PGL Championships Announced

The Professional Gamers League (PGL) announced Thursday that its championships games for the season will be held at the interactive gaming arena XS New York, in Times Square, on May 21-22.

More than US$100,000 in cash and prizes will be offered, with $10,000 in cash and $4,000 in prizes going to the final champions of the events. Roughly 4,000 people are expected to witness the carnage, and an estimated 50,000 will watch the live web broadcast. Admission will be free. PGL commissioner Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari, among others, is expected to attend, as well.

Two games will be featured at the event: Quake II and Starcraft, with eight finalists each. The finalist list features players from all over the continental United States and Canada:

Quake II- Alex "bad-habit" Pogozelski: McLean, VA- Eric "DH-SaboTaJ" Manfredi: Mundelein, IL- Kurt "Immortal" Shimada: Pleasanton, CA- Jason "Jmaster" Siquig: Fremont, CA- Gordon "K9-Gloucester" Luk: Los Angeles, CA- Bon "Kuin" Danan: Montreal, Canada- Sebastian "Sybek" Lenart: Mississauga, Ont., Canada- Erik "Vorador" Spoor: Amsterdam, NY

Starcraft- Dave "BOO!" Howell: Gander, Newfoundland- David "DeepBlue" Magro: Rochester, NY- Guillaume "Grrrr" Patry: Beauport, Quebec- Patrick "Kain-the-Feared" Chapelsky: Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada- Christopher "Pillars" Page: Andover, MA- Wayne "Soso" Chiang: San Jose, CA- Stephen "taurus49" Chan: Culver City, CA- Dennis "~WarAngel~;." Lee: Grand Prairie, TX

"I'm really psyched to be playing in the PGL finals this season, and with the event happening just 180 miles from where I live, I'm hoping to have some kind of ‘home court advantage," said Erik "Vorador", a finalist in the Spring '99 Quake II competition. "XS New York is the perfect place to hold the PGL championships, with room for hundreds of fans and tons of Internet- and game-oriented stuff for everyone to do."

“We're honored to be the host sponsor of the Spring '99 PGL championships, and we think that XS New York is the ideal setting for such a competition," said Russ Hamilton, entertainment manager of XS New York. “Imagine watching Quake marines and Starcraft infantry at larger-than-life size on one of two 100-foot square video walls -- that's as immersive as it gets!”