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A similar battle is being fought by gamers for acceptance of video games as a legitimate sport. Personally, I feel this is a bit of a stretch compared to calling video games an art.

In Korea, starcraft players play in televised matches, earn sponsorship deals, and train every day to be on top of their game. America is not as enthusiastic in it's acceptance. The Championship Gaming Series (CGS), a TV series on DirecTV, recently closed down. The CGS made waves in the community by paying it's players a salary, thereby elevating all of those who made the cut to online celebrities, with those who enjoyed the program watching their favorite counter-strike player or team perform in the same way many Americans enjoy watching their favorite football team or player.

Regardless of the CGS, the gaming community has slowly been gaining influence, there are now many lines of "gaming" peripherals and specifically designed "gaming" PCs. There are even endorsed PC parts and peripherals now, (The Fatal1ty line) much like professional basketball players get shoe deals.

I wonder if Fatal1ty makes more?
Sorry HTML skills suck
http://www.fatal1ty.com/

"gaming icon Jonathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel"

Who?

You're thinking about this good looking fella (pardon the pun). He's "well known" in the gaming scene, and has his own line of sponsored merchandise and all.

That if you go to this guys site http://www.fatal1ty.com/players/?players=f and click on his picture, and click on his record this is what you see for 2005:

--------2005-------
(1v1)
2nd - CPL Turkey Qualifier for Spain (PainkilleR) - Instanbul, Turkey
4th - CPL Turkey World Tour Stop (PainkilleR) - Instanbul, Turkey
6th - CPL Spain World Tour Stop (PainkilleR) - Barcelona, Spain
2nd - CPL Brazil World Tour Stop (PainkilleR) - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2nd - CPL Sweden World Tour Stop (PainkilleR) - Jonkoping, Sweden

Certainly better than I would do, but he is losing to people. Good, but I don't know how much of the talk about 'the best in the world' isn't just marketing and PR. Most stories like this that you see on AP newswire and the like are there because of PR firms. My bet is that we are seeing him now becuase Abit wants to make sure they are getting thier moneys worth from their deals with him.

It's not a common thing for large companies to sponsor players, but it is common for them to sponsor the actual LANs that the players compete at. It does happen of course, just look at Jonathan "Fata1ity" Wendell. He has had sponsorship for quite some time now.

I'm sure it will become more common, but the poster of the article makes it seem like video games is going to explode into a major sport. I do not see this happening in the US anytime soon. People have been perdicting that it will in the US for a few years now and there are no signs of a major increase in the sport. I say this from my experience writing for Amped News for about a year. LANs are fun, but I personally do not find watching others play video games to be that exciting.

Like this one?

Then he can really challenge all you /. l4m3rz to test his m4d l337 sk1ll at cutting the cables of perfectly good $3000 monitors. Wanky, rich-ass bitch will pwn j00

Yes you need skill. Look at fatal1ty, he makes a living off of Quake 3 (maybe a new game now?) and is a spokesman for Id. Whatever he plays, all the kids buy, or download from Kazaa.

www.fatal1ty.com