GGL Wire

After a six-month hiatus, the Championship Gaming Series (CGS) is back for its second season. The 2008 North American competition began today at Electronic Arts’ headquarters in Los Angeles. As with the 2007 season, six franchises will compete against one another in four video games. The two finalist franchises at the end of the two-week competition win the chance to continue to the World Finals.

There are a few changes to the games lineup this season. CGS fans will be glad to hear that fan favorites Counter-Strike: Source and Dead or Alive 4 both return. The popular soccer game FIFA has been upgraded to this year’s version, FIFA 08. Perhaps the biggest change is the choice to replace last year’s racing game, Project Gotham Racing 3, with the more simulation-oriented Forza 2.

Three matches took place tonight. As with last season, the CGS divides each match into five rounds relative to the four featured games (there are five rounds because male and female DOA 4 players fight seperately). Each team has ten members: five Counter-Strike players, two DOA 4 players (one male, one female), two Forza 2 players, and one FIFA 08 player. Both the Counter-Strike and Forza 2 players act as a team to achieve victory.

Chicago Chimera vs. Carolina Core

First up was a re-match between rival franchises the Chicago Chimera and Carolina Core. This rivalry is no doubt due to the fact that Chimera won both the North American and Worldwide championships over the Core in 2007. Fans will remember that the outcome of both matches depened upon the results of the Project Gotham Racing 3 competitions. Ironically enough, Forza 2 was the opening game of 2008 season. Unfortunately for the Chimera, their star players Ch0mpr and Jason-X were almost immediately knocked out by Core players GeneralELive and Phantom. The Chimera could not recover from this start and lost the race, 6-1. Continued…