Major League Gaming is now opening registration for the North American qualifier side of its Metal Gear Online World Championship 2008. The contest will take the two best teams from North America, Europe, Japan, and Korea/Greater Asia (wherever greater Asia is) and pit them against each other for our amusement.

The finals will be held at the Tokyo Game Show and the cash prize is a little paltry at $8,000. Couldn’t they have sprung for more? I suppose it may be worth it just to fly to Japan and check out Akihabara, the video game mecca.

Folks better act fast though and get their teams set up. The North American qualifier will conclude Sept. 8. That’s not too far away.

Andy Reif, the head of the Championship Gaming Series, has left his post after completing a two-year contract. What does it mean for league?

I’m really not that sure. Reif had some background in sports. He was the chief operating officer of the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour. It may helped on the formating and planning of the CGS, but when it came to reaching out to gamers, there could have been somethings done better.

According to the board chatter, his contract wasn’t renewed.

Instead, he will be replaced by Dale Hopkins, who is the former chief operating officer of G4 Network. The press release said, Hopkins “will take over Reif’s duties as head of the league.” It may be a good move to get someone who has experience in video games in the charge. I’m hoping that they can maybe change some of the games and cycle through them.

After its second season, the Championship Gaming Series is mixing it up a bit, coming out with a Pro-Am division this summer. Folks who think they can compete with pro players can show the league their stuff.

Players have to register, and for the time being, it’s free. The league games are: Counter-Strike: Source, Counter-Strike 1.6 (the man’s game), Team Fortress, Dead or Alive 4 and Forza Motorsports 2. There’s $40,000 in cash prizes so if you think you can hang, you should probably sign up.

Elsewhere, the Dallas Venom are adding two sheeps to the online fodder. Players can compete against the Venom’s Michelle “Phoenix” Pleet and Manny “Master” Rodriguez this Friday from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time. They’re playing under the handles CGS Phoenix and CGS Master (name speaks for itself). It’s all part of the Play with the Pros program. It’s mildly interesting.

Alessandro Avallone takes on all comers

Originally uploaded by Anda Chu/Staff

Fresh off their World Finals appearance, the San Francisco Optx dropped in at the NewPark Mall in Newark. Three team members were there: Vanessa Arteaga, the best Dead or Alive 4 player in the world; Dublin’s own Chad Neil, whose Forza 2 racing skills were instrumental in the playoffs; and Alessandro Avallone (pictured above), a pro gamer who plays as the Optx’s FIFA specialist.

All three were there taking on all comers as part of back-to-school event. Staff writer Rob Dennis was there and wrote up a nice piece on the event.

If you want to check out more pictures, we’re running them in the Sunday papers in the Contra Costa Times side in the local section.

Oh well, all good things must come to an end, and for the San Francisco Optx, their season to them the brink of a Championship Gaming Series Championship. Unfortunately, the team couldn’t pull out the win falling to the Birmingham Salvo — 22-15.

Although the team lost, I consider it a good season. The Optx went further than they did last year. From the score, it looks like the Otpx’s Vanessa Arteaga held her own, but the rest of the team couldn’t make up the gap, losing grand in the respective games.

Folks who still want to watch the championship game can check it out at 10 p.m. Saturday on G4. Or folks who can’t wait, can catch it on the CGS Web site.

With all the E3 news the past few weeks, it’s been hard for me to keep up with the San Francisco Optx. I knew the team with Dublin resident Chad Neil made the North American playoffs.

But what I missed was a interesting turn of events. Here’s the recap: The Optx made the North American playoffs but had their hopes dashed with a loss to the Dallas Venom. But so far, that was the last time they lost as the team — against all odds — found a way to beat the New York 3D for third place in North America.

The team then topped the London Mint to make it as a Wild Card in the World CGS tournament. Now that they were in the big show, the Optx made a whole lot of noise avenging a loss to the Dallas Venom and beating the Berlin Allianz.

This sets up the match this Monday. The Optx will play the Birmingham Salvo for the CGS World Championship and $500,000. The match will be shown at 7 p.m. on DirecTV’s The 101 network. For those with Comcast, you can actually watch the match on G4. Unfortunately, you have to wait until Aug. 2 at 10 p.m.

