Peter "layo" Giblin takes a critical look at the recent closure of the CGS, and the changing landscape of the future of eSports.

An absolute shock. Nobody, not even the players saw this coming. The last time I spoke to Ben Woodward, General Manager of London Mint, we were talking about his most recent meeting with CGS discussing the upcoming games for the new season. It will be the CS: Source community that feel this the most, as the ace up our sleeves is now gone. Whether it was ESWC, WCG or Intel Extreme Masters that was thrown in our face at the end of the day playing CS: Source meant you could secure a salary, television coverage, and floods of e-fame. Even with the CGS in its back pocket and the cream of 1.6 playing in it the game has still failed to truly overcome its decade old counter-part, and now with few other events to make playing the game financially viable a mass exodus is on the cards. We are about to witness a very ugly time in CS: Source, the premature dream of the CGS could change into a sticky nightmare.

Professional gaming has been kicking around for around a decade now, and although three days of real life is four months online it's obvious that there is still very little professionalism in the scene. You can only legitimise something as "professional" when you can make a career out of it. I can't imagine there are that many professional bin-men about. Because of this there's still a fair few pirates about ready and willing to con, and getting away with it most of the time. If it wasn't superf1y stealing thousands from Phunky, it was the CPL failing to pay out hundreds of thousands in prize money. The CGS closing down isn't good for the CS: Source scene, and certainly isn't good for the overall eSports community. It's highly likely that we will see a lull in financial interest, as the projects closing makes it obvious that the mass market doesn't want to watch competitive gaming; at least in the fashion CGS did it. The CGS made many critical errors. The way the matches were filmed and televised were awful, the best aspects of the game were completely missing. The game choices were terrible, not to mention the horrific way female gaming was approached. FIFA was pointless because if you wanted to watch football you could switch over and watch the real thing live every night of the week, not to mention the complete disinterest in the sport the other side of the Atlantic. A similar situation with Forza 2, motor sport isn't exactly headline entertainment; it takes a young black British racer becoming the world number one just to spark an interest. I would rather watch paint dry - white paint, on a white wall. Everything in the CGS was so cheesy, but at the end of the day everyone expected them to make the changes and carry on. The CS: Source coverage, from what we got to see after they cut down its air time, had improved but still had some way to go and ended up being too little too late. But the CGS still had a chance, if only they had listened. Whether or not their vision was before its time, its demise is far too soon.

Pete was not a fan of the CGS Television shows.

As QuadV's illustrious Jay has already said "thought they would at least limp through a 3rd Season", and it really did seem like the 3rd season would make or break the CGS. If they'd read half of what got posted on Cadred, or even watched the show themselves they'd know where it's going wrong. Instead of gearing it towards gamers, which if you take console gaming into consideration is a massive demographic, they pandered to the average person. Who if hasn't been interested in video gaming, a flourishing industry that involves billions globally casually and professionally, then they probably aren't going to be swung by a less than average game show. Now it's all over I feel sorry for people like Jason Lake who have dedicated so much of their time and money into the success of the CGS and his team. Having sold his law firm, resettling his family and ploughing cash into his team (which underperformed) he's now left jobless. As a lawyer I'm sure he'll bounce back, but still it does show how deeply the closure will affect some people.

Since its implementation the CGS has had a devastating effect on the outside community. It saw steady growth, albeit a little slow, but new events like DreamHack were beginning to express interest. The CGS was supposed to boost the games profile, but it took two steps forward and about six back. Established organisations wised up, as there's no point investing thousands into a top team to have them poached by the CGS. It gave the middle finger to the established community and tried to go it alone, raising competitive gaming awkwardly above its place. If they hadn't scorned the existing community then it would've been easier to build around it, a dodgy PRO-AM didn't exactly build bridges to the outside community.

Still, no matter what anyone says the majority of people would've jumped at the chance to play in the CGS, if you were the best why not get paid and sent all around the world to do it? Nobody's blaming the players, if anything most people were fairly jealous of them, I know I could do with getting paid to play and a free all expenses paid trip to America every year. Not to mention the prize money. The big question on everyone's lips is "What are the players going to do now". It must be a heavy shift going from being paid to play to scrounging for LAN sponsorships, don't be too surprised if you see some top players fall out the scene completely. Birmingham Salvo are the world’s best CS: Source team, seeing them come to any event and win it with barely any practice is outstanding, they are the kind of players that deserve the professional label. They are the team that has put the UK on the CS: Source map. Yet our only decent home-grown event the i-series has just halved the prize money for i36 [Editors Note: The prize money may be raised closer to the event], and no doubt the majority of attendee's will be CS: Source players. The top UK 1.6 team would be Dignitas, who although are miles ahead of the competition were mediocre at a game regularly described as an easier version, and the UK scene is all but dead. It doesn't look like there's that much to keep the top brass teams interested in playing, especially as generally tournament prize money has been dropping over the last few years, but there's little alternative. There isn't lucrative 1.6 scene to fall back on, and to compete at international level will take a while.

Birmingham Salvo were one of the best Counter-Strike: Source teams in the world in 2008. They have confirmed they will stay with Source.

