Birmingham Salvo World Champions!

It's over! The boys from the UK have done it, big hurrah to them for showing the Americans that the rest of the world despite not having a full fledged league (NA), the rest of the world are still valid title contenders.

BIRMINGHAM SALVO vs. SAN FRANCISCO OPTX (22 - 15)

Hopefully this will spur the CGS to create more competitive leagues (Asia, UK and Europe) outside of North America thus increasing their global presence.

But for now, Congrats to the Birmingham Salvo! You guys really deserve it

Go coL!

The LA Complexity have officially won their first match of the 2008 CGS Season 2. Congrats Mr. Lake!












The real story though would have to go to the LA Complexity's Dead Or Alive 4: Female player Megan 'belle' Ceder for winning her FIRST official CGS match ever!


This is how it went:

"The permanent underdog, Belle, took on Mystik, as Kokoro and Hayate respectively on Crash Club. Belle began this match similar to the match against Vanessa, winning two quick rounds before Mystik was able to take two of her own, tying the match 2-2. Belle won the fifth round with counters and throws exclusively, before absolutely destroying Mystik in the following round, placing herself at her first Game Point ever in her CGS career. Belle began to get ahead of herself, nearly finishing Mystik before becoming anxious and rushing in to get punished. In the following round, Belle and Mystik fought an unbelievably tight match before Belle finally won her first official CGS match, 5-3."

Congrats to coL and belle for putting up a fantastic fighting spirit and for not giving up even though the play-offs are now out of reach. Nicewan larrrrr~!

Source: CGS

Spot on!

Heralding from the world of snippets, a recently published article from KL Taufan's very own FIFA rep Si_Jali (or jellyfish). Jali has posted a very compelling article entitled "Is Gaming Violent?" on the spotgamers website.

Here is a snippet:

"In the western countries at the moment, gaming seems to be attracting negative vibes rather than positive. Gaming has been accuse to be the reason why certain unwanted events happen, to be like a venom spreading poison into minds of youngsters. Not just gaming has been associated with activities of no importance and wasting time, but in certain event in few years it has come to a point where gaming has been a cause influencing MURDER."

You may read the article here

Here is the snag though, as bad as the murders and negative bad press gaming has had over on the mass media in western countries, the competitive scene there is still growing at a much faster pace than well... lets say here in Malaysia. Why is that?

We rarely have bad press, as far as I know nobody has actually killed anybody over a video game right?

So what is your take? Why despite not having the bad press is gaming still perceived as being 'negative' and a 'bad' culture here?

Source: Spotgamers

CGS Launches store

The Championship Gaming Series have officially launched an online store, as of now both T-Shirts and Jerseys are available for purchase.

Head over to the store here







KL Taufan T-shirt

Short sleeve shirt with KL Taufan logo on the front and Championship Gaming Series logo on the back.

T-Shirts are priced at $19.99 each and range from Small to XX-Large.






KL Taufan Jersey

Official jersey with KL Taufan logo on the front and sleeves and the Championship Gaming Series logo on the back.

Jerseys are priced at $74.99 and available sizes are

L and X-L











KL Taufan Hat


Embroidered Hat with KL Taufan logo

on the front and thecgs.com on the back.

Hats are priced at $17.99 and is a 1 size fits all.

Jason Lake: Our Role Model!

After reading through his blog, the disappointing season LA Complexity has had in the recent CGS region 1 Season. Lake wrote an article to address the short comings and of his teams season so far.

If you are a true e-sports enthusiast do read on.

Jake's Take: 2008!

As I sit to write the 2008 season blog, I do so with a heavy heart and a sad demeanor. I normally wait until the season is over and all the dust is settled before each season’s “Jake’s Take,” but unfortunately this season is mathematically over for us, and I feel the coL Community deserves a note sooner rather than later.

First off, please allow me to apologize. I’m sincerely sorry for the disaster and embarrassment of our 2008 CGS Season. You deserve better. Our families deserve better. The North American eSports community deserves better. Never in its history has compLexity carried a goose egg this long, and let me tell you: it’s painful. If you’re willing to read for a bit, I’m willing to share some things with you that the average manager wouldn’t. If you’re not much for reading, then please accept my apology and click the next link. I accept 100% of the blame for this season, and the weight of our record will forever be on my shoulders, and my shoulders alone.

