[CSS story] The rise and fall of PowersGaming

[size=3][b]GotFrag takes a look back at the reign of PowersGaming as the number one CS:Source team in the world.[/b][/size]

One year ago today when you talked about the best team in CS: Source you were talking about PowersGaming. The team was widely considered to be or moving towards being the 3D or Complexity of the North American Source world. It was a great ride from CPL Summer 2005 to EverLAN Winter NiT where PowersGaming met Team 3D for the big showdown of Source. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since EverLAN and many changes have taken place in the CS: Source competitive community. Most notable is the absence of the name PowersGaming.

GotFrag takes a look at the short, volatile history of PowersGaming as the number one team in CS: Source, the subsequent fall from grace and disappointing end to the team, and its parallel to the rise and fall of enthusiasm for CS: Source as a competitive game.

[color=Navy][size=3][u]In the Beginning [/u][/size][/color]
[img]http://www.gotfrag.com/files/upload/singlecoil_logo_powers.jpg[/img]

This story begins with the first season of CAL CS: Source, although it could be said that the story began with a father and son enjoying a recreational activity together in the form of gaming. Jordan Powers had been playing CS for quite some time when his father began to take an interest in the growing "sport". Jason Powers saw an opportunity for investment in this growing sport and from that notion, PowersGaming was formed. Over time, Jordan's involvement became less as other interests and responsibilities became more important. Jason eventually took full control of the team, funding and managing all aspects of PowersGaming.

The first season of the CyberAthlete Amateur League CS: Source was an open division. So many questions about the future of Source were raging through the CS community. Source was here and it was not being overwhelmingly accepted by the community to say the least. The game was obviously in beta stage and many bugs and game play differences had many wondering if the game should be considered at all for competition. The season completed and PowersGaming did establish itself as one of the better teams but failed to take the championship losing in the playoffs to Forbidden.

By the next season of CAL, CS: Source would shake the community to its core and ultimately create a divide in the community that still lingers between the two Counter-Strike camps. There was much confusion at the start of CAL Invite for Source. CAL had announced the eventual phasing out of CAL Invite CS 1.6 and teams would be allowed to migrate to Source. Unfortunately not very many 1.6 teams liked Source and in fact were strongly opposed to its use. Complexity announced they would move to Source shortly after CPL only at the last minute to accept the invitation to what CAL was calling the last season of CAL Invite CS 1.6. It was a very confusing time for the community as many teams began to protest the forced move to Source. CPL and WCG at the same time were announcing what looked to be the end of CS 1.6 as it had stood. Source was to be used at the upcoming events and it seemed CS 1.6 was all but dead. In the end, the CS 1.6 community answered back with a resounding no to Source.

[img]http://admin.v3.gotfrag.net/files/upload/galleryimage_6276_ft.jpg[/img]
Jason Powers

Story from [url]www.gotfrag.com[/url]

[color=Navy][size=3][u]Season Two CAL Invite Source[/u][/size][/color]

Some CS 1.6 teams did accept the invitation to CAL Invite Source in season two and were definitely looking forward to playing Source at upcoming events. Pandemic, TEC, East Coast Offensive from CAL Invite, and 2god from Premier all decided to make the switch to Source. In the meantime PowersGaming was building a team of veteran CS 1.6 and CoD CPL winners. Jason Powers recruited former U5 leader of the Summer CPL 2004 CoD Championship team, Jacob "Nightfall" Stanton and former fellow Complexity CoD teammate Laurent "Warmachine" Keoula. The team also recruited CS 1.6 veteran Trevor "p0s" Randolph from rsports. The only remaining player from the original PG roster was Kevin "wukev" Roberts. This core group of players would make up a big part of the rest of the story of PowersGaming's run at various times. Jason Powers had made roster decisions with calculation and with eyes set on the CPL and it began to pay off immediately.

