Brits from Birmingham rule the gaming world

Davey Winder
Saturday, 02 August 2008 18:25

Your IT - Entertainment

The Olympics are about to start in Beijing and, to be fair, the British are not expecting to need too big a box to bring their gold medals home in. Shame, then, that computer gaming is not an Olympic event...

The Birmingham Salvo pro-gaming team has shocked the world of computer gaming by winning the 2008 Championship Gaming Series World Final in Los Angeles. As well as the kudos and the $500,000 first prize, the Brits also picked up the two Most Valuable Player awards...

The ten members of the Birmingham Salvo pro-gaming squad have just arrived back in the UK after beating the rest of the world in such varied disciplines as kicking ass (Dead or Alive 4), kicking ass (Counter-Strike: Source), kicking ass (FIFA 08) and kicking ass (Forza Motorsport 2).

In fact they kicked so much ass in the final that they won four out of the five events, totally dominating their opponents the San Francisco Optx who could only manage to win in the women's Dead or Alive 4 match.

The final score being a truly impressive 22-15 to the Birmingham Salvo, proving that they had what it takes to conquer the world on both the PC and Xbox 360.

Although only eight teams took part in the World Final knockout event, getting there was no easy thing. The Championship Gaming Series started way back in March with the best players from each country competing to get a place in a team.

Being a professional gaming event, the lucky winners got a contract and money every month to enable them to focus on playing, and winning, the game. 18 teams emerged successfully from the various CGS competitions to go onto regional contents against others from both Latin and North America, continental Europe, the Middle east, Asia, Australia and the UK.

Congratulations to Birmingham Salvo manager Michael 'ODEE' O'Dell, and all the team:

• Michael Barrett (FIFA 08)
• Mingzhi Deng (Dead or Alive)
• Sam Gawn (Counter Strike)
• Sarah Harrison (Dead or Alive)
• David Kelly (Forza Motorsport)
• Marc Mangiacapra (Counter Strike)
• Dean Sutton (Forza Motorsport)
• Elliot Welsh (Counter Strike)
• James Wilson (Counter Strike)
• Pete Wright (Counter Strike)

Michael O'Dell told BIOS Magazine "They truly deserve the title of World Champions. My players spent hundreds of hours practicing this season, and their hard work paid off. I'm extremely proud of my team right now. We faced a lot of tough competition throughout the season, but when our backs were against the wall, every player demonstrated the skills and the poise to step up when it mattered the most."