Los Angeles (GotFrag) - The Championship Gaming Series has confirmed that no CGS player is allowed to play Counter Strike 1.6. None of its players will be allowed to play in 1.6 tournaments, viewing the game as direct competition to the league.

“Since we are committed to Source, however, 1.6 tournaments presently are considered to be directly competitive with the league,” said Aurli Bokovza, PR representative for CGS.

This policy is not without its critics. Eric “da bears” Stromberg, who played for CGS’s Region 1 championship team Chicago Chimera, spoke out against the decision to stop CGS teams from playing Counter-Strike 1.6.

“I think it’s a bit ridiculous to make teams play only in their league. They are putting ownership over the players, which to be honest, I don’t like,” said Stromberg, “I think I can speak for the community on this one and I think everyone thinks the same way that I just pointed out.”

CGS fined players who played in CS 1.6 tournaments, such as Kevin “aZn” Wang. Wang played with a few friends at x3o's Dust Off LAN on August 10th-11th. He was fined $5,000 by the league for his play in the tournament.

“I knew going into the tournament what would be at stake but I didn’t expect them to make such a big deal out of it,” said Wang, “I played with a bunch of friends just for fun and was fined almost 15% of my salary just for attending a local LAN tournament? Give me a break.”

The primary reason Counter-Strike players are upset with the decision is the inconsistencies with the CGS's rulings about other games. Two different situations have irked the CS players about the CGS’s decision to not allow CS teams to play 1.6.

CGS FIFA player Alessandro "Stermy" Avallone was allowed by the league to attend Quakecon, and was even selected by the event as an All-Star player. While Avallone played FIFA in the CGS, he played Quake at Quakecon.

“As for Quakecon, that's an example of a tournament which does not compete with our games, and we support our players attending these types of events,” said Bokovza.

Wang seems to think it was a double standard.

“How is it that Stermy can play/attend an event playing another game and we can’t attend other events? I feel that CGS is just making a huge deal out of nothing,” said Wang, “I just find it retarded.”

Another example of inconsistency is participation of CGS players in the World Cyber Games. CGS allowed DoA players Ryan Ward and Jeremy Florence, along with PGR Champion Wes Cwiklo, to play at WCG.

An unnamed source confirmed that nearly every CGS CS:Source team applied to the league office to be allowed to play at WCG, all were denied. Instead it allowed them to give up on the $95,000 purse prize from WCG to play at Newegg LANfest for a purse prize of $10,000. CGS teams took the top three spots.

“In general, we look at other tournaments as an opportunity for CGS players to compete and have fun. As you know, our U.S. players completely dominated LANfest, won at DigitalLife and CEVO, and did very well at WCG,” said Bokvoza.

The reason for refusing to allow CS players to play 1.6 has been the focus of speculation among the CGS players and fans.

“They are trying to make everyone switch to Source and to support Source,” said Stromberg, “More fans equals more money. When teams are playing 1.6, why would fans have to support Source, they can just support 1.6.”

As of the publication of this article, Steam’s website, Steampowered.com, shows CS 1.6 currently has 9.902 Billion minutes played in the past month compared to CS:Source’s 2.559 Billion minutes played. Current players over the weekend of October 20th-21st showed 230,000 unique players compared to CS:Source’s 87,000.

CGS Official Statement on Next Page