The Championship Gaming SeriesTM (CGS), the only worldwide professional gaming league, announced today that its official cities for UK and European teams are London, Birmingham, Berlin and Stockholm.

Helming the new UK teams will be Sujoy Roy and Michael O’Dell, who are joining the league as Team Managers for London and Birmingham, respectively. These pro gaming veterans represent a new generation of leadership in the world of professional gaming and will be responsible for shaping the most competitive gaming teams in the history of the UK. 

Sujoy Roy, one of the UK’s first and most successful professional video gamers, will lead the London team as their Team Manager. Starting as a prominent amateur gamer, Roy turned his hand to event-organisation and created some of the UK’s most memorable gaming events, featuring extraordinary prize money and the highest level of competition from around the world.  In addition, Roy is one of the founders of key UK gaming site www.esreality.com.   

Michael O’Dell, an eSports legend, has been the Managing Director of top UK team Dignitas since 2003, and will take the reigns as Team Manager of the Birmingham team. O’Dell will focus his fierce competitive instincts and drive for organization to try and carve out a stake for Birmingham at the CGS 2007 World Championship in December.

The Berlin and Stockholm Team Managers will be named next week.

The UK and European Team Managers recruit, draft, and manage their teams and then are responsible for day-to-day management of their respective teams.  It is the responsibility of the Team Managers to lead their teams to victory in the upcoming CGS UK and European Finals, and then in the CGS 2007 World Championship in December. Each of them is scouting talent and will be making decisions on which players to draft after a thorough evaluation.

“We’re thrilled to announce our UK and European cities and looking forward to enjoying the qualifiers and finals in Birmingham and London,” said CGS Commissioner Andy Reif. “We’re also very proud of our new UK Team Managers. They are true leaders in pro gaming and vital to the success of the league.”

The London, Birmingham, Berlin, and Stockholm official team names and identities will be revealed at the UK and European Draft events on 23rd September.  On 24th September, the Berlin and Stockholm teams will face off in the European Final at Omega Sektor in Birmingham. Meanwhile, London and Birmingham will battle in the UK Final on 26th–28th September at Three Mills Studio in East London. The competition, which will be televised on Sky One and Sky Two, presents a unique opportunity for UK gamers to demonstrate their talent to the world.

Each player on the four teams from the UK and Europe will receive contracts with annualized payments of £15,000, and the possibility of taking home more than £50,000. All four teams will compete at the CGS 2007 World Championship in Los Angeles in December along with other top gamers from around the world, including two teams from Latin America, two teams from the U.S., and four teams from Asia. Payments for CGS professional gamers worldwide will total approximately £2.5 million in 2007.