CGS League Play Week One Retrospective

Professional gaming as we know it was changed forever mere weeks ago with the inaugural Championship Gaming Series draft, held at the world-famous Playboy Mansion, with all six CGS Franchises signing their picks to take them to the World Finals. Over the course of the last few weeks, the players threw themselves into intense training, some even traveling across the country to train with their new teammates, all with the desire to be nothing less than the best in the world. That drive was finally put to the test this last Wednesday, June 27th, with the official kick off of league play.

Day 1: June 27

Starting at 5:00pm PST, the Championship Gaming Series officially kicked off its first matches with New York’s 3D pitted against the Carolina Core. Despite several standout performances by 3D, most notably CaliJared’s upset of favorite Ryan “OffbeatNinja” Ward in Dead or Alive 4, and Wizakor’s impressive 6 point victory over peekay in FIFA, Carolina scored the first win in CGS history at 28-25.

The next set of matches took place between the Chicago Chimera and early favorite San Francisco Optx. Chicago’s Chomper and teammate Jason X showed why they are the number one PGR3 team in the league with a crushing 8-1 victory over Beisbol and Skittles. The rather decisive win in PGR3 didn’t prove enough to salvage a victory though, as San Francisco took the remainder of the events. Dave Cheppelle and number one draft pick overall Vanessa Arteaga dominated their opponents in Dead or Alive 4, losing only one match point between the two of them, despite what was initially thought to be strong competition from fan favorites Black Mamba and Kasumi Chan. San Francisco took the match 25-18.

The final competition for the night would be Dallas’ Venom versus Los Angeles’ Complexity. Going into the season, many believed that Dallas was the single strongest franchise, and they did nothing to dissuade analysts and fans alike of that notion. A close match in Counter Strike: Source was offset by a fairly major loss to LA’s arguably superior PGR3 team. However, Dallas still had their incredibly strong Dead or Alive 4 and FIFA teams in reserve. CGI ’06 and ’07 Dead or Alive 4 champion Emmanuel “MASTER” Rodriguez proved his worth by taking a 5-2 win over strong competitor and personal friend Adande “sWooZie” Thorne. Cynthia “RaspberryTea” Escamilla, widely considered the second strongest female in the Dead or Alive 4 ranks, pulled an impressive 5-1 victory over newcomer Belle, losing the only match point due to pressing the start button during match play, which is considered a foul and instant loss of the round. To finish it all off, Novusnaim took out KreeganBG in FIFA 3-1, securing Dallas the victory at a final total of 24-20.