Now for the readers in the crowd, let’s move on..

To label this season a disappointment would be like saying World War II was a slight skirmish. I can honestly say I’ve never been more shell shocked or emotionally crushed during a 14 day period in my entire work life.

The Syndicate flew to L.A. with extremely high hopes. We honestly felt we had a World Championship contender. KreeganBG was poised to take 1st place after his domination of WCG USA. Perfect Legend was brought in to fix our DOA-M point differential. Belle was infinitely better than last year, and several pro DOA-M players confidentially had her picked 3rd-4th. Our Forza duo had a year of experience together and finished 2nd place last year, and coL.cs is coL.cs. But we had more than a solid team on paper. We had been planning this season for months during team conference calls, nonstop practice sessions and countless hours of strategy talks. We were confident the team was ready to come into L.A. and bring the coL Community some serious W’s right out of the gate. The team attitude was right. The team work ethic was solid. The team’s mental state was primed. The team was ready… or so we thought.

First, let’s talk draft. My drafts have always been controversial. Hell, from the day I started compLexity, controversy has been the sidekick of most the picks I’ve made. Many of you understandably questioned the Belle pick this year. What you didn’t know was I had been watching her play professional males for months, and I strongly felt her new talent would equate to serious rounds this season. I had insider information from DOA pros I trusted, and my advisors all agreed it was the right move. That, combined with her inherent toughness and compLexity work ethic, is why I drafted her. Perfect Legend seemed a no brainer. I knew the way the draft would move would mean we’d be looking at Forza late, and I strongly felt my boys had the speed and the previously gained stage teamwork to finish towards the top. KreeganBG and coL.cs were no brainers. I was very happy with the draft, and got exactly the team I went to Austin to get.

To be honest, I think my biggest weakness as a CGS GM is I’m still operating under the old way of gaming success. My old formula was to use my gut about people and coach them to become the players I needed them to be. In other words, coaching over pure talent. This is how we rose to the pinnacle of American eSports during the “independent” days. However, under the CGS system, where we toss half of our team back into the pot each season and go live in a couple months, my formula does not work. Gone are the days of gut calls and good coaching. In are the days of drafting pure talent and hoping for the best. For an old school dog like me, it’s a sad day, but this is the new reality. In other words, pure talent over coaching. The draft is king, and GM’s are more talent scouts than coaches. This old coach learned a painful lesson, but I won’t repeat the same mistakes ever again.

Now to this season. One of the biggest down sides of playing for the CGS is the fact that the season is over half complete in a matter of 10-14 days. No other sport has such an accelerated regular season. If you come in hot and get on a roll, you’re in business. If you come in cold and don’t catch some breaks, you’re in deep trouble before you can make any adjustments. Needless so say, we were the latter, and the sub-par play by our squads quickly snowballed into a 0-6 start. It’s very difficult to explain how hard it is to lose close matches night after night. It’s the old “catch-22” trap: to win you need confidence, but to get confidence you need to win. If a crash had gone our way, or a FIFA ball had slipped by a goalie, we might have grabbed 2-3 of those first 6 matches and things might have turned out differently. In all my years of sports I have never seen all the breaks go the other way so consistently. It was like living under a curse. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean this as an excuse but it’s also what objective third parties were telling us as well. In life, and in sports, you need to make your own breaks, but sometimes good old “luck” comes into play. We seemed unable to make our breaks, and lady luck kept spitting in our faces.

There were bright spots in the middle of the storm, however. Human nature traditionally dictates that when we consistently lose, we pretend to keep trying but deep inside we have accepted failure. Nearly every team in the world would have packed its bags when it got to 0-4. Sure, they would have shown up and played, but the fighting spirit that accompanied the start of the new season would have been extinguished. I find this is particularly true with teams that are used to winning a lot. If they hit a rough patch, they don’t know how to deal with losing and they implode.

