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Television Media Entertainment Games

US Companies Sponsor Pro Gamers 228

Posted by CmdrTaco from the another-concept-i-just-don't-get dept.
Baddox writes "Professional gaming, which has for some time now been a popular venture in Asia, is finally starting to get some attention from big US companies. Teams for competitive shooters like Counter Strike are getting sponsored by large corporations like Johnson and Johnson. The article poses the question, "Is 'frags per round' going to be the batting average of the 21st century?" "
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US Companies Sponsor Pro Gamers More

US Companies Sponsor Pro Gamers

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  • Whatever. (Score:4, Funny)

    by krymsin01 ( 700838 ) on Wednesday September 14, 2005 @09:53AM (#13556681) Homepage Journal
    That kid from Wizard rules over all of you.
  • Of course companies like Johnson and Johnson are sponsoring video game tournaments. Video game players are in the perfect demographic for most marketing efforts.

  • Not Really (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mfh ( 56 ) on Wednesday September 14, 2005 @09:55AM (#13556704) Homepage Journal
    Is 'frags per round' going to be the batting average of the 21st century?

    No. Our generation might be geeks but I think, for myself at least, the beauty of online gaming is not quantity but quality. That is pretty much the same for football for me too... it's the big plays that matter and make a game worth watching. It's awesome to watch a game where some professional gamer goes on a crazy rampage, doing all kinds of freaky/impossible moves and stuff, and that is the main draw to those events (as well as the celebrity factor), not the stats. With baseball, stats have to be the draw because the game is very slow.

    • Re:Not Really (Score:2, Interesting)

      by oskard ( 715652 )
      I agree. Its all in the player and team. Kyle Miller, aka KSharp, is on Team 3D. They have represented the United States at the WCG for about 4 consecutive times now, despite have major lineup issues this past year. Kyle performed very well this trial, and picked up one ace round. That's when one guy kills all of the 5 on the other team. It was exciting, and even though he didn't have the highest kill count at the end of the game, he was the most talked about player. This article is funny, it starts

    • Re:Not Really (Score:3, Interesting)

      by DrugCheese ( 266151 )
      Great point. Did people watch Dennis Rodman because he was going to get another rebound any second now! No they watched because of his character.

      I think the good players tend to relax a little more and let their characters out and people tend to like/dislike them on their character more then their stats. Yes at the same time these are the people pushing our favorite teams to win games which is a bonus. But Randy Moss is an asshole, I don't care how good he is, his stats rank second to his character in my bo
      • I dunno... I'm thinking you guys have never seen the complete frag. Now that's character.

        In any case, games will become more expressive because that's what people want. Ever since the first 'tag' textures in MP games people have found a way to express themselves differently from others. When virtual reality hits big, there will be even more expression in games.

        And of course there's smack talk during the game - the best smacker will get a big following for sure. Behaviour off the 'court' will be a big factor
        • Most online leagues have pretty strict rules about trash talking and other unsportsmanlike conduct. Even if it were allowed, first of all there is no way a player from one team can verbally communicate with a player from the opposing team, unless they are physically within earshot of each other. Second, typing a message to the other team stops the player from what he or she is doing while they type the message... in most cases not a very smart thing to do.

          However, in reply to the parent, visual custom
    • Baseball, that rounders game ? I thought they were referring to Cricket.
    • "Is 'frags per round' going to be the batting average of the 21st century?"

      I agree, but for a different reason. Some of the beauty of sports is the generational association, remebering the game as it was when you were young, watching a Yankees game with your dad, then doing the same thing 40 years later.

      The pace of technology will obsolete games so quickly that this particular appeal will be lost.

      • I think the pace is slowing down a lot. Today's counter strike is more or less the same as when the game first showed up. Giving the game a better graphics is not going to change the game play much. And minor changes like letting people uses two pistols don't change the game that much. I expect I could watch a game of counter strike 2020 and follow the game just fine.

        Besides, if this ever catches on as much as say basketball did then there will be a lot of pressure to keep the game basically the same

    • Re:Not Really (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Saxerman ( 253676 ) *
      It's awesome to watch a game where some professional gamer goes on a crazy rampage, doing all kinds of freaky/impossible moves and stuff, and that is the main draw to those events (as well as the celebrity factor), not the stats.