Number three ranked PowersGaming opened the second season of CAL Invite Source with a complete domination of number one ranked CaribOne. At this same time p0s decided to retire (one of several to come) from Source. PG picked up mattyz from Casual Heroes and had no problem dispensing of CaribOne, East Coast Offensive, 2god, Pandemic, and TEC, all in dominating fashion. PowersGaming dominated the entire season except for a tie against Forbidden in week seven. The team was playing very well under the stern leadership of Nightfall and the financial support and promise from Jason Powers. p0s's early departure from the team was a distant memory in the late weeks of that CAL Invite season but in hindsight, his leaving was a direct look into PG's future. Things looked very good for PowersGaming heading into the first season of CAL Invite's playoffs. Very good indeed.

The CAL Invite Source SII playoffs were scheduled to occur before the CPL and would give good seeding for the event. PG remained undefeated through the playoffs. Just days before the Summer CPL 2005, PG met Skull Gaming for the CAL Invite Source SI championship. Powers Gaming was heavily favored to win. In what seemed "too good to be true" fashion, Skull defeated PG 16-10 on Train. Not so fast there pardner... a dispute was filed and Skull's Izzo was found to be cheating in the match. Skull would be disqualified. Now CAL had a decision to make, replay finals or award PG the championship.

CAL elected to replay the finals at the upcoming CPL event and Visual Gaming would be moved up to face PG for the championship. The decision was applauded by the community and the stage was set for an even more exciting final than originally planned. The match would only add to the growing popularity and exposure of Powers Gaming.



[img]http://admin.v3.gotfrag.net/files/upload/galleryimage_6274_ft.jpg[/img]
Jacob "Nightfall" Stanton

Story from [url]www.gotfrag.com[/url]

[color=Navy][size=3][u]Hardfought [/u][/size][/color]

The climate of the CS community had changed considerably from the time it was announced that the Summer CPL 2005 main tournament would be Source until the actual event. By the time the CAL playoffs began, the enthusiasm and push for Source had begun to dissipate. Many claimed the game was still not ready for competition. The CPL had taken away prize money from the upcoming championship and had added a CS 1.6 tournament due to an overwhelming demand from the CS community. Most of the current top CS 1.6 teams refused to even discuss playing the game. Although Summer CPL 2005 would be CS: Source’s high point, much of the CS community had shifted focus back to CS 1.6 by the time the tournament took place.

None of this seemed to faze Jason Powers as he spoke enthusiastically of the upcoming CPL,"We will attend Hardfought LAN tournament in Dallas July 1 through July 3, then we're off to our own boot camp through July 5. Other teams at this boot camp include dRagonz (Germany), Titans (Singapore), Check-Six, Devastation, Minutemen, TAU and Visualgaming (Canada). We look forward to meeting everybody we ever scrimmed in Seasons One and Two, plus the Euro teams. After CPL, we dive into Season3 of CAL... Hopefully more 1.6 teams will come over and make competition that much more difficult... Our website, which is being built by IMG, will be up by then..." Jason's enthusiasm would spill over into the community as he remained a champion for Source and a community leader until the very end.

The HardFought boot camp and tournament took place the weekend before the start of the Summer 2005 CPL. Jason Powers was instrumental in setting up this boot camp and saw to it that his team and others were there to practice for the CPL. Jason could be seen giving other teams a ride to and from airports and hotels to the event. Powers allowed some of the other teams to share hotel rooms with PG players to help out. It was this kind of participation in the community that began to give the PG organization a much respected name in eSports. PG and JPowers were fast building the premier team in CS: Source. Now all they had to do was win a major title.

As pretty much expected, PG rolled through the HardFought tournament with ease until the Upper Final. VisualGaming would send PG to the lower bracket with a win on Inferno 20-17. This match would be a foretelling of the future as we would see only a few days later. PG would fight back to the Grand Final and would win the HardFought tournament in two maps over Visual in convincing style. The seed had been sewn for an upset at CPL but for the time being, PG was looking very good.


