The Championship Gaming Series has announced its Chinese franchise for the city of Wuhan. Leading the franchise as general manager will be none other than Chao Ma, former wNv manager and director. The CGS has also announced the drafting of wNv as the Wuhan team for Counter Strike.

Official press release from the Championship Gaming Series:

Beijing –October 11, 2007 – Championship Gaming SeriesTM (CGS), the first worldwide professional gaming league, today named Wuhan, central China’s most populous city, as the official team city in China for the League. CGS also announced the official team identity as the Wuhan Dragon.

Helming the new Wuhan team as General Manager will be Mr. Chao Ma. Widely considered one of the best eSports managers in China, Mr. Ma is formerly the wNv team manager and directed all divisions of wNv, including its gaming teams and web properties. In addition to his background as a manager, Mr. Ma is also a legendary professional Counter-Strike player. He has won 16 National Championships and two World Championships since 2003, including the IEF China Regional, WGT China Regional, WEG Master, CS World Champion and Kode5 China Regional, among others.

“We are honored to announce that Wuhan, a thriving modern metropolis with a rich history, will have our first team in China. With its expansive network of colleges and universities, Wuhan is an unparalleled center for gamers in China and a perfect choice for Championship Gaming Series to establish itself in this great country.” said Andy Reif, CEO and Commissioner. “Mr. Ma’s incredible skills as a player and manager, and his outstanding reputation in pro gaming, make him an excellent choice to lead the Wuhan team to the Pan-Asian Final.”

Based on the performance of players at two recent Qualifying Events in China, Mr. Ma has drafted the following members for the Wuhan team:

Wuhan Dragon

Counter-Strike: Source: Team wNv - Hui CHEN, Kefei YANG, Jiang QIAN, Xingju MA, Zhengwei BIAN
FIFA 07: Jun LI
DOA4: Jian LI (male), Beisi Xiong. (female)
PGR3: Mi LI, Nan GAO

The Wuhan team will compete against previously-announced team cities Seoul, Dubai, Singapore, Sydney and Kuala Lumpur at the CGS Pan-Asian Final, October 15-18 in Kuala Lumpur. The top four teams from the Pan-Asian Final will be invited to travel to Los Angeles for the World Championship and compete against eight other teams from around the world, including Chicago and Carolina from the United States, Mexico City and Rio from Latin America, London and Birmingham from the UK, and Stockholm and Berlin from Europe, to determine which team will take home the title of World Champion and $500,000 of the $1,000,000 prize purse at the 2007 World Championship.

Valve’s Counter-Strike®: Source® and EA’s FIFA 2007 are the official PC games for CGS. On the Xbox 360, CGS features Tecmo’s Dead or Alive® 4 (DOA4) and Project Gotham Racing® 3 (PGR3) from Microsoft Game Studios.

Each CGS team features a total of ten athletes, each specializing in an official League game. Five of the ten players comprise a Counter-Strike: Source squad which competes in five-on-five matches. FIFA 07 is played one-on-one. Each CGS team also has a mixed-doubles team of two DOA4 players, who will play against other teams in one-on-one matches on Xbox 360. The racing game PGR3 is played by two players on each team in a two-versus-two format.

About Championship Gaming Series
Headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, the Championship Gaming Series™ (CGS) is the only worldwide professional video gaming league. Launched in 2007, and a joint venture between STAR, BSkyB and DIRECTV. CGS features teams of the world's best gamers from Asia, Middle East, Australia, North America, Latin America, the United Kingdom and Europe. The league distributes entertainment content to more than 100 million households worldwide via STAR in Asia and Australia, DIRECTV in North America and Latin America and BSkyB in the UK. CGS sponsors include Mountain Dew, Dell XPS and Xbox 360.

wNv.gm were the WEG 3 Champions and IEF 2007 China Counter Strike Finals 2nd place finishers. For more information on wNv and the Championship Gaming Series, check out www.thecgs.com.