      I agree, yet this is also the main limitation of 'e-sports' vs. the more conventional kind. In the really real world we don't have artificially coded limits to how fast we can run or how high we can jump. The software and hardware plays too large a part of the game for people t

      • While the game may implement certain restrictions on a player's avatar, there is still a wide variety of things that amatures just can't do. The computer does not have rules for how well you can aim (compared with other players), or how well you can micromanage (in terms of games like Starcraft). If you never have, I suggest finding a "VOD" of a professional South Korean Starcraft game. Then try doing it yourself. You'll see what I mean.
    • Geeks aren't the only people playing games these days. There are people who watch sports and are stats freaks. There are people who watch sports to see the amazing big plays. Stat pages for servers wouldn't be up if people didn't care about stats. Some people's stats make them celebrities. So the person with the best frags per round in the league would probably be seen as a valuable player...just as much as the person with the most receptions would be valuable in football. Sort of goes hand in hand.

  • Well, not new... (Score:5, Informative)

    by rwven ( 663186 ) on Wednesday September 14, 2005 @09:56AM (#13556712)
    I'm not trying to troll here, but this sort of thing has been going on for years. Intel and other big names have been sponsoring top clans and individual gamers for a while now. A lot of people have small computer businesses in their towns sponsoring their clans and stuff too. It's very common for internet cafe's to sponsor teams as well. I'm not sure why this is being reported as a "new thing" because it's most definately not.
    • I'm not sure why this is being reported as a "new thing" because it's most definately not.

      What is new is that up until now, computer related companies have been doing the sponsoring. There's nothing computer related about Johnson and Johnson's baby rash powder (at least at the moment. Wait until the new and improved nanobot rash powder is created).
    • It's not a common thing for large companies to sponsor players, but it is common for them to sponsor the actual LANs that the players compete at. It does happen of course, just look at Jonathan "Fata1ity" Wendell [fatal1ty.com]. He has had sponsorship for quite some time now.

      I'm sure it will become more common, but the poster of the article makes it seem like video games is going to explode into a major sport. I do not see this happening in the US anytime soon. People have been perdicting that it will in the US fo
    • It's new when non-computer companies decide to sponser these events. It's nothing spectacular if nVidia sponsers a game - hell thats just advertisment for their product. It is something spectacular when a company that advertises itself as "baby safe" is sponsering a game that's entire purpose is to kill the opposition.

  • Corporate Logos (Score:5, Funny)

    by DarthBart ( 640519 ) on Wednesday September 14, 2005 @09:58AM (#13556728)
    So now we'll see Unreal skins with "BUDWEISER" and "MARLBORO" all over them.

    And just think of the TV commercials. "Red Bull, the official drink of the 2006 Counterstrike World Championship". Or "KY Brand Lubricant - The official masturbatory lubricant of the 2006 Counterstrike World Championship".

  • Two different worlds (Score:4, Insightful)

    by sexyrexy ( 793497 ) on Wednesday September 14, 2005 @10:00AM (#13556743)
    The world of Slashdot readers is populated with a high percentage of people who are actually interested in a professional gamer's KTD. The rest of the world is not.

    And it's not just because the rest of the world is still populated primarily by the sort of middle aged and old folks who still don't understand computers. Go to any high school, any college campus in the modern world and most of the students care about rugby, or football, or what have you. They will grow old continuing to care about such things, and it will not be a generational change. This will always be fringe.
    • You're right, the society will never change, things that are popular today will still be popular in a 100 years, no difference, no sir.
    • I disagree. With the exception of you guys, I do not know ONE person who reads /. or similar forums - but I know MANY people who play computer games. They range from the geek to the preppy and all thats in between.

      Yes it will be about KDR's and the like. People do not talk about the "quality" of football (well not regularly) but they talk about the yards thrown of a quarterback. So it will be for gaming - though in this industry I doubt a game like CS: Source will last more then 2-3 years while footb

  • J&J Has a hidden agenda though... (Score:5, Funny)

    by HerculesMO ( 693085 ) on Wednesday September 14, 2005 @10:02AM (#13556763)
    They are testing a new pill that treats epileptic seizures.

    They are hoping that enough people start watching the games they sponsor so they are start going into convulsions, then BOOYAH! J&J to the rescue!

    Profit!

  • Well, let's get something straight (Score:5, Insightful)

    by user43 ( 914706 ) on Wednesday September 14, 2005 @10:04AM (#13556789)

    The word sponsorship itself can mean an array of different things.

    Right now, pro gamers only get sponsored for things like travel, clothes, computer parts, food, etc. They may even get a salary, but this salary more often than not is not enough to live on.