We are staring down a black hole. It's full of possibilities, but it's just as easy to trip and fall down taking years of progress with us. It all depends on how the already struggling financial market takes this. It'll most likely put would-be investors off, seeing the CGS as a failed venture and an immature and poor investment. Companies like AMD, ATi and Intel may invest more money into teams, breaking the recent trend of primarily event sponsorship, as they have a pre-existing interest in online gaming. With so much economic turmoil it’s difficult to make predictions. Hopefully the scene will grow from this; I guess we now know what doesn't work. Although it may look bleak for a lot of people, especially some of the younger or lower skilled players, who were looking at the likes of RattlesnK as older players used to with Heat0n, there is hope on the horizon. The EPS is going strong, providing a really solid online platform to play on. The UKESA, although quiet now, once they start implementing their plans the UK gaming scene will be ten times what it is now.

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There are a lot of people affected by the CGS's closure, but I've always been more interested in those outside of the click. Here's what some of them had to say on the matter.

X, VTL

I play CSS because it’s a great game. I don't earn anything major from it and as much as I want that to change in the future it's not my sole motivation. Obviously it's a blow to those that were hoping to make a living from the CGS but I'm sure as gaming grows, similar opportunities will come about. I'm young and will be ready and waiting.

Dr.Gonzo, Cadred.org

Ultimately the future is still uncertain and it is dependent on what the big organisations and sponsors do next. If they still decide to shun the game, the top talent - having had a taste of professional gaming - are unlikely to stick around in a shrinking scene, especially if the dipping prize fund trend continues. However, if they come back to the game and support it properly then I think we're going to get a much more balanced and competitive scene and with that will come renewed interest. The key thing here is that the people who have thrown money into the game have never cared for it in the same way we involved in the scene do. They're looking to turn a profit by taking a niche into the mainstream... But we're almost there. Big games that get released turn bigger profits in some cases than blockbuster movies take in their opening weekend. It's close, but this is a reality check for where we are. If everyone with a passion for gaming - and I'll include the organisations in this because I know most of the management ARE enthusiasts - embraces the game again good things will come of the CGS's demise. Let's get back to the team game, let's get back to realistic expectations and let's see where it takes us. Steady growth was always the key - this was too much, too soon and done ALL wrong.

Pez, 4Kings

From what I knew the CGS were planning there EU CGS Pro AM league. This is a huge shock to me, and I'm sure to the players & managers who are contracted with the CGS. It's a huge shame, but for CSS it may be a good thing - it may lead to the big organisations picking up CSS again, or a bad effect of the demise of the grand scales of eSports. GL to all whom were involved with CGS!

Javax, 4Kings

Very sad and a great shame for all those involved to now be losing their jobs. But on the upside it'll hopefully bring back stability to the UK/EU CSS scene which the individual draft system distorted. It should help improve the USA 1.6 scene with the return of some old faces, which in turn will benefit 1.6 worldwide. It'll also allow other organisations to pick up CSS, without the fear of having their players poached by the CGS franchises. Personally, I won't miss it.

Gustav – EPS UK

In my opinion it comes as no genuine surprise although it is a good initiative it was the wrong model, especially in Europe. CGS alienated the top organizations in the world by taking their best players, and trying to form their own brand. If CGS had ran with the big organisations of Europe, instead of forcing them to create new franchises (i.e. keep Dignitas in CGS, don't create a new team) and tried to make it more community friendly by allying with existing infrastructure, i am confident it would have worked a lot better than it did. Doing it the way it did was basically paying for people's advice, and then not heeding that advice afterwards.

Luke, Crack Clan

I'm shocked and saddened that the CGS is no more, as whilst most people in eSports wouldn't wholly agree with the way it was run it was definitely a big part of the community. In my opinion its definitely going to set eSports as a whole back a step as companies looking to invest for the first time in eSports are going to be put off, however from the perspective of the manager of a professional organization it's a good thing as no longer do players have the sole incentive of playing to earn a salary with which other organizations cannot compete. Hopefully this'll make some of the organizations who said that Source no longer interests them rethink that decision, and encourage some of the other large circuits to pick up CSS.

Chef, TLR

I'm kind of happy, I think this will make the UK scene more stable. I felt that every time CGS draft came round CSS teams would swap, change, or leave teams and more and made hard for a manager. Kind of frustrating.

KleX, formerly of efever.de

Yesterday we whined about the CGS, today we laugh about the CGS and I truly hope that we won't cry tomorrow because there is something missing.

Kritikal, Fragmasters

Well the CGS was I guess what most Source players aspired to be part of so its kinda sad that its closed, but it was pretty obvious the amount they were paying out to players and managers couldnt be sustained, at that level with the amount of people who would watch the program.

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I was fairly upset by the closure of the CGS, I can't get this nagging feeling out of my head that CS: Source is doomed. The entire US scene is flooding back to 1.6, which means that there's no need for any top event to change to CS: Source. It's as though we've been sent back two years, maybe even more, and so much of the progress that the CGS made has gone to waste. I'm an avid supporter of solidarity in gaming, you can go play the next Call of Duty and win a few hundred at the odd LAN event, but it diverts funds from elsewhere. If more people played the same game there would be more professional players, and having players on salaries is more important than any amount of prize money. It provides a suitable financial safety net, so there is a better chance at making a career out of competitive gaming.

I see the 1.6 / Source divide, and now more so than ever I see that CS: Source will never overcome 1.6. CS: Source has been out for a few years now, and the best Source teams in the world are making a move back to a near decade old game. The only chance it has now is if it’s put onto the new engine, but judging by VALVe's track record we can expect that in another few years. CS: Source will still be playing second fiddle to 1.6, and although I am definitively a CS: Source player (or at least used to be) I feel obliged to encourage players to go back to 1.6. If the game can last a decade and is still going strong what's the point in fighting it. Quake Live will be released at some point, and 2009 will be the year when competitive gaming goes back to its roots.