This Friday will be the air date of the Championship Gaming Invitational on DirecTV that took place back in late July. Teams will face each other in a variety of games and compete for prizes that total to $120,000. Professional Gaming sure has come a long since the Atari days, where tournaments weren't exactly good back then. But with the rise of PC gaming and video games being accepted into the mainstream, Professional Gaming is getting very popular. But just what exactly are these tournaments that gamers are competing in, and what level of skill do you need to play? For this week's Gaming Trends, we'll be taking a look at just some of the pro-gaming competitions and see what makes each of them different.Cyberathlete Professional League
When and Where: Summer to Winter, Worldwide
Games Played: Mostly FPS games for the PC
The CPL is basically the major league of professional gaming. All the big names you can think of compete in this league, such as the now retired Sander "Vo0' Kaasjager and Jonathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel. The CPL has hosted tournaments based on region and recently started doing a World Tour Season where the CPL would visit various countries and host a national tournament, then the best 32 players from all the tournaments would compete in the world final. The first place prize for the world tournament in 2005 was $150,000, won by Fatal1ty, who along with Vo0 walked away with over $200,000 in total prize money. The 2006 World Season is going to begin shortly and the CPL is also going to be airing it's winter event on DirecTV.If you're really serious about wanting to become a pro-gamer, then this is the league you should strive for. In the meantime, the CPL has an amateur division (CAL) for those just starting out.
Gamecaster
When and Where: September 26-27, Hollywood
Games Played: Battlefield 2142
A San Diego based pro-gaming event hosted by Gamecast Inc., a media entertainment company. Gamecaster has recently reached a deal to televise their latest event, the Battlefield 2142 Invitational, on the Dish Networks. For the latest tournament, eight teams will be invited to play a pre-release version of Battlefield 2142,and the winning team takes $30,000.So basically this is a pretty small league compared to the others since it's only based on California, which makes this a great place for those starting at the beginning.
Global Gaming League
When and Where: Varies from different events
Games Played: A majority of FPS and RTS games, various Xbox games.
The GGL hosts many kinds of leagues and events, both online and live. Those who register for the league can compete in ladders, events, and leagues to earn points for winning matches. You can also create your own teams and challenge others in the GGL. The ladders are open-ended and are basically used to show if you're any good. Winning these ladders can help you qualify for tournaments where you can compete for prizes. The various events the GGL has hosted include the AmeriCup, EuroCup, Vsports, and Snoop Dogg's Hip-Hop Gaming League.The events held by the GGL have tournaments where cash prizes are around $3,000 to $4,000, so it's almost nothing compared to other events. So if you're only semi-serious into becoming a pro-gamer, this is an interesting place to check out.
QuakeCon
When and Where: Early to Mid-August at Dallas, Texas
Games Played: Latest versions of Quake, Doom, and other Id Software titles.
A free bring your own computer LAN event that went from having a couple hundred people to several thousand people over the past 10 years. The event has players who love Quake and Doom come together to game for four days while also showing off their awesomely bizarre case mods. Id Software also uses this convention to show previews of their upcoming games and selling Activision merchandise. During that time a tournament is also held where cash prizes add up to over $100,000 and is attended by many pro-gamers, including the infamous "Fatal1ty".So if you're a PC gamer and love playing FPS's, this is definitely the place for you. It's also a good start in the road to becoming a pro-gamer.
Twin Galaxies
When and Where: Anytime
Games Played: Just about anything
Twin Galaxies were the first people to start up professional tournaments in the 80's and even created it's own U.S. National Video Game Team. Since then they've held various video game related events such as festivals and Classic Game Championships. These days the promotion is best known for keeping track of all video game world records through it's website. Twin Galaxies is basically Guinness for Video Games. If you plan on making some kind of world record, see these guys.
World Cyber Games
When and Where: Fall season, various countries
Games Played: Counter-Strike, FIFA, Need for Speed, Starcraft/Warcraft, DOA 4, Project Gotham Racing 3
The WCG (or "Cyber Games Festival") is the largest video game festival in the world done annually, and is basically the video game Olympics. Various genres of games are played, medals are awarded to the winners, and cash prizes total around $400,000. After millions of players are eliminated in each countries preliminaries, the total number of participants comes down to about 600 to 700 representing over 60 different countries. As of now, the highest ranked countries are South Korea, Germany, USA, Netherlands, and Canada (in case you're wondering, Japan is 17th). As said before, this is the Olympics of professional gaming. If you ever reach the kind of level seen in the CPL, then this is you're next step.
The World Series of Video Games
When and Where: Various times Worldwide
Games Played: Counter Strike, Quake, Warcraft, Halo 2, PGR 3, Ghost Recon
The WSVG spans eight separate 3-5 day events that are open to the public on a worldwide basis. Prizes vary depending on what tournament you're in, so it can range from $3,000 to $10,000 for first place. They'll also host some open tournaments where the winner gets a paid trip to the finals of the tournament. Almost like CPL, except the prize money doesn't seem to be as big and is more open to the public.
Major League Gaming
When and Where: Season based across major U.S. cities
Games Played: Halo 2, Super Smash Bros. Melee
Where just about every other pro-gaming competition had you playing PC games, this one focuses on just the two console games mentioned. Events take place on a two to three day basis, and first place prizes for the games are around $5,000 for "1 on 1" and "2 on 2", and "4 on 4" Halo is around $30,000. Registering for the tournament is cheap, as it only costs (for singles) $20 for SSBM and $10 for Halo. If you really become skilled, you just might be one of the select few they'll sign you to a pro management contract. The few players that were signed were actually featured on MTV's "True Life" and 60 Minutes. A couple months ago a four player team was signed to three year, $83,300 per year contracts. If you're the kind of gamer that plays console games rather than PC games, then you should definitely enlist here as it's one of the few that does console based tournaments. You could also wind up becoming the next contracted player.
THE LATEST PRO-GAMING LEAGUE
Championship Gaming Series
When and Where: July 21st and 22nd, San Francisco
Games Played: Counter Strike 1.6, PGR 3, DOA 4, Battlefield 2, Halo 2
A new league created by DirecTV and IGN, the CGS plans to become a major league of gaming by having instant payout for winners, large prize purses for all of it's tournaments, and airing on mainstream television. Back in July they held a tournament called the Championship Gaming Invitational and will be airing only on DirecTV channel 101 all this weekend. From the preview it looks to be pretty decent, but only time will tell if this can become as big or even bigger then the CPL. I'll likely do a review of the show when I get the chance, so stay tuned.
It's amazing to me how we suddenly have so many professional gaming leagues, both minor and major. What concerns me is that with all these kind of leagues, it could almost be overkill in the long run. I think that to prevent that from happening, we need to eventually decide on one global based league as the true world gaming league.
Sources of info: About.com and Wikipedia