    This of course is much better that nothing, but still, computer gaming has a ways to go before it catches up to "real" sports in terms of sponsorship money and recognition.

    • Angel Munoz, CEO of the Cyberathlete Professional League, has stated in a few interviews that he would like to start a franchise league in the United States. Teams representing each state, drafts, and even 'stadiums' (cyber cafes). I suspect if this is implemented, we'll see a slew of undiscovered gamers being used as marketting tools, and not only that, but gamer salaries increasing severely.

      On the other hand, its a commonly known issue that it takes more than skill to make it to the top. A lot of it
    • Found myself seated next to a LPGA pro a few weeks ago. Afterward, I looked her statistics up: In 12 years as a pro, she made a bit over $100k from tournaments, and she's rated just below 100th in lifetime earnings. I don't know what her endorsements made her, but they'd have to have been insanely high to get her beyond $25k a year from that low of a start.

      There's money enough for a top-ten player in lesser sports, but (outside of men's baseball, football, basketball and soccer) nearly every "real" sport

  • Replacing traditional sports sponsorship? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Red Flayer ( 890720 ) on Wednesday September 14, 2005 @10:05AM (#13556804) Journal
    FTA: "Manufacturers keep putting out new games and game consoles, obsoleting the old."

    Someone's editor forgot to grammarize the article.

    I don't think anyone's marketing budget for traditional sports is going to be cut. Sports like basketball and football are not declining in popularity among the demographic they are trying to reach.

    Gamer sponsorship is a drop in the bucket for these companies (like Johnson & Johnson). I don't think televised gaming is going to be big in the US for a very, very long time. South Korea, however, as well as China in the near future, is a market where sponsorship could pay off quite well, especially for companies thathave low brand recognition there.

  • On a more serious note... a question, sorry OT (Score:4, Interesting)

    by HerculesMO ( 693085 ) on Wednesday September 14, 2005 @10:06AM (#13556820)
    Kind of off topic but nonetheless...

    I've been playing first person shooters for years now, and I have convinced myself that I'm pretty damned good at them. I read all about these gaming leagues and such, but the question is, how do I join in one to see if my skills are as good as I think they are?

    There has to be a way to 'work up the ranks' and I've found myself amazingly good (yes, I'm gloating) at games like Quake3 or Unreal Tournament 2004 -- twitch based games. I want to get online and compete in deathmatches to see how well I do, but I know a *lot* of people out there are hackers and such, so I want an arena in which I can have an even playing field.

    That said, so I don't get modded OT, J&J is just getting money into the realm of gaming -- it doesn't really matter whether or not it's online gaming now. It's just something people watch, and something J&J can use to market itself. It's business, and it always is. Intel doesn't sponsor the gaming clans out of the good of their hearts. Well, Intel does it because they know they suck compared to AMD in gaming. Oh well... money talks!
    • Having played games at the high level, all it takes is joining and winning small sponsored tourneys until you get invitations or are able to get into the large tourneys through some kind of lower level speed tourney.

    • Judging from your post, you have not played much competitive gaming at all. Get online and don't worry about hackers. I used to be very involved counter strike and was quite good, and if someone joined with an aim bot or something similar, I still stood a chance. Compared to the guys who got sponsorships though, I completely sucked.

      Nothing is funnier than seeing someone with cheats loaded get owned by someone with true skill.
      • Counterstrike is a team based game generally, and too slow paced for me. Don't get me wrong -- I like the game and play it a lot -- and I do really well (even against hackers at times), but it's too slow.

        Hackers in Quake3 and UT2004 can railgun you while jumping off a bouncer pad and strafing.. it's impossible to block and no amount of 'skill' can fix that, unfortunately.

        I'm sure that there are tons of people better than me. I just want to see where I stack up compared to these 'pro' guys. I mean, it doesn'
    • Your question confuses me a lot. Have you just been playing single player fps? It's pretty obvious if you play multiplayer there are "clans". They all wear their little tags. If you impress them, usually they will bug you to join..or you can bug them. A lot of these people play on ladders (like cal for cs). There are different levels for each ladder. You will learn who the good clans are and where they are play. So yes, you can work your way up. But if you were really that good, a clan probably wou
    • Yeah, uhm. Q3 is so old that anyone 'hacking' is just sad. 50% of the time you can beat them anyways. I suggest you get online before you call yourself 'pretty damned good' - I can kill lots and lots of bots, but when it comes down to it I'm not really that great. Despite more hours of playtime than anyone I know online or off, I'm pretty much average or slightly below until I get a good run at Rocket Arena 3, my game of choice. It's kinda sad really.


