By Mike "LANDodger" Luxion

If you’re reading this article, you probably have some questions about the upcoming Qualifier and Draft for the United Kingdom and Europe. But don’t worry, like a college student that uses his iPhone to access the Internet during a test, I have all the answers.

(What, too corny?)

Before we get to the event in Birmingham, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page. To understand what’s going on there, you need to know about the Championship Gaming Series (CGS).

Essentially, the CGS is a league for people that play video games competitively, and the competitions are broadcast on DirecTV (North and Latin America) along with other international affiliates BSkyB (UK), ESPN Star Sports (Asia), SKY (Mexico, Brazil), and partners like Eurosport (UK/Europe).

It sounds ridiculous, I know, but there are throngs of gaming fans across the world. At a recent non-CGS event called Kode5, over 20,000 people watched a single match over the Internet –- and that was just through one company’s broadcast. There are uncounted thousands that connected via different companies, watched a live stream of the event on a website, or will download the replay and watch it on their computer at home.

And if you have any more questions about popularity, that event was in Russia. Competitive gaming, also called eSports, is quite literally a global phenomenon.
Normally, competitions like Kode 5 reward players for top finishes, in the same way Tiger Woods wins millions of dollars for every title he earns on the PGA tour. Gaming tournaments are mostly unconnected, independent entities. The CGS does things differently, which along with live broadcasts, is why it’s revolutionary. In addition to having gamers from all over the world compete for a $1,000,000 prize purse at the World Final events, they also take home a guaranteed annual salary -- just for playing in the league.

The players themselves make up a larger team. There are eighteen teams worldwide, including six in the United States and four more in Europe and the United Kingdom. They're made of ten gamers that compete across four different games: Counter-Strike: Source, Dead or Alive 4, Forza Motorsports 2, and FIFA 2008 (for more on each game, visit the links). These ten-man teams then compete against other teams in their region for a spot at the World Finals and the aforementioned $1,000,000 prize pool.

I hope you’re still with me. Just to review, here’s the Cliff Notes version: the CGS is a global league where competitive gamers earn guaranteed salaries and compete in a traditional league format with the regular season, playoffs, and a championship where teams are flown in from all over the world.

Now there’s only one thing left: explaining how gamers become affiliated with a team. Unfortunately for you and me, it’s not as easy as being really good at Duck Hunt or the original Super Mario.

Continuing with the league motif, the teams in Europe and the United Kingdom draft players. It works just like any other kind of sports draft. The General Managers stand on stage, make their selections, and the lucky player receives his or her jersey, shakes hands with the appropriate people, and generally realizes that one of their dreams just came true.

The only major difference for the upcoming event is that even though gamers from the UK and Europe will be competing against each other, the teams in each region can only draft players from that region, eg. the London Mint can only draft residents from the UK.

General Managers look for more than just who's got game.

Other than that, to earn a draft pick, literally any gamer can come to the pre-draft event and show the General Managers that they’re worthy of a spot on the team. You don’t need an invite. You don’t need any kind of pedigree or history of previous success in competitive gaming. It’s a party, and providing they meet the age and residency requirements, everybody is invited to the event in Birmingham to show off their skills (or lack thereof).

Once there, players enter a single-elimination tournament in their respective game. Prizes are being awarded for the European and UK event, which is a little different from the other competitions where the pre-draft tournaments don’t have a monetary incentive. But the biggest prize is still, by far, being drafted onto one of the four CGS teams at the competition.

This is partially because the space is limited. Since this is the second season, each team gets to announce their “protected players” after the first day of competition. The concept is pretty simple: protected players were on last year’s team and the GM wants to retain them for the upcoming season. It’s hard to build a fan base if a team keeps losing their best players in the draft, right? There’s only one catch: each GM can only keep up to five players, including one that’s labeled as the Franchise Player.

After the first day ends and GMs announce their protected players, it’s on to Day 2 and the challenge matches.

Challenge matches pit players against each other with one small twist: the GMs get to decide who plays and when. They’ll choose the most interesting match-ups based on draft rankings, strategy, or whatever criteria they choose. For gamers, it’s the last opportunity for players to earn their way into the CGS.

After the challenge matches conclude, it’s draft time. As mentioned earlier, that leads to European and UK playoffs, and the winner in each of those will fly to Los Angeles, California for the World Finals. Rinse and repeat for next season.

There’s only one more aspect: side tournaments. Certain games in the CGS aren’t affiliated with the team competitions; they’re stand-alone tournaments that the CGS runs. For the European/UK competition in Birmingham, there’s a Call of Duty 4 tournament that’s also open to the public, but it doesn’t have any impact on the league because it is not an official league game. The same goes for World of Warcraft, which is currently in its second year as a side game.

And that, friends, is all you ever wanted to know about the European and United Kingdom Qualifier and Draft. If you have any more questions about the event, I highly recommend attending. In the end, this explanation is just text. The best way to understand competitive gaming, and the upcoming event, is to see the passion and dedication of the gamers. They’ve dedicated years of their lives to training and perfecting their crafts, and it is really a dream come true when they get drafted. You won’t be disappointed.