E3: Pro Gaming Hopes to Hit Mainstream

July 16, 2008 — -- Meet "FATAL1TY," the 27-year-old poster boy of professional video gaming.

He is good-looking, stylish, in good shape and not the least bit socially awkward.

"Gamers aren't all nerds sitting in their basements. I have friends. I work out. I don't have zits," he says as he laughs and runs his hand through his mohawk.

FATAL1TY, whose real name is Jonathan Wendel, has won more than 12 world titles and earned six figures since the age of 19, and he says his league is just like any other professional sport. There are big salaries, team rivalries, drafts and obsessed fans. And yes, he's signed breasts.

"The emotion, the training, the passion, the competition; it's all there," says FATAL1TY from the kickoff party for this week's team world finals of the Championship Gaming Series (CGS). Launched more than a year ago, it's the first worldwide professional gaming league.

"We are athletes, and I'm here to help take this sport mainstream."

The CGS is hoping the league's world finals in Los Angeles, which end on July 28 with the crowning of a world champion team, will help U.S. audiences take notice.

"Gaming is going to be the next great sport for the 21st century," said Andy Reif, the CEO and Commissioner of the CGS. "But, like poker, it's not going to happen overnight."

Professional Gaming 101

"There are so many similarities to traditional sports in this league it's crazy," said Swoozie, a professional gamer turned commentator for CGS. He's dressed in a white sports coat, baggy jeans and a huge Mario necklace.

In this week's world finals, eight teams with names like the Sydney Underground, Mexico City Furia and Wuhan Dragons from Singapore will go head-to-head. They're the survivors from the 18 teams that started the competition.

The teams will battle on four video games: "Dead or Alive 4," a Mortal Kombat-type fighting game; "FIFA 08," a soccer game; "Counter-Strike: Source," one the most popular of the multi-player shooting game games; and "Forza 2," a race car game.