Dell College Gaming League Becomes First Official Amateur League Partner for Championship Gaming Series

Dell’s College Gaming League (CGL), the community for avid PC and Xbox 360 collegiate gamers and Championship Gaming Series (CGS), have joined forces and established the CGL as the first Official Amateur League Partner of CGS.

The College Gaming League was founded as a joint venture between Dell, Intel and Microsoft as part of the Dell University program, which offers educational discounts and customized PC bundles for students, faculty and staff at thousands of participating schools across the country. League membership is free and open to all college students in the U.S. Benefits include access to public game servers for all members, exclusive offers on systems and games, member communication tools, weekly “Play with a Pro” game nights, open- and closed-ladder tournaments, a Premiere Division for top performers and a national championship tournament where school teams compete.

Headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, the Championship Gaming Series (CGS) is a worldwide professional video gaming league and was formed in 2007 as a joint venture among BSkyB, DIRECTV and STAR. CGS features teams of the world's best gamers from North America, Latin America, the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. The league distributes entertainment content to more than 425 million viewers worldwide via DIRECTV and G4 in North America, DIRECTV in Latin America, BSkyB in the UK, Eurosport in Europe and STAR in Asia and Australia. CGS sponsors include Mountain Dew, Creative, Xbox 360 and Dell XPS.

“We’re very excited to partner with Dell on the College Gaming League,” said Andy Reif, Championship Gaming Series Commissioner and CEO, “Together, we’ll reach hundreds of campuses in the U.S. and engage a huge number of students to find out which schools have the top players and which of them will have a chance to join CGS as professional gamers. We can’t wait to start scouting the talent.”

“Together, Dell’s College Gaming League and the Championship Gaming Series will be turning the hallowed halls of our nation’s most respected institutions of higher learning into source of gaming greatness,” said Arthur Lewis, head of Dell’s gaming group. “This partnership will give our players access to professional talent as well as heightened exposure of the league and its initiatives.”

Highlights of the partnership include:

• CGL Premiere Division winners will win free trips to the CGS 2009 North America Combine and Draft. At the Combine, these CGL winners will receive preferential seeding as they compete to be selected as professional gamers on CGS professional teams at the televised 2009 Draft, where they will be featured in a special CGL seating area.
• Viewing parties on campuses nationwide during the upcoming televised CGS 2008 North America season and World Final, coordinated by CGL campus representatives.
• “Play with a CGS Pro” nights featuring CGS players online and live at CGL campus events.