Gamertell

As the scalding heat blows across the east coast, Xfire predicts cooler weather for June 2008 due to three events with Blizzard’s World of Warcraft: Meet Team Millenium, a broadcast of the Sunwell Raid Redux and the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Paris…

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The American leg of US World Cyber Ggames 2008 will take place at the Samsung Experience in New York, NY, on May 31, 2008, and June 1, 2008. At stake are cash and prizes worth more than $20,000 along with a place in the WCG USA National Final. The first leg or the WCG 2008 US Open will include some of the best gamers in America who have their sights set on qualifying for the WCG 2008 Grand Finals in Cologne, Germany, in November 2008.

The Grand Finals will have…

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This past February 1982, Twin Galaxies started releasing to the public its list of new high scores achieved on arcade games. If you are lucky, you can find the complete list of updated scores posted at your favorite arcade.

Otherwise. here are the latest entries in the Twin Galaxies National Scoreboard for this year…

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Titanstrike online is proud to host this year’s Miss Video Game 2008 (MVG 2008) online tournament.

I recently caught up with Francisco Diaz the co-founder of TitanStrike to find out what it is about all about.

“Titanstrike, a platform for gamers that seeks to blend the best of social networking with cutting edge gaming services including a tournament engine that allows sponsors to create and manage events,” Diaz explained. “The Titanstrike platform also has flash forums, gamer profiles and instant chat to power interaction within the community. The goal of Titanstrike is to provide an ideal environment for online competitions so the Miss Video Game event was a natural fit…

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Professional gaming buffs take note: the Championship Gaming Series (CGS) has just announced its list of North American franchise players. Franchise players are the cream of the proverbial crop in the CGS world - above the other tiers of players on CGS teams. The franchise players were selected to represent each team - from San Francisco Optx, Chicago Chimera, Los Angeles compLexity, Carolina Core, New York 3D, and Dallas Venom; before the rosters become filled with pros drafted in the March 7-9, 2008 CGS combine and draft.

Looking at the announced players, it looks like competition will be quite stiff in the 2008 season. Read on to check out player bios from the press release.

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The Boston Herald online recently published a tease of the upcoming gamer’s edition of Guinness World Records, due out in March. The book will be the very first all-gaming edition, and will launch on March 11, 2008.

Among the morsels mentioned in the article was the heated competition between Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell for the top Donkey Kong score (the drama that was so perfectly examined in the recent film The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters), along with some of the more impressive sales records (the original NES Super Mario Bros. and Halo 3 are in that category). 

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According to GameDaily, pro game organizer Major League Gaming (MLG) has just signed a contract with “real” sports network ESPN to provide professional gaming coverage. The pact includes a multi year deal to cover MLG competitions on ESPN’s sites, which will include the games-only ESPNVideogames.com. ESPN will launch its own competitive gaming portal (complete with details on past and future events) and will co-sponsor competitions with MLG in the future.

The deal came about due to the increased interest in competitive gaming as a serious sport (the article cites the recent professional poker phenomena’s success as a parallel). High ratings for previously televised tournaments and the exodus of the young male population from TV to videogames were other reasons listed for ESPN’s interest.

From the article:

“The new deal includes ESPN covering MLG’s upcoming season across multiple platforms, including ESPN360.com. ESPN will serve as a primary outlet for news about MLG, providing extensive digital coverage of MLG’s 2008 Pro Circuit Competitions, including exclusive streamed matches, pro player interviews, and scores and stats.”

Overall, it appears that the coverage will be fairly extensive and far-reaching, so perhaps pro gaming will finally enjoy the mainstream status it deserves in North America? This is certainly a big step in the right direction.

Read [GameDaily]

I ran into Zach Wigal (pictured right) online well after our interview for the “Teen with a Dream” story and was glad to hear his dream came true. He and his friends were finally able to host a Halo tournament through a CyGamZ fundraiser held in November 2007.

He told me GOF was able to raise $500, which was used towards community service projects within his area and that this year he and his friends are hosting another Halo tournament event called Gamers for Giving February 29, 2008.

“I believe last we spoke about GOF happenings I told you we had a small fund raiser for our organization at a LAN center called CyGamZ planned, and that we were still discussing possible dates and things for our big comeback event, Gamers for Giving,” Wigal said when I caught up with him earlier this week. “Well the CyGamZ event has ended, and we’re 100% focused on Gamers for Giving, which is a Halo 3 tournament combined with a 3 day straight PC LAN.”

Wigal plans to “raise at least $7,500 dollars to help families and kids who struggle with Autism,” he explained. “All profits made from the event are…

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There’s a thought that lurks deep inside all of us and keeps on asking, “Wouldn’t it be great if you could just sit around and play games all day and on top of that make a living out of it?” Well, actually there are some people that already have an answer to that question and as most of us already suspected, the answer is a big fat, “Yes!”

