CGS North American Franchise Players Announced

The Championship Gaming Series has announced the Franchise Players selected to leave their lasting mark on each team. Each team was allowed to select one Franchise Player to keep throughout the 2008 season on the basis of their superior skills and performance. The picks from each team are as follows:

San Francisco Optx - Vaneesa "Vanessa" Artega - Dead or Alive 4 Female
Chicago Chimera - Jeremy "BlackMamba" Florence - Dead or Alive 4 Male
Los Angeles compLexity - Danny "fRoD" Montaner - Counter-Strike: Source
Carolina Core - Ryan "Offbeat Ninja" Ward - Dead or Alive 4 Male
New York 3D - Matt "Wizakor" Wood - FIFA '08
Dallas Venom - Emmanuel "Master" Rodriguez - Dead or Alive 4 Male

Although Project Gotham Racing 3 was arguably the leading points accumulator for franchises during the 2007 season, no racers were selected to be Franchised Players. Chicago Chimera's racing superstars Wesley "ch0mpr" Cwiklo and Jason "Jason X" Exelby were overshadowed by the 2007 finals MVP Florence.

The longtime American Counter-Strike superstar Montaner was the only Counter-Strike: Source player to be franchised by their team. It's also worth noting that Montaner alone was franchised and not the whole Counter-Strike: Source team. This is a good indication that Counter-Strike: Source players will be picked individually for the 2008 Draft, and not by whole teams.

The Franchise Players will be one of three player classifications for the upcoming 2008 season. In addition to the single Franchise
Player for each North American team, each General Manager will choose
up to four Protected Players whose identities will be revealed on the
eve of the March 9th 2008 Draft. These four players
will remain on their respective teams for the 2008 season while the
remaining five members of each team will be released into the general
draft pool, where they will join the Combine participants. Each General Manager will select five additional Drafted Players to complete their 10-man roster.