | North America | United States , Canada |
| Region 2 | Latin America | Mexico , Caribbean , South America |
| Region 3 | Europe | Europe |
| Region 4 | Africa / Middle East | Middle East , Africa , South Asia |
| Region 5 | Asia | People's Republic of China , East Asia |
| Region 6 | Australia | Australia , Oceania |
Franchise teams
In the first season there were six franchise teams from six different major cities in Region 1 ( US and Canada ). A total of ten additional license teams were added worldwide (four from Europe , two from Latin America , three from Asia and one team from Australia ).
Each franchise consists of a total of ten players: five Counter-Strike Source players, two Dead or Alive 4 players (one male and one female) as well as one FIFA 2007 (or FIFA 08) and two Project Gotham Racing 3 (or Forza Motorsport 2 ) Player.
Region 1
| Team name | Franchise location | Team manager |
|---|---|---|
| Carolina Core |
 Charlotte , North Carolina
|
Mark Dolven
|
| Chicago Chimera |
Chicago , Illinois
|
Brian "DKT" Flander
|
| Dallas Venom |
Dallas , Texas
|
Alex "JaX" Conroy
|
| Los Angeles Complexity |
Los Angeles , California
|
Jason "1" Lake
|
| New York 3D |
New York City , New York
|
Dave "moto" Geffon
|
| San Francisco Optx |
San Francisco , California
|
Kathleen "catholic" Hunter
|
The licensing teams from Los Angeles and New York had already signed exclusive contracts with the existing Counter-Strike teams CompLexity and 3D before the first draft and, in addition to the Counter-Strike players, also adopted the names for the entire team.
Region 2
| Team name | Franchise location | Team manager |
|---|---|---|
| Mexico City Furia |
 Mexico City , Mexico
|
 Augusto "NoobZaibot" Zapata
|
| Rio Sinistro |
 Rio de Janeiro , Brazil
|
Paulo Sergio Velloso
|
Region 3
| Team name | Franchise location | Team manager |
|---|---|---|
| Berlin Alliance |
 Berlin , Germany
|
 Jonas "bsl" Vikan
|
| Birmingham Salvo |
 Birmingham , UK
|
Michael "ODEE" O'Dell
|
| London Mint |
London , UK
|
Ben Woodward
|
| Stockholm magnetics |
 Stockholm , Sweden
|
Emil "HeatoN" Christensen
|
The UK and the rest of Europe have separate combine tournaments and finals. Although Berlin Allianz was a German franchise, there was only one German under contract until the end.
Region 4
| Team name | Franchise location | Team manager |
|---|---|---|
| Dubai Mirage |
 Dubai , United Arab Emirates
|
Shariff Ibrahim |
Dubai Mirage has only been a CGS team since 2008.
Region 5
| Team name | Franchise location | Team manager |
|---|---|---|
| Wuhan Dragon |
 Wuhan , People's Republic of China
|
Chao Ma
|
| Singapore Sword |
 Singapore , Singapore
|
Steven Yong (interim)
|
| Seoul Jinhwa |
 Seoul , South Korea
|
"Crystal" Sung Eun Kim
|
| Kuala Lumpur Taufan |
 Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia
|
Mohd Irman Nawawi
|
Kuala Lumpur Taufan has only been a CGS team since 2008.
Region 6
| Team name | Franchise location | Team manager |
|---|---|---|
| Sydney Underground |
 Sydney , Australia
|
Ben "Racs" Thomas
|
League system
Before the start of a CGS season, there are several region-specific qualification tournaments that Counter-strike Source teams and the players of the other video games have the opportunity to prove themselves. A limited number of teams / players will be invited to the so-called combine tournament. The team managers are given the last chance there to convince themselves of the skills of the players. In the subsequent draft, the team managers of the franchise teams determine which players they want to sign in a predetermined order. Each licensing team can determine beforehand five of the ten players already in the team who cannot be drafted by other teams but remain in the team (one so-called franchise player and four protected players). With the team-based Counter-Strike: Source it can happen that only part of the well-rehearsed team of five stays together. As a rule, however, care is taken to ensure that well-rehearsed CS teams stay together.
The CGS is characterized by high prize money and offers the players under contract a monthly salary.
The video games played in the CGS show a strong orientation towards TV transmission. For example, instead of the more established Counter-Strike 1.6, the optically more appealing Counter-Strike: Source is used, with short lap times and a lot of entry money aimed at making the game more action-packed and preventing slower parts.
CGS has had a difficult start, especially in Europe. League structures that have long been established, poorly organized online qualification tournaments for the first CGS season as well as poor information provision and, most recently, the expensive journey to the European Combine tournament in Birmingham have meant that many European top teams or top players do not even make the first European Combine tournament to England.
Results
2007 season
The first Grand Final of Region 1 took place on July 30, 2007 in Los Angeles . Chicago Chimera defeated Carolina Core 22:21, becoming the first regional CGS winner. Mexico City Furia was the winner of the Latin American Final, just one point ahead of Rio Sinistro (23:22). The winner of the European final was Berlin Allianz just 30:28 against Stockholm Magnetik and in the separate final of the British teams, the London Mint won against Birmingham Salvo with 31:19. The first winner of the Pan Asia Finals (regions 4, 5 and 6) was Singapore Sword with a clear 30:18 against Sydney Underground .
- Grand Final
| Quarter finals | Semifinals | final | |||||||||||
| space | team | Prize money |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Carolina Core
|
$ 500,000 |
| 2 |
Chicago Chimera
|
$ 150,000 |
| 3-4 |
Birmingham Salvo
|
$ 70,000 |
|
Berlin Alliance
|
$ 70,000 | |
| 5-8 |
Singapure Sword
|
$ 30,000 |
|
Stockholm magnetics
|
$ 30,000 | |
|
Mexico Furia
|
$ 30,000 | |
|
London Mint
|
$ 30,000 |
The first CGS World Finals took place in Los Angeles from December 6-14 , 2007 , where eleven of the six franchise teams competed for a total of one million US dollars in prize money . In addition to the four standard games, there was also a World of Warcraft tournament. In the overall final, Carolina Core managed to triumph over Chicago Chimera this time . The CGS Individual Finals, where only the winners of the individual disciplines of each region meet, regardless of the team as a whole, was dominated by the US representatives. Only in Dead or Alive 4 won a non-US team with Singapore Sword .
2008 season
- Grand Final
| Quarter finals | Semifinals | final | |||||||||||
| space | team | Prize money |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Birmingham Salvo
|
$ 500,000 |
| 2 |
San Francisco Optx
|
$ 150,000 |
| 3-4 |
Carolina Core
|
$ 70,000 |
|
Berlin Alliance
|
$ 70,000 | |
| 5-8 |
Sydney Underground
|
$ 30,000 |
|
Dallas Venom
|
$ 30,000 | |
|
Wuhan Dragon
|
$ 30,000 | |
|
Mexico Furia
|
$ 30,000 |
References
Web links
- Official site (English) ( Memento of 1 December 2008 at the Internet Archive )
- Criticism of the CGS (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ The special rules for Counter-Strike ( Memento from May 4, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (only part of the page received)
- ↑ Problems with the recognition of the CGS in Europe's established Counter-Strike scene ( Memento from July 28, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
- ↑ American Finals ( Memento from December 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- ↑ Latin-American Finals ( Memento from December 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- ↑ European Final ( Memento from December 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- ↑ British Final ( Memento from December 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- ↑ Pan Asian Finals ( Memento from December 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (English)