Championship Gaming Series North America Draft Sets The Stage For The 2008 Season

LOS ANGELES, March 10 /PRNewswire/ -- At the Championship Gaming Series (R) (CGS) 2008 North America Draft today, the league's North America teams set their rosters and kicked off the 2008 season. The event took place at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival's ScreenBurn Arcade in Austin, Texas. Streamed live on www.thecgs.com, the CGS Draft featured five rounds that resulted in the selection of 30 professional gamers onto six teams.

The Draft was the conclusion of the 2008 North America Combine event which featured hundreds of prospective professional gamers vying to join the league for its second season. The two-day Combine saw the participants put through the trials of structured tournament matches, GM-requested special challenge matches, and testing on the CGS H2i software, which measures a player's reflexes and hand-eye coordination.

"The 2008 North America Draft brought tremendous new talent into the league and we're very proud of everyone who was selected," said CGS Commissioner Andy Reif. "Although the GMs made some tough choices and a number of great players did not make the cut, our six North America teams picked the next generation of pro gaming stars tonight in Austin. This was a perfect kickoff to the 2008 season and this year is going to be an historic year for CGS."

The first overall selection of the Dallas Venom was Justin "MuFFiNMaN" Anderson, a Forza Motorsport 2 superstar who was not old enough last year to join the league, but became eligible for this year's draft after turning 18. Anderson was one of 18 players drafted who will be making their CGS debut in 2008. There were also nine players re-drafted by their team from 2007 and three returning players drafted by a different team this year.

"Justin was the most dominant player in his respective discipline, so that made it an easy choice for me," said General Manager Alex Conroy.

Each CGS team consists of ten players. The North America GMs each previously announced their one Franchise Player and four Protected Players, thus leaving each of them with five open slots to fill at the Draft to complete their team rosters.

    The 2008 CGS North America Draft selections were:

    Dallas Venom:
    First Round: Justin "MuFFiNMaN" Anderson -- Forza 2
    Second Round: Michelle "Phoenix" Pleet -- Dead or Alive 4 Women's Division
    Third Round: Kyle "Mustang" Commings -- Counter-Strike: Source
    Fourth Round: Carson "classified01" Holt -- Counter-Strike: Source
    Fifth Round: Bardia Moayedi -- FIFA 08

    Franchise Player
    Emmanuel "Master" Rodriguez -- Dead or Alive 4 Men's Division

    Protected Players
    David "zid" Chin -- Counter-Strike: Source
    Kevin "CHAOS" Parrish -- Forza 2
    Josh "dominator" Sievers -- Counter-Strike: Source
    Eric "brawwr" Neer -- Counter-Strike: Source

    Los Angeles compLexity:
    First Round: Carl "Perfect Legend" White -- Dead or Alive 4 Men's Division
    Second Round: Matt "Warden" Dickens -- Counter-Strike: Source
    Third Round: Megan "belle" Ceder -- Dead or Alive 4 Women's Division
    Fourth Round: Javier "Chavisan" Gutierrez -- Forza 2
    Fifth Round:  CJ "GeeTeeOhh" Nelson -- Forza 2

    Franchise Player
    Danny "fRoD" Montaner -- Counter-Strike: Source

    Protected Players
    Tyler "storm" Wood -- Counter-Strike: Source
    Ronald "rambo" Kim -- Counter-Strike: Source
    Marcus "zet" Sundstrom -- Counter-Strike: Source
    Felipe "KreeganBG" Stoyne -- FIFA 08

    New York 3D:
    First Round: Daniel "XXDanXXX 1337" Otto -- Forza 2
    Second Round: Nick "DarkStorm" Brownrigg -- Forza 2
    Third Round: John "juan" Mumm -- Counter-Strike: Source
    Fourth Round: Nick "nickno1t" Nowakowski -- Counter-Strike: Source
    Fifth Round: Cardell "Cheppelle" Thomas -- Dead or Alive 4 Men's Division

    Franchise Player
    Matt "Wizakor" Wood -- FIFA 08

    Protected Players
    Tanya "coolsvilla" Underwood -- Dead or Alive 4 Women's Division
    Salvatore "Volcano" Garozzo -- Counter-Strike: Source
    Kyle "Ksharp" Miller -- Counter-Strike: Source
    Michael "method" So -- Counter-Strike: Source

    San Francisco Optx:
    First Round: Chris "NinjaCW" Harris -- Dead or Alive 4 Men's Division
    Second Round: Garett "Grt" Bambrough -- Counter-Strike: Source
    Third Round: Kevin "SACKAMONJARO" Uribe -- Forza 2
    Fourth Round: Chad "miximup" Neil -- Forza 2
    Fifth Round: Michael "Paradox" Stanowski -- Counter-Strike: Source

    Franchise Player
    Vanessa "Vanessa" Arteaga -- Dead or Alive 4 Women's Division

    Protected Players
    Laurent "Warmach1ne" Keoula -- Counter-Strike: Source
    Yazan "clowN" Ammari -- Counter-Strike: Source
    Moe "moe" Assad -- Counter-Strike: Source
    Alessandro "stermy" Avallone -- FIFA 08

    Carolina Core:
    First Round. Eric "General E Live" Earley -- Forza 2
    Second Round: Sonny "sOnNy" Tran -- Counter-Strike: Source
    Third Round: Mark "Torrez" Torrez -- Counter-Strike: Source
    Fourth Round: Andrew "Anomaly" Brock - FIFA 08
    Fifth Round: Kat "Mystik" Gunn -- Dead or Alive 4 Women's Division

    Franchise Player
    Ryan "Offbeat Ninja" Ward -- Dead or Alive 4 Men's Division

    Protected Players
    Sam "devour" Chamma -- Counter-Strike: Source
    Chad "DAFF" White -- Counter-Strike: Source
    Cyrus "org" Habibi -- Counter-Strike: Source
    Joe "Phantom" Tackett -- Forza 2

    Chicago Chimera:
    First Round: Matt "Stevenson" Stevenson -- Counter-Strike: Source
    Second Round: Erik "da bears" Stromberg -- Counter-Strike: Source
    Third Round: Pasha "Lari" Lari -- Counter-Strike: Source
    Fourth Round: Yfran "Eafra" Garcia - FIFA 08
    Fifth Round: Albert "hahN" Hahn -- Counter-Strike: Source

    Franchise Player
    Jeremy "BlackMamba" Florence -- Dead or Alive 4 Men's Division

    Protected Players
    Wesley "Ch0mpr" Cwiklo -- Forza 2
    Jason "JaSoN X" Exelby -- Forza 2
    Corey "tr1p" Dodd -- Counter-Strike: Source
    Marjorie "x kasumi chan x" Bartell -- Dead or Alive 4 Women's Division

The 2008 CGS North America Draft can be viewed on thecgs.com and will be broadcast soon in the United States on DIRECTV's The 101.

About Championship Gaming Series

Headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, the Championship Gaming Series (R) (CGS) is the only worldwide professional video gaming league. Launched in 2007, and a joint venture among BSkyB, DIRECTV and STAR, CGS features teams of the world's best gamers from North America, Latin America, the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. The league distributes entertainment content to more than 350 million viewers worldwide via DIRECTV in North America and Latin America, BSkyB in the UK, and STAR in Asia and Australia. CGS sponsors include Mountain Dew, Creative, Xbox 360 and Dell XPS.