Michael Cavanaugh (aka Strongside) is a 19-year-old gamer from Edgewood, KY (USA), that has just signed a very lucrative and fun contract, one that will make his wallet $250,000 fatter for playing Halo.

Since he was five, Michael has played video games almost every day of his life, getting the latest consoles and pulling all-nighters perfecting his techniques at every game he could get his hands on. This past June 2007, Major League Gaming gave him a three-year contract worth a quarter million dollars. His newest sponsor is NBA Basketball Player Gilbert Arenas. Yeah, that’s Gilbert “I Cheat So What” Arenas.

Michael’s mom, Francis Cavanaugh, remembers how it all started: “It wasn’t until he went to Kings Island one summer, summer of his junior year and he beat one of the guys there, that’s when it really started.”

From there, Michael got through the ranks and started going to tournaments, eventually realizing he could make a living out of it. Now, as part of team Carbon, he is one of the best at Halo and, besides his contract money, he has already won $100,000. Now he and his team are training for a tournament in Dallas, TX, where they could win $250,000 on the spot.

I’m sure that as with every other activity, you need some serious natural skills and years of practice but making money by gaming sure sounds like a sweet deal. Competitive gaming is now considered an alternative sport and gaming leagues are sure to keep on getting bigger. With the amounts of money they are giving out, names like Michael Cavanaugh will get more famous and maybe in a not so distant future we will see gamers among the David Beckhams and the Tom Bradys of their time.

Read [Local 12] Site [MLG]

Starting December 6, 2007, game fanatics worldwide will be able to watch the highly anticipated Championship Gaming Series. The nine-day event will be broadcasted on television via DirecTV in the US; BSkyB’s Sky One, Sky Two and Sky HD in England; ESPN STAR in Asia; SKY in Mexico and Brazil; DirecTV throughout the rest of the Latin America; and satellite carriers across mainland Europe through various broadcast partners.

CGS, headquarters in Los Angeles, Calif., is the only worldwide professional video gaming league launched earlier this year (January 2007) and features teams of the world’s best gamers from North America, Latin America, the United Kingdom, Europe, Middle East, Asia and Australia, who will compete professionally in the inaugural CGS World Finals.

Gamers will compete for a chance to battle and win $1,000,000 total prize purse with $500,000 to be awarded to the World Champion team. The event will be a monumental first in the history of gaming according to CGS commissioner Andy Reif. will be televised from Sony Studios in Los Angeles.

“The CGS World Final represents a watershed moment in the history of pro gaming and we are proud to broadcast to more than 350 million viewers globally,” said Andy Reif, CGS commissioner and CEO. “Fans worldwide will soon find out which team will claim its place as the first CGS World Champion and take home the top prize of $500,000.”

In addition to the team-based competition, CGS will hold an Individual World Final tournament with top CGS league players from six different regions competing for individual championships as well as a World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Area featuring a premier event with American and European gamers battling for prizes up to $30,000 starting December 8, 2007.

During the tournament each CGS team, consisting of ten athletes who specialize in an official League game, will select five players for the five-on-five match of Counter-Strike: Source, two players for the mixed doubles tam for Dead or Alive 4 and Project Gotham Racing 3 for the two-versus-two competition; and one player to compete in the FIFA 2007 one-on-one match.

Prize distribution for the CGS World Final will be as follows:

Team World Final

1st place will receive $500,000
2nd place will receive $150,000
3rd and 4th place winners will receive $70,000
5th through 8th place winners will receive $30,000
9th through 12th place winners will receive $15,000
The tournament’s most valuable players will receive $25,000

Individual World Final

1st place winners for the Dead or Alive 4 competition will award $5,000 to one male and one female athlete
1st place winner for FIFA 2007 will receive $5,000
1st place two-player team in the Project Gotham Racing 3 competition will each receive $5,000
1st place five-player squad in Counter-Strike: Source will award $5,000 to each squad member

World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade two-versus-two world championship

1st place two-player team will receive $15,000 each

The total grand prize purse for the event is $1,075,000 and the CGS official teams participating in this event includes: Berlin Allianz, Birmingham Salvo, Carolina Core, Chicago Chimera, London Mint, Mexico City Furia, Rio Sinistro, Seoul Jinhwa, Singapore Sword, Stockholm Magnetik, Sydney Underground and Wuhan Dragon.

Beginning with the CGS World Final press conference on December 6, 2007, the World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade and the Individual World Finals will be available via webcast on the CGS website. The game schedule is as follows:

For more information, to view the webcast or check on the status of your favorite team, login to the CGS web site. Please note the site may be off line or running slow while they prepare for the upcoming championship events.

Read [CGS E-Sports] Site [DIRECTV 101:Gaming Series page] Site [Championship Gaming Series]