The Fight For a Regular Season

Posted by: bootman

One of the hottest topics on the global level of the Championship Gaming Series this season, and even last, has been the fact that the only region in the league that has a real regular season is the North American region. Many say that there is less practice involved when not being able to have a regular season, but even more so, the players don't have much time to get used to the flashing lights and the cameras that are presented during the televised season. I can personally see both sides of this debate, and I'll discuss both sides and in the end I will let you decided which is better.

There are a few perks of a regular season in the CGS, but not many besides the fact that you get to spend more time in Los Angeles lounging around with your teammates as well as your opponents who you may only see once a year at most. There are 12 matches that the North American players play in a LAN, or off-line environment, and the players also get to play some televised matches before the playoffs and the region 1 finals. But for many North American players, some find it much easier to be in one of the other regions. They have the benefit of the same salary for half of the time spent working for the year, who can argue with that?

Now I will go into each of the aspects of region one having a regular season, and I'll try to show both sides of the coin. Some of you may think I am showing complete bias in this portion, but please keep an open mind during this portion of the article.

More Stage Time

Yes, the North American teams did have more opportunities to play on the big stage, but really not by much. Unfortunately the calendar is no longer up on the main website, but it really shows the fact that there was actually a lack of stage time when you think about how many opportunities there were to play on the stage.

The first two weeks of the season were played in the EA studios where there was one main crane camera, and there were about 4 cameramen that would stick a camera in the players' faces while they played. During the EA studio matches, the North American teams crammed in six matches each, that's half of the season right there. Once the DirecTV season started, there were still limited televised matches, and teams were to play at the CGS offices, some teams were only able to play 3 or 4 matches that actually took place in the Barkar Hangar.

I can completely understand stage fright, and it happens, but this is a professional league, and it's not different than any other sport. Some rookies not used to TV come to play, and others let their emotions take the best of them and it can cost a team a match with just one slip up. That brings up my next point.

The Rookies

This season we saw amazing play from players such as Phoenix and Brawwwwr, to use Venom players as an example. These two were introduced to the stage and dominated. Look at Phoenix, her first stage match of the season she accomplished what no other female has, she beat Vanessa. For many others that were hyped for the season, the “stage factor” was their downfall. When it comes down to it, it's all based on self confidence and a desire to win, and if you think the cameras and the audience are scary, this is the wrong career for you. While some players love the camera, others fear it. There are still players from season 1 from North America that still have huge amounts of stage fright, so it's kind of hard saying that the North American regular season is beneficial to them in this aspect.

Practice

There are some good points brought up about the other regions not having the same amount of practice or the advantage of living at the Oakwoods for a month prior to the world finals and being able to practice with the best of the best, but you can still practice.

I come from a counter-strike background as many of you may know, and that's why I don't really agree with the fact that the players not being able to practice as much is kind of a poor excuse. During the prime of the 1.6 days with international tournaments running throughout the year, other countries would humiliate the North American teams when they came, and I still believe the North Americans had more practice against one another, but it wasn't quality, but we still saw some teams shine, such as compLexity and Team3D.

These were times when the players would take the large amounts of money that they had from sponsors, salaries, and tournament winnings and use them to bootcamp with other domestic teams, or even go to other countries to practice prior to events. What happened to those days? I can point out at least a dozen players from other regions that spent extra time in LA or somewhere in North America to vacation. In my opinion, if practice and the World Finals meant that much to these players, rather than using their extra cash to stay after they were knocked out, they should have invested it in coming early to get some extra practice in.

One major aspect that many fans, as well as players, from the other regions aren't considering is the money that that CGS is putting into this league, and it is still an infant in the big world of television. Think about the added expenses of providing every other country with a full season. There's the expense of renting out a studio or a venue, the salaries of the camera crew and the rest of the television editing staff and much, much more. I remember hearing a number thrown around in passing about the Barker Hangar costing somewhere around $30,000 a day to televise a CGS match.

Can you imagine that?

It cost the salary of a single player to use the studio for just one day, and I don't even know if that number included all the equipment used and to pay the crew for the show. I'm sure that one day after the CGS has some bigger investors and are able to spend that kind of money regularly in other countries, they will. But right now with the league being so young and primarily based out of the United States, it's understandable why it started in the states with the regular season. Not only that, but the other regions don't have the amount of teams yet to really keep a full twelve match season.

With the Europe/UK region coming in a close second to region 1 with a total of four teams, the mixed region of Pan-Asia has four teams combined, and Latin America sits with two. Once again, money is a key issue. More teams per region equals more salaries and upkeep that must be put in that just seems really unrealistic at this point in time.

I'm not saying that the other regions don't deserve the perks of region 1, but I think the combination of the feeling that it seems as though not having a regular season just sounds like excuses, it just doesn't sound financially possible for the league yet. I am sure if the CGS had an unlimited amount of money and resources, every region would have ten or more teams to fill a regular season, but they haven't reached that point with the league yet.

If you took this article the wrong way, I apologize, but I've always been a firm believer that everyone is equal and has the same opportunities to surprise the world with greatness no matter what the handicap is. Salvo is a great example of this. They came into the 2008 year with the same lack of a regular season as everyone else, and they showed domination in every one of the games as most of the North American teams did. I think it really boils down to heart, confidence, and drive that makes a CGS champion, and not the more play time you have in front of cameras. So the next time you are sitting down and decided to post on the CGS forums about how unfair it is for every other region in the league, remember the Salvo and how they rose to greatness in the second season of the CGS and made their mark in gaming history.