Championship Gaming Series unveils second Pro-Am division

The Championship Gaming Series (CGS) concluded its second season in July. However, as a well-known fighting game announcer once said, the soul still burns. Although the regular season is over, the competition continues with the online-centric CGS Pro-Am Division.

This new division allows PC gamers to compete in Counter-Strike: Source, Counter-Strike 1.6, and Team Fortress 2 (TF2) for a chance to win a portion of over $40,000 (consult http://pro-am.thecgs.com/prizes/ to see how the money is divided). Additionally, the top two teams of each Pro-Am region (North America and Europe) for each game will receive the chance to compete at the 2009 North American Combine.

Registration is currently free. Players have until September 3 to register at http://pro-am.thecgs.com. Contestants must register in teams of five for the two Counter-Strike games and teams of six for TF2. The season lasts from September 10 until November 16 with each team playing eight scheduled matches each.

In addition to the Pro-Am Division, the CGS is also offering Xbox Live players a chance to compete online against its top E-Athletes in Dead or Alive 4 and Forza Motorsport 2. These “Play the Pros” matches take place every other Friday night. Challengers must check the CGS website (www.thecgs.com) every week to find the gamertags for each star. Send these pro-gamers an invite to get the chance to defeat them at their own game. The first battles take place on August 15 and will feature DOA4 fighters Michelle “Phoenix” Pleet and Manny “Master” Rodriguez from the Dallas Venom. Unlike the Pro-Am tournament, there are no prizes for the Xbox Live fights (except for a warm fuzzy feeling).

Interestingly enough the CGS indicated that more Xbox Live titles may be included in future “Play the Pros” matches. What new additions might we see? Soul Calibur IV? Project Gotham Racing 4? Pong? We can only speculate.