    • You might want to join irc channels and play in some pickup games to see how your skill level is.

      As far as team games, doing well on public game servers is much easier than doing well on a server where the participants are specifically chosen to play. That vs a random set of people who drop in and out constantly and don't have any incentive to work with the team (yipee, high KD ration player but his team loses most of the time!)

      irc://irc.gamesurge.net is one good place to look for challenging pla
  • I've recently had my eyes opened, by this article [freewarehof.org], to the hidden costs of advertising.

    My own executive summary: Advertising makes products more expensive, because corporations that advertise their products sure as hell don't pay for the ads out of their own pockets.

    Meaning: Any money going into gaming (and advertising therein) is going to jack up the price of the advertised products. So if I buy those products, I have to pay a few elite whoring twitch wizards whether I want to or not.

    My personal conclusion:
    • Of course the money of advertizing comes from the money earned by selling the products being advertized... It just kind of makes sense. Each and every product out there, no matter how good they are in and of themselves, won't sell if no one knows they exist. Marketing is all about getting your product in mind of people you think will buy it, which is the whole purpose of making a product.

      Hell, research and development drive up the prices too, and rarely do I hear slashdot complain when nVidia or ATI find
      • Hell, research and development drive up the prices too, and rarely do I hear slashdot complain when nVidia or ATI find some new way to tweak your eye-balls.

        No, but you do hear them complaining that systems from Sun and Apple cost more than systems from Dell, and that Itanium was a waste of money. Slashdot seems to have quite a negative attitude to R&D.

    • If you don't want to pay for advertising, buy the generic/store brand of whatever product it is and quit bitching. Businesses wouldn't spend so much money on advertizing if it didn't work.
  • Professional gaming has been going on for a long time even in North America, but the gamers are usually sponsored by Computer companies like ATI or NVidia, not a non industry related company, Like Johnson and Johnson. In Korea its absolutley crazy, especially with Starcraft ive seen some video streams of these guys wearing fifa gear while playing Starcraft. South Korea's economy is pretty much based on Starcraft, ive seen Starcraft chips and drinks.

  • Good! There'll finally be something worth watching (Score:3, Interesting)

    by deathcloset ( 626704 ) on Wednesday September 14, 2005 @10:18AM (#13556915) Journal
    Perhaps I am in a minority, but I actually enjoy watching a well played frag fest.

    Seriously, sometimes I've made myself a nice, warm bowl of soup and maybe a muffin or a crepe and I can't be bothered to actually play the game. So I'll just log into a large server and spectate the match.

    I've actually often wished that there was a fragcaster who would fly the free-cam around to catch the better action from above.

    I know it's common amoungst my friends for more people to be watching the computer screen than the Television. I mean, these online games are the only thing that I can throw around jargon with the boys about. American Football I like occasionally, basketball a bit less and baseball and I had a serious falling-out after the strikes.

    This is wunderbar! I see these future "cyberatheletes" as something of a fusion between athelete and actor - maybe the better word is "performer". After all, what's more fun that watching someone get pwned (that means "owned")? I'll tell you, watching someone whine whilst recieving the pwnage - that's what :D
    • Hmm, I can't see the excitement. Certainly there are some cool fps videos, but I mean, I'm pretty good at fp shooters, but I'm not good at say, running and catching things, and I'd rather watch things I can't do myself like football then watch things I could be doing myself, like moving a mouse and fragging people.

      Moreover, to be a champion at UT doesn't mean you are naturally any good at, say, Battlefield 2 because the timing and movement is slightly different, wherein someone who's fast would be welcome
  • Amazing on how you can make money by sitting at a computer screen playing games and getting fat. Am I jealous... hell yeah. Cush job playing video games, at least athletes have to work out and stay in shape and pop roids(not all athletes pop roids, just the one that have biceps the size of my leg) I can go tell my parents they were wrong, I can too make money playing video games.

    It would be intersting to do a study on the overall health condition of pro gamers vs. normal 9-5ers.
    • "I can too make money playing video games."

      No you can't. A group of 50 or so savant-equivalent individuals who devote their lives to gaming can.

