The first worldwide professional gaming league, called the Championship Gaming Series (CGS), has given word that its first six franchise teams will be New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, and Charlotte. Each team already has its own General Manager.

Professional gamer Dave Geffon will be the GM for Team 3D which will be representing New York. The as yet unnamed LA team will be headed by GM Jason Lake who has earned quite a reputation both as a competitor and a recruiter.

Brian Flander from Team Onslaught will be handling GM responsibilities for the Chicago team while gaming journalist Kat Hunter will be holding the GM position at the San Francisco team. President of Team Pandemic Mark Dolven will be Charlotte's GM and Jax Money Crew founder Alex Conroy will be the GM for Dallas.

CGS Commissioner Andy Reif has spoken about this event and the integral roles that the GMs would be having in this game.

We're excited to announce our first six cities and looking forward to unveiling these teams at our inaugural Draft. We’re also very proud of our first group of GMs. Each of them will play a vital role in the success of the league.

The GMs will recruit, draft, and manage their teams and then be responsible for day-to-day management of each franchise. It will be up to the GMs to lead their teams to victory during the upcoming regular season and playoffs. Each of them is scouting talent and will be making their decisions on players to draft after a thorough evaluation at the Region 1 Combine.

The league's top prospects will be duking it out at the Region 1 Combine which will be held from June 9-11 in Los Angeles. Players who participate at the Regional Combine will be eligible for the June 12 CGS Draft to be held at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. Each drafted player will be playing for his team with their salaries coming from the US$ 5 million league payroll.

The season starts June 23 in Los Angeles. Each player will earn a minimum of US$ 30,000, a figure that could very well reach US$ 100,000 in annual salary and bonuses making this a very lucrative profession for those who are aiming to join the league.

A couple of weeks ago, we brought up the topic of the Championship Gaming Series (CGS). The event is best described as an international gaming league established to treat major gaming competitions like pro sports, and the players like pro athletes. And on the matter of going pro, we know what that means: big payoffs.

In a recent press wire being released, it has been reported that the worldwide salaries and bonuses for this year's tournament season is expected to exceed US$ 5-million in expenditures.

"This is the moment the gaming world has been waiting for," commented CGS' recently appointed Commissioner Andy Reif. "We will be paying salaries and bonuses to our players in excess of $5 million dollars during the 2007 season. The time has come for a new era of professional gaming as sports entertainment. Your chance to be a part of history starts on April 28."

This year's CGS event schedule will feature online and live qualifiers, where players will battle to reach the Regional Combine, scheduled to take place at the Fox Studios in Los Angeles from June 8-10. Players from the Regional Combine will then be drafted into one of six city-based teams at the CGS Draft on June 12 at the Playboy Mansion (LA). CGS online qualifiers for the North American region begin on April 28, 2007 with the first live qualifier to be held at The Bridge Cinema de Lux in Los Angeles on May 11-12.

As for the match details, Each CGS team will carry ten players, allocated according to the league's official games. Five of the ten players will comprise a Counter-Strike: Source (PC) team who will compete in five-on-five matches. FIFA 07 (PC) will be played one-on-one. Dead or Alive 4 (Xbox 360) will have a mixed-double team of two  players, one man and one woman, who will play against other teams in one-on-one matches. Project Gotham Racing 3 (Xbox 360) will be represented by two players on each team, with matches being played in a two-versus-two format.

Those are the details being disclosed at the moment - stay tuned in case more details are announced for CGS' status in UK, Europe, Asia, Australia, Latin America, and the Middle East.

With professional video gaming happening for the longest time, it's no surprise that game competitions as of late are becoming just as elaborate as the world of professional sports. With that in mind, we're introducing the Championship Gaming Series (CGS).

As its name implies, the CGS is an international gaming league established to treat major gaming competitions like pro sports, and the players like pro athletes. The league does so by providing for major prizes for tournaments, doling out instant payouts for competing players, and giving heavy media coverage for game competitions.

To help further things along for the league, it has just been announced that Andy Reif has been appointed the new CGS commissioner. Reif's new post requires him to oversee CGS operations as it develops in its operating areas: North America, South America, UK/Europe, and Asia/Australia. Prior to being appointed as the new CGS commissioner, Reif was formerly the chief operating officer for the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour.

"The opportunity to start a major sports league, with global television coverage in more than 100,000,000 homes through DIRECTV (North America and Latin America), BSkyB (UK), and STAR (Asia and Australia), has never happened before," said Reif, as he commented on the resources that CGS would be given as it started off this year's events.

Keep posted in case the league begins announcing more upcoming events for its current line-up of sponsored games: Counter-Strike: Source (PC), FIFA 07 (PC), Dead or Alive 4 (Xbox 360) , and Project Gotham Racing 3 (Xbox 360).