However, over the years, one of our goals has always been to show the coL Community how to win world championships with professionalism, humility and dignity. For the first time in our history, we had the (unfortunate) opportunity to show you how to lose with the same qualities. I am very proud of my players for the way they upheld the compLexity dream through this challenging period. Not one time did they accept defeat. Not one time did they get down on each other. Not one single time did they sacrifice our principles of passion, dedication, professionalism, humility and dignity. Each and every match we gave it 110% until the very end. We battled, fought and clawed each second of every match. We never lied down and never gave up. It’s simply not in our nature.

It’s my hope that this simple show of heart during a difficult time might set a small example for anyone going through a tough time. Life will continually take shots at you. It will kick you down and try to knock you out. How you deal with the “losses” will always define you as a person much more than how you deal with “wins.” If at all possible, hold your head high, fight with all you’ve got and stick to your core principles no matter what. The “wins” will come if you can stick to your guns. Maybe not today. Maybe not this “season,” but they’ll come. The dream of compLexity will not be quelled by a “0” on a standings sheet. The dream began before our current haters were following eSports, and God willing will continue when their children are watching compLexity play in CGS.

As many of you know, my family and I moved to L.A. to run compLexity a few weeks ago. Needless to say, an 0-8 start and early exit from the playoffs has dealt us a powerful blow that is both painful and disillusioning. Earlier this year I had a choice to make because I could no longer be a good dad and run two full time careers. Should I drop gaming and stay in law, or sell my law firms and follow the crazy gaming dream? Obviously I chose gaming, but I’m not going to lie; as I type this I’m not sure I made the right decision. An 0-8 season has me questioning myself, my talents and my ability to return compLexity to the glory it deserves. But I’ll promise you one thing: I won’t lie down. I won’t give up. I’ll never say die, and neither will compLexity. Even at 0-8, I encourage you to watch the rest of our matches. You’ll see that the passion we game with doesn’t derive from being on top and collecting countless trophies. Win, lose or draw, you will see us game with passion because it’s from the heart and flows out of the dream.

2008 wasn’t our year. I accept 100% responsibility and have learned a great deal. Just remember, you can judge a lot more about a person/team by watching them when they’re down than when they’re up. I encourage you to watch us while we’re down. You’ll see the same passion and fire you’ve become used to while watching us win championships. To me.. that says it all.

To my/our haters: enjoy this moment. Bask in it. Bathe in it. Love it.

To my/our supporters: this is a small, painful bump in a very long road. Keep the faith.

Thanks very much for your support. We appreciate it now more than ever. I’m sorry I let you down this year. I’ll spend every waking moment making damn sure it never happens again.

God bless you and your families,


Jake

Source: http://lacomplexity.thecgs.com/index.php
http://lacomplexity.thecgs.com/Jakes_Take_20081

This rings true to of us here in the Malaysian gaming community, too many times, too often people give up even before they give themselves a true chance to succeed.

Too many times have I heard the phrases "I'm just going for the free trip" or "We don't stand a chance". It's degrading and ultimately insulting to think that we actually look down upon our own selves as perennial under achievers.

Kudos to you Jake! coL will shine again, your spirit and determination is a shining example for everybody in the e-sports world to follow.

Like LOL?

"Sylvester Stallone is heading for Bollywood - and Arnold Schwarzenegger could be joining him."

Stallone has signed up for a cameo role in Kambakht Ishq, a big budget blockbuster starring Indian heart-throb Akshay Kumar.

Schwarzenegger has also been approached - and it would be the first time the two action heroes have shared the big screen.

Kambakht Ishq is the first fruit of a Hollywood-Bollywood merger announced at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.

It will be filmed at Universal Studios in Los Angeles, with Kumar in the starring role as an all-action stuntman.

Stallone will be one of several celebrities playing themselves - in addition to Schwarzenegger, actress Denise Richards has also been approached about a part.

Producer Sajid Nadiadwala confirmed Stallone's role and told the Times of India: "Since Kambakth Ishq is based in Hollywood, it made sense to cast mainstream American stars in it. This film is one of my most ambitious ventures and I didn't want to leave any stone unturned."