  • Any companies out there willing to sponser the first live speed running tornament? Considering the dedication some people put into making their runs top-notch [speeddemosarchive.com], I think they'd definitely qualify as "pro" gamers.
  • Video Games are fun, but hopefully with Poker and other games starting to get more air time I'll be able to watch my Monday Night Foosball, join a Fantasy Foosball League and watch the first riots when one University Team beats another one.

    Until then I guess I'll have to be happy with The Ocho.
  • ... too many CounterStrike jokes ...

    "[Microsoft]BillG (Terrorist): HAX! We can't handle that."

    "[Halliburton]VPCheney (Counter Terroris): Why are the Ts killing hostages? Admin kick them!"

    "Hey [Warner]EltonJohn is camping again!"

    "[USA]Dubya has been kicked for having a high ping."
    (he's slow)

  • Gaming will never take over (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Metaldsa ( 162825 ) on Wednesday September 14, 2005 @10:40AM (#13557103)
    Simply from the fact that our society praises the biggest, strongest, and most beautiful. Just because bowling is popular doesn't mean we recognise the best. I think gaming will be the same where it will have a following but never such fame as football, baseball, basketball, or hockey. I highly doubt computer gaming will ever have a Brett Favre, Michael Jordon, and Barry Bonds that commentators talk about 24/7.
    • Simply from the fact that our society praises the biggest, strongest, and most beautiful.

      I think it's a bit more nuanced than that. People enjoy watching other humans do incredible things with their bodies. Even people who aren't sports nuts enjoy watching the Olympics simply because it's amazing to see someone run that fast, or be that graceful. There is an element in athletics of pushing beyond normal human boundaries, and in a half-human, half-machine endeavor like computer gaming there just isn't the

  • Expect things like:

    • Gaming Coaches - Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.
    • Gamer cards - Who has the right to be on them? The gamers or their alter egos (e.g., Mario, Max Payne, Duke, etc.)? Or their alter egos' creators?
    • Microsoft Stadium - Oh, wait, there is an MS Stadium!
    • Video Games - Games of gamers gaming.

  • Internet enabled (Score:3, Informative)

    by Danathar ( 267989 ) on Wednesday September 14, 2005 @10:45AM (#13557146) Journal
    What many people don't realize is that the internet effectively allows a small group of people that are worldwide to be effectively communicated to by an advertizer.

    So...even though the world of multiplayer gaming may be a niche population, the net effectively increases it's value to advertizers because it's easier to reach them through common connections between consumers...in this case the common connection the game they all play.

    The same population in the 80's playing a game would not be viable because of how spread out the players are over the world and how disconnected they are from each other.

  • First it will increase the people who want to be professional game players. So they will let more kids to slide on their homework with the excuse that they could make a living playing video games. Secondly these people will play online with handles so newbe player or person playing for fun won't have a chance to win against a person who's skills are specialized for playing that game. Unlink playing normal sports because of location, and lack of anonymity you rarely play against a professional baseball play

  • "Pro Gaming" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dannyitc ( 892023 ) on Wednesday September 14, 2005 @11:10AM (#13557379)
    Here's my theory as to why the idea of "pro gamers" will never catch on. In today's society, sports stars are pretty much celebrities. Technical skill helps, sure, but nowadays the average joe watches sports usually because of either team/city loyalty (sports have a leg up of about a century in this respect) or they enjoy watching a certain athlete perform. One of the biggest reasons that people are drawn to elite athletes are their ability to perform at a level that is pretty much untouchable. No one sitting at home ever seriously thinks they could have gotten a couple more yards than Vick did on a scramble, for instance. This is really not the case with "pro-gaming." Being a semi-competitive CS player for a couple of years, you really get the sense that if you were still in high school or did not have a fruitful real life job (as is the case with the vast majority of "pro gamers") and could afford to spend 8+ hours in front of a monitor playing games you could do just as well as the "elite" players. Having seen players rise to the absolute cream of the crop of gaming in a matter of months justifies this. Another thing is the personality, maturity, and charisma these "pro gamers" exhibit, which is pretty much none. Real sports are a great way to build social skills at an early age, and most elite athletes have a personality (for better or worse) that is at least interesting, can make conversation and feed the media, are athletically fit, and in general project an image that is marketable, above all else. The environment of the pro-gamer seems to work against all of these qualities. All in all, sports succeed because they are marketable, and they are marketable because people can either relate to or are impressed by them. I think any sort of professional gaming has severe defecits in these areas and will not be seeing any sort of mainstream penetrance anytime soon.
  • Look, I've probably fired more rounds than many people, having qual'd as a sharpshooter on three weapons in the Army, but I think IMHO that frags-per-round is just a temporary thing, in that gaming is already showing signs of getting bored with the preponderance of FPS.

