Singapore Cybersports and Online Gaming Association
Gathering all online gamers and competitive gamers!
Singapore's First Pro gamers!
By Oo Gin Lee
SINGAPORE'S first professional cybergamers have landed contracts that will pay them each US$30,000 (S$44,000) a year to play.
It is the prize the nine men and one woman of the 'Singapore Swords' team have bagged, for emerging among the top four of six teams in the Pan-Asian leg of the Championship Gaming Series (CGS) in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday. CGS is global media giant News Corp's - and the world's - first worldwide professional gaming league, which has US$5 million in prize money and contracts at stake. The best four from the Pan-Asian round - Singapore, China, South Korea and Australia - have been drafted into the pro league. These teams will go up against eight other teams from the Americas and Europe to vie for the US$1 million prize purse at the CGS 2007 World Championships in Los Angeles in December. CGS professionals also get TV coverage on News Corp's international channels like DirectTV, Sky and Star. Each player is signed on to a US$30,000 annual contract, and stands to earn more from tournament winnings. They can continue to hold their day job or to study 'as long as they can meet their commitments as CGS athletes', said Mr Andrew Reif, CGS chief executive. In KL, the six Pan-Asian teams were divided into two groups of three. The Singapore team beat Seoul Jinhwa 28-20 and Kuala Lumpur Taufan 29-18 to top its group and be drafted into the pro league. Mr Kenneth 'Monster' Yeo, 19, who plays CounterStrike, called it 'a dream come true' and said he wants 'to keep this moment in my mind forever'. The recent graduate from a polytechnic here started playing competitively at age 12 and represented Singapore a year later at the first World Cyber Games in South Korea in 2001. Like the others on the team, for him it has been a long road to turning pro. Many of them have had to face family pressure, competition stress and lack of sponsorship on overseas trips. More on the full story here
SINGAPORE'S first professional cybergamers have landed contracts that will pay them each US$30,000 (S$44,000) a year to play.
It is the prize the nine men and one woman of the 'Singapore Swords' team have bagged, for emerging among the top four of six teams in the Pan-Asian leg of the Championship Gaming Series (CGS) in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday. CGS is global media giant News Corp's - and the world's - first worldwide professional gaming league, which has US$5 million in prize money and contracts at stake. The best four from the Pan-Asian round - Singapore, China, South Korea and Australia - have been drafted into the pro league. These teams will go up against eight other teams from the Americas and Europe to vie for the US$1 million prize purse at the CGS 2007 World Championships in Los Angeles in December. CGS professionals also get TV coverage on News Corp's international channels like DirectTV, Sky and Star. Each player is signed on to a US$30,000 annual contract, and stands to earn more from tournament winnings. They can continue to hold their day job or to study 'as long as they can meet their commitments as CGS athletes', said Mr Andrew Reif, CGS chief executive. In KL, the six Pan-Asian teams were divided into two groups of three. The Singapore team beat Seoul Jinhwa 28-20 and Kuala Lumpur Taufan 29-18 to top its group and be drafted into the pro league. Mr Kenneth 'Monster' Yeo, 19, who plays CounterStrike, called it 'a dream come true' and said he wants 'to keep this moment in my mind forever'. The recent graduate from a polytechnic here started playing competitively at age 12 and represented Singapore a year later at the first World Cyber Games in South Korea in 2001. Like the others on the team, for him it has been a long road to turning pro. Many of them have had to face family pressure, competition stress and lack of sponsorship on overseas trips. More on the full story here
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Comment by Kow Yong Ming on October 28, 2007 at 11:22pm - Thought that this is really a great thing! A bunch of enthusiasts finally get to become pro! Is anyone of them here in this space?
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