Los Angeles, CA - The Championship Gaming Series qualifiers continue on LAN in the second event of the 2007 season. An elite group of teams and players are starting to assemble at The Bridge: Cinema de Lux in sunny southern California in hopes of being one of the coveted few to qualify and be drafted in this inaugural season of the CGS.

Through a series of online and LAN event qualifiers, winning teams and players will be provided money and a berth to the CGS Region 1 National Combine event to take place June 9th-11th and the inuagural draft taking place at the Playboy Mansion June 12th. From this, six franchises will be created, players will be salaried and the first true professional gaming league will be born.

The second LAN qualifier for this season will take place at the Bridge in Los Angeles and seeks to provide a very unique and new experience for gamers and spectators alike. A recent Reuters article on washingtonpost.com discusses this unique viewing experience and combined arena/theater atmosphere as well the unique efforts of a movie theater chain becoming involved in eSports.

The series and this qualifier will host tournaments in four games, two for PC and two for the Xbox 360 console. The official games are Counter-Strike: Source for PC, FIFA 07 for PC, Dead Or Alive 4 and Project Gotham Racing 3 for the Xbox. Two teams will qualify from CS: Source, four players from FIFA, six players from PGR, four men and four women from DOA for the CGS Region 1 National Combine event to take place in June. Each qualifier also recieves $500 in travel expenses.

This first season of the CGS has caused quite a bit of excitement and apprehension from the established eSports community and all eyes will be turning towards Los Angeles this weekend for indications of what can be expected from the CGS. Probably the most interest and apprehension has come from the Counter Strike community as the league has already managed to change the face of north American CS. By using the Counter-Strike: Source version for this series, the CGS put in motion a shift of professional CS teams from Counter-Strike 1.6 to Counter-Strike: Source.

After the initial CGS announcement in early 2007, Complexity, Team 3D, Jax Money Crew, EG and more signed up and played in this past season of CEVO Pro Source and have committed to playing CS:S in order to qualify for the CGS. One of the last CS 1.6 holdouts, Pandemic, finds itself competing this weekend in an effort to qualify a CS:S team for the series.

Pandemic will face other former CS 1.6 teams in the likes of JMC, zEx, iDemise and more. Having previously been announced as confimed franchise teams, Complexity and Team 3D will be absent from the qualifier. Also absent will be teams Hyper and Forbidden as the pair have already qualified for the Combine through online and LAN qualifiers respectively. This should also be a good chance for some of the veteran CS:S players to make a showing as well with teams like the Sex Pistols and VisualGaming attending.

As always, stick with GotFrag for full coverage of the event with melees, scoreboards and more. Source TV, scorebot, video and shoutcast information will be posted if and when that information is available so keep checking in for match times and more in the melees and a look at the future superstars of eSports.

CGS Qualifier at the Bridge Schedule
CS: Source - 1pm PST Saturday - 16 teams

FIFA 07 Friday - 6pm PST - 16 players
FIFA 07 Saturday - 2:30pm PST - 16 players

DOA4 Men Friday - 6pm PST - 16 players
DOA4 Women Friday - 8pm PST - 16 players
DOA4 Men Saturday - 32 players - Session 1: 2:30pm PST, 32 players - Session 2: 7:30pm PST
DOA4 Women Saturday - 5:30pm PST - 16 players

PGR3 Friday - 16 players - Session 1: 6:00pm PST, 16 players - Session 2: 8:00pm PST
PGR3 Saturday - 16 players - Session 1 (4 Heats of 4 Players) Begins: 2:00pm PST
16 players - Session 2 (4 Heats of 4 Players) Begins: 4:00pm PST
16 players - Session 3 (4 Heats of 4 Players) Begins: 6:00pm PST
16 players - Session 4 (4 Heats of 4 Players) Begins: 8:00pm PST

Sources:
www.championshipgamingseries.com
www.washingtonpost.com
Reuters
www.teampandemic.net