    My guess is pets per hour, or here-boys-per-hour, in Nintendogs is likely to be a more useful stat over the next few years, as gaming - again, as it always does - moves on to the next best thing.
  • Simply put, for a competitive activity to catch on as a spectator sport, it must be physical and have a good deal of action. There are orgainsed competitions for all sorts of things, from chess to tiddlywinks to rock-paper-scissors, but people won't tune in unless there's action. Even golf and bowling have more action than watching someone peck at a keyboard or twiddle a joystick.

    There's also the issue of charisma and looks. Athletes are successful only partly because of a certain celebrity appeal cau

  • Now I have a GOAL to reach for! (Score:3, Funny)

    by GecKo213 ( 890491 ) on Wednesday September 14, 2005 @11:54AM (#13557822) Homepage
    Mumbles...and everybody told me that I'd never amount to anything playing video games.

    Screaming from the highest Mountain Top: "Look at me now! I am the Champion of the UNIVERSE! I've got my own gamer clothing line, (No need for washing, play 24 hours a day and smell fresh as a rose!) my Own Cologne and Perfume, (No need for showering, smell fresh as a rose all hours of the day)" and my own line of shoes! (Nike and Reebook are still trying to work on the fresh as a rose thing here! First one there gets to have me sponsor it!)

    I can't wait until I can get my next pair of cross trainer shoes sponsored by little Tommy Frag Master of the Online World 2006!

  • It will be tough for games to ever be taken seriously as sports. Sports are something we are all taught in PE. You are guaranteed to learn the basic rules of football, baseball, and soccer. And square dancing, but I seriously think that is just a form of punishment...or at the very least something the teachers make us do to laugh at us. There is no class that teaches the rules of Quake, Counter Strike, or UT. So the general public is not introduced to gaming at the scale that sports is.

    Another diffe

  • Brought to you by Johnson and Johnson (Score:4, Funny)

    by Call Me Black Cloud ( 616282 ) on Wednesday September 14, 2005 @12:25PM (#13558099)

    "I use Q-Tip brand cotton swabs by Johnson and Johnson because they dig out 34% more earwax* than store brand swabs. My game has improved since switching to Q-Tips as I can now more clearly hear the CTs sneaking up to rescue the hosties."

    "Ever since we equipped our BF2 Medics with Band-aid brand bandages from Johnson and Johnson, our team recovers more quickly compared to when he would just lick the wounds."

    * - Q-tips should only be used in the outer ear to prevent impaction of wax or damage to the eardrum.

    In researching this post I learned that Q-tips were originally called "Baby Gays". It's true! Check for yourself... [qtips.com]
    • J&J sells cotton swabs, but Q-Tip brand cotton swabs are made by Cheeseborough-Ponds which was acquired by Unilever in 1987.

      Which could be found on the same web site you posted.

      Another funny post falls to pedantry.

  • I will watch televised video gaming when... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by east coast ( 590680 ) on Wednesday September 14, 2005 @04:24PM (#13560391)
    They need to change a few things and I will be interested:

    1. Have new maps that players are not familure with, it goes from running a pattern to "thinking on your feet". Now that's exciting.

    2. Have the players feel pain. Hell yeah, hook up a few electrodes and when they get shot/bashed they feel some pain. This is what made paintball exciting to me; knowing that bad play leads to more then just "Oh shucks, I got hit".

    3. Overhead map views for the spectator. It makes it less confussing as to the tactics of a well balanced team.

    4. Base some stats on the real life player. Have them run and see how fast they go, make the online player do the same. Test for accuracy and how accurate a guy is with a glock when doing a full out run away from a target or better yet see how well they aim their 15 pound H&K G-3 after running a quarter mile while wearing full gear including a vest.

    5. This applies more twords all FPS games and not just tourney play; have weapons fail. Granted it doesn't happen too often IRL with decently maintained firearms but it's adds an element of surprise as your brand new P90 stovepipes in the middle of a 3 on 1 firefight.
  • The Campers Cup is brought to you by "Campers Gear".

    T0ny is one of the expert campers sponsored by "Campers Gear", hiding under a staircase and outfitted with "Campers Gear"s "outdoor style" collection.
  • PurePwnage [purepwnage.com] has a documentary of the new 'pro gamers' - pwning noobs, and getting headshots online near you....

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