Folks can cheer on Chad Neil, who goes by the handle Miximup. He and his Forza 2 partner Kevin “Sackamonjaro” Uribe have been instrumental in getting the Optx this far.

There’s a reality show for everything. Comic book heroes? Stan Lee was involved in Who Wants to be a Superhero? Geeks? Take your pick. There’s Can’t Get a Date or Beauty and the Geek.

When it comes to e-sports, gamers have the XFX Challenge.

It’s a reality show streamed on the Web that takes a group of amateurs and tries to mold them into a professional Counter-Strike team. Along the way Team XFX meets up with the some of the best players in the game, including LA compLexity and Jonathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel.

The show itself is decent. In a way, it shows how e-sports hasn’t quite taken off just yet. Screen names like “Rambo,” “Warden” or “fRod” aren’t well-known. To the average viewer or player for that matter, the amateurs have as much name recognition as the pro gamers they want to become.

But though they may be as anonymous as the folks they’re playing, the difference in skill level is easily apparent. Team XFX got beat down in a rout against comLexity. But over the course of the series, they learn some skills and realities from players connected with the Championship Gaming Series.

What’s interesting is that Rubin doesn’t tackle hard-core strats or delve too deeply in the minutiae of the lingo. It looks at the culture of competitive gaming along the periphery. In a game-show style, they compete in immunity challenges like setting up a rig or taking a test focused on who knows whom.

These are events that examine some of the more accessible parts of the competitive gaming like teamwork and practical skills.

At the end of each episode, one person is voted to compete for his or her spot on the team against a local. If the person wins, the player stays on. If the person loses, the local takes the player’s place.

As with any reality show, there’s some manufactured drama. Teammates are angry with other over some decisions. At other moments, members of Team XFX act like hornball teenagers or slackers who live with their parents.

It’s definitely not the type of stuff that will get you on The Soup with Joel McHale. But then again, maybe it is.

I wouldn’t normally consider Pokemon an actual e-sport, but when you think about people dueling with their Pikachus or Squirtles, I suppose it is. With that in mind, if anyone is hanging out in Los Angeles with a Nintendo DS and Pokemon Diamond or Pearl, they can get in on the qualifying tournament.

The showdown will eventually pit the best Pokemon players from the United States and Japan in a tournament in Orlando, Fla.

Details on the pokemon tournament on the jump

If King of Kong proved anything, it’s that competitive gaming is as old as the industry itself. As long as gamers are out racking up high scores, there’s always a contest to top the the leaderboard. And when it comes to head-to-head matches, there’s eventually going to be a tournament to determine the best.

Over the years, the formula for competition has evolved. Top scores at the 7-eleven or beating opponents at the arcade no longer matter. Competitive gaming, or e-sports, has developed into something that resembles mainstream sports.

There are gamers on the Internet that play certain titles for a living. They practice for hours on end. They have playbooks and strategy. They compete for money, win, lose, get frustrated with teammates, argue, retire for a few months and later unretire to take up the mouse and keyboard again.

By far, it’s best, most mature example — well other than Starcraft– is Counter-Strike. The popular mod has become the team sport for gamers.

In Game Boys, the New York Post’s Michael Kane delves into this world and comes up with a fascinating history. It’s a book about legitimacy and validation of the game and the people who play it.

Kane’s story starts out with a simple LAN tournament and grows into a layered story of how video games and its players are constantly trying to justify its existence to a larger American audience.

More on fragging and gett pwned on the jump

The San Francisco Optx earned a playoff spot (and possibly some G4 TV time) at the Championship Gaming Series by beating the LA Complexity, 22-20. It was a close match with Optx’s Counter-Strike: Source team saving the day by demolishing Complexity 13-5.

The team’s been doing better since that midseason slump, where they lost two matches to Dallas and one to New York. Those are also the top two teams in the league right now.

For the Optx, this is all about positioning. By staying third place, they’ll play against Dallas. If the team drops to fourth, they’ll end up playing the No. 1 team — 3D New York.

Sidenote: I’ve been reading Michael Kane’s Game Boys and I’ve gain a new appreciation for e-sports. If you’re interested in this sort of thing and want to know who some of these players and manager are, pick it up. You can see how the Team 3D and CompLexity rivalry is playing out pre-CGS.