A Dream Dies

It was announced a few days ago that the Championship Gaming Series would be closing its doors, just a year from its initial rise. This is a statement from their website:

“Today (November 18) BSkyB, STAR and DIRECTV ended their Championship Gaming Series® (CGS) joint venture.

While the concept was ahead of its time and we are extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished, it became increasingly clear as this ambitious project evolved, that profitability was too far in the future for us to sustain operations in the interim.

Our goal was to be ahead of the curve in the e-sports space, and conceived of CGS as a true sports league. We invested wholeheartedly in the venture and presented viewers with a top-notch production, but the economics just didn’t add up for us at this time.

Our only regret is that we will lose a team of creative and talented individuals who invested their hearts and souls into Championship Gaming Series. We recognize their achievements and thank them for their hard work and passion.

BSkyB, STAR and DIRECTV continue to be committed to the video games sector, which is an important part of many of our customers’ lives and a great source of entertainment.

Now for those of you who don’t know what the CGS was, it was a televised gaming league with National teams of contracted professional players, much like the National Football League, except for gamers. Players and teams specializing in four different games played other “franchises” in hopes of qualifying for the world finals, which had a $1,000,000 prize pot.

When I first heard about the CGS in early 2007, it was pretty hard to believe, even though it was something I wanted to believe ever since I got into competitive gaming. My Counterstrike:Source team at the time had a new goal and persevered enough to eventually get drafted into the UK franchise London Mint, also earning a spot in the world finals in Los Angeles. My part in the first season was an experience I will never forget and I feel deeply disappointed for all the hopefuls waiting for future seasons that won’t get an opportunity like this again for a long time, if at all.

R.I.P CGS

The demise of the CGS is a huge blow to the gaming community, whenever major corporate support leaves the gaming industry and websites worldwide announce yet another dead gaming league, “eSports” takes a big step backwards. Especially in today’s global economy I fear this will be an even bigger step backwards and it’s also a concern that we’ll see other large events go extinct in the next couple months. I’m afraid there will be many dark days ahead and it will probably take years to pick up the pieces and rebuild.