Explain what your organization is, and how it came to be?

Games Media Properties started in 2002, mainly focused on bringing live gaming events into the world of mainstream advertisers and popular entertainment. The involvement of William Morris Agency helped bring events like GameRiot onto the Lollapalooza tour and into partnerships with MTV. While pro gaming had nothing at all to do with the original charter, the growing interest of television and advertisers has encouraged us to expand in this direction. Over the last few months, we have grown our team and partner base substantially with those who have been the prime movers in eSports for the last several years.

What are your company's goals and aspirations in the eSports field?

Currently there are many tournament organizations, each with its own platform, rules and standards, each declaring the winner of its event 'the champion'. Working together, these organizations could accomplish so much more. Games Media Properties, through the World Series of Video Games, its partners, sponsors and affiliates, seeks to combine the hard work and ingenuity of multiple gaming organizations to lift the reach and impact of eSports worldwide.

Through WSVG, rules and procedures will become standardized across all tournaments. Both PC and Console gamers will be brought together to maximize interest of the sponsors and the public. ESports can progress from a series of disconnected events occurring every few months to monthly events that are conducive to regular television coverage on a major network, and the culmination of it all is a final event that will truly define the world's champion.

Games Media Properties wants to help international tournament organizers create their own intellectual property within their countries instead of strictly working to build up someone else's. We are looking to help organizers build a business model that has a return on investment, and effectively creates the next Pebble Beach, or British Open for our series. Everyone wins.

How will your World Series of gaming run? Will it be very similar to how the CPL's World Tour was to be run? Will the tournaments be worldwide or solely in the United States.

We have structured the World Series of Video Games similar to the PGA Tour model with its new FedEx Cup format. Tournament organizations such as CPL, and Lanwar will become "Major" events of the Series, and other new "Majors" will be named after participating sponsors. Each of these "Major" events will then contribute winning players and teams into the WSVG championship at the end of the year. The difference between this and other 'tours' is that WSVG will require that each participating organization comply with WSVG standards in order to receive the very attractive benefits of being a WSVG sanctioned event. The end result is a tour that is well-organized, standardized in platform and rules across all events, covered by television, and will produce 'true' world champions.

For 2006, while partner organizations are undergoing the transition, WSVG representatives will be highly involved in the execution of each series event. We will launch events, both in the US and abroad for 2007. We are seeking additional partners for 2007 that will help complete the series with more events across the year.

We're hearing rumors that GMP has been in the process of acquiring the intellectual properties of various gaming organizations such as CPL - can you comment?

Games Media Properties has received lots of interest in the World Series of Video Games and this has allowed the company to be both aggressive and selective. Unfortunately, that is the most we can say at this time. We cannot confirm or deny any acquisitions/mergers due to non-disclosure agreements. Announcements will be made soon with more details.

What will the tournament setup be like? What games do you have planned for your World Series? Will we see more than just CS and Quake?

We are in the process of evaluating the platforms, rules, and procedures from all well-known gaming tournaments as well as from the other major professional sports. We will be taking the best elements of each to create the WSVG standards. When this is complete, we will be better able to give you an idea of how our tournaments will proceed.

For 2006, WSVG partners will host tournaments for Counter-Strike, Quake IV, Warcraft III, and multiple Xbox titles. We are still considering other games for inclusion.

Can you tell us about your sponsors and what kind of prize money can be expected?

Thus far we have agreements with Intel, Xbox 360, and Fatal1ty Group/Creative Labs to name a few. We are still finalizing negotiations with other companies.

Prizing is another area in which we differ from the other organizations. While we will be putting up a significant amount of prizing- $1 million in prizes for 2006 spread across all of the games and platforms hosted-we will not allow ourselves to be pulled into the "purse wars" that have been escalating over the last 3 years and have frankly weakened some of the organizations. The current rate of growth in cash purses is not sustainable and creates an artificial interest in these events. We need to look at creating a comparable sports model, one that helps generate more media exposure around pro gamers, that ultimately helps grow the size and number of endorsement and licensing deals. Tiger Woods and Tony Hawk make most of their money on endorsements and licensing, not prize money.

Do you have any other pieces of information you would like to share with our audience?

The WSVG website has launched with minimal information so far because we do not wish to make announcements until we are absolutely certain the information we disperse is finalized and accurate. Over the next several weeks, however, more and more details will be released that will please gamers and the public alike. If you would like to receive updates via email regarding our latest announcements, register to receive those updates on our website.

Any final statements?

Simply that through the planning of this project, we have seen a glimpse of what professional gaming can become. We can't wait to share this vision with you all.