The Eros Films production is scheduled for release in 2009.

Stallone, 61, recently made a box office comeback with sequels to his Rocky and Rambo films.

Schwarzenegger, 60, put his acting career on hold when he became Governor of California, but he is not averse to the odd cameo. He will appear in the forthcoming Sacha Baron Cohen film, Bruno, in scenes which see him accosted in the street by the flamboyant fashion reporter.

I lol'd, Rambo and The Terminator doing a bollywood tree dance, what a fantastic idea! Then again, it might actually turn out to be one of the most anticipated comedies of all time!

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

What KL Taufan means to me

I have been a gamer for nearly 1 and a half decades of my life, from playing on the early SEGA and MicroGenius systems to representing Malaysia on the global stage at Counter-Strike. I suppose you might say, I have seen and felt it all. The sweet success of victory, to the bitter taste of defeat, I have made friend and foes from near and far.

The one common goal as friends or foes that we share as gamers, is that ever lingering question that remains on the forums, websites and never ending debates at our local mamak shops “Will professional gaming ever see light in our beloved Malaysia?” pro-gamers in short.

Well let us take that thought and digest on it a little, what do we actually mean by being a pro-gamer? By definition a pro-gamer is a gamer that plays games for money, insofar as a cyber athlete is financially dependent upon gaming then the time spent playing is no longer "leisure" time. This begs the question is this possibility even remotely feasible in Malaysia. The answer is yes.

With the arrival of the Championship Gaming Series (CGS), and with the inclusion of Kuala Lumpur being only 1 of 6 selected cities to have an actual CGS franchise (Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, Dubai and Wuhan making up the rest). The thought of pro-gaming in Malaysia is finally no longer a fantasy, provided we don’t mess it up.

Now for those of you who don’t know, the CGS is well-capitalized global media company which uniquely targets the $37 billion global video gaming category with an innovative and compelling sports entertainment offering. Developed and financially backed by News Corp. (NYSE:NWS) companies DIRECTV, BSkyB, and STAR, CGS is the first worldwide professional video gaming league. Launched in 2007, CGS features the world's best pro gamers and is broadcast to more than 100,000,000 households in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia. Key strategic partners include Microsoft, Dell, PepsiCo, and IGN.

What makes the CGS unique and stands out among the other competitors (WCG, ESWC, WGT, etc) is the fact that as a franchise, the players stand to be able to be contracted to the CGS, with salaries of up to 2,500 USD per month. That’s a whopping RM8,000 (give or take) per player, per MONTH! Instead of the usual, win the local qualifier get a free PC and then wait for next year for your next shot at the global stage. The money provided will actually fund, and propel any eager gamer to commit full time at their gaming aspirations. Can you imagine an 18 year old just fresh out of SPM, going into college starting out on this diploma for Mass Com raking in RM8,000 from his part-time hobby?

The bad news is, most of the CGS games, Counter-Strike: Source, Dead or Alive 4 and Forza Motorsports 2 are not very popular titles here in Malaysia, therefore it has not generated enough buzz around the community. Seeing as most of the CS players here play 1.6, the general fighting game community playing Tekken, and our strong but minute racing community spread out over TrackMania or Need For Speed. I implore that the general gamers take a step back, and genuinely study what the CGS is offering in terms of growth and the future of pro-gaming in Malaysia.

Imagine, the Kuala Lumpur Taufan, contracted paid professional gamers (from Malaysia), broadcasted globally to 100 million homes world-wide, what an impact that would send throughout the community, how many eyes would eventually be opened, how all the negative ‘gaming is bad for kids’ mentality can be abolished, and how our dear government will finally recognize us and acknowledge pro-gaming in Malaysia, unlocking the muscle and strength needed for us to host world class events, right here on the shores of our beloved country. Wouldn’t the entire community benefit as a whole?

The contract my friends, and Kuala Lumpur Taufan is just the first step, into a positive spiral that will set the tone, for gaming in Malaysia for years to come.