[img]http://admin.v3.gotfrag.net/files/upload/galleryimage_6284_ft.jpg[/img]
Clown and Wukev in the Glory Days

Story from [url]www.gotfrag.com[/url]

[color=Navy][size=3][u]CAL Invite at CPL[/u][/size][/color]

The CAL Invite championship was quickly setup and played the first day of Summer 2005 CPL. It would be Source's first big match in the LAN spotlight and it did not fail to deliver. In a very exciting match on Train, Visualgaming was able to take the pistol round in the second half and went on to overcome a first half deficit of 10-5 and win the match 16-13. It would be the first really big upset for PG and maybe another glimpse into PG's future.

For the time being PG would play off the loss. Nightfall went on to say after the match that “they really got us with the pistol round.” He also stated later that he told his guys they were there to win the CPL and not CAL Invite, thereby taking pressure off his team for the CAL final and making winning the CPL the ultimate goal. Nightfall's leadership would ultimately bring about a win for PG at this CPL and many would claim that his leadership was key in the championship. Many others, including some teammates, would later claim exactly the opposite and would claim that Nightfall was overbearing and had little to do with PG's success. All of this lay just beneath the surface as PG ignored losing to Visual in the CAL Invite final and prepared for the big show at summer 2005 CPL.
[img]http://admin.v3.gotfrag.net/files/upload/galleryimage_6287_ft.jpg[/img]
[img]http://admin.v3.gotfrag.net/files/upload/galleryimage_6283_ft.jpg[/img]
PG vs Visual CAL Invite SII Finals

[color=Navy][size=4][b]CAL Invite CS:Source Season II Grand Final[/b][/size][/color]
[size=3][color=Purple]
Final Score        1H                 2H                OT                   F
Visual Gaming      5                  11                  -               16
PowersGaming    10              3              -         13

[/color][/size]

Story from [url]www.gotfrag.com[/url]

[[i] 本帖最後由 iST 於 2006-8-24 12:59 PM 編輯 [/i]]

[color=Navy][size=3][u]CPL Summer 05[/u][/size][/color]

The first round of the CPL Summer 2005 CS: S Championship was a single elimination round. There were not many surprises in that first round other than little known Main team The Existence defeating Skull minus the notorious Izzo. TEC and dRagonz did have a run-in in later rounds with dRagonz being penalized 4 rounds for an illegal defuse and effectively ending the team’s chances of winning. PG sailed through the upper bracket with wins over No-Namers, dRagonz, TEC, and Upper in the winner’s bracket final. This upper round final would be a precursor to the Grand Final. Upper defeated TEC in the Consolation Final 16-5 on Mill to move to the Grand Final against PowersGaming.

The night before the Grand Final, Jason Powers would claim that it was “business as usual” and “We are going to scrim quite a bit tonight and then get some rest. It’s a 7am wakeup call and breakfast before the match". The team met an early curfew and was rested, well fed and ready for the match the next morning.

Upper did not stand much of a chance against PowersGaming that day as it would prove to be PG’s finest moment. Set on the big stage at CPL Summer 2005 for all to see, it was also to be CS: Source finest moment to date as well. Only the WCG 2005 Grand Finals with Team 3D would equal or surpass the attention that Source would receive that day. PG defeated Upper 16-5 on Dust2 to win the CPL Summer 2005 Championship and take its place in Source history.

[color=Navy][size=5][b]CPL CS Source Grand Finals[/b][/size][/color]

[size=3][color=Purple]Final Score        1H        2H        OT        F
PowersGaming        10        6        -        16
upper        5        -        -        5
[/color][/size]

On the surface, all would seem bright for PG and CS: Source. Under the attention the two were receiving lay the fact that CS: Source still had many problems, lack of Source TV being the main one. Problems were on the horizon for PG with roster changes and LAN losses. Jason Powers had accomplished goal number one and set sights on the team webpage, sponsors, the community and took a much more hands on approach in roster development and team management.

Story from [url]www.gotfrag.com[/url]

[[i] 本帖最後由 iST 於 2006-8-24 01:07 PM 編輯 [/i]]

[color=Navy][size=3][u]LANfest[/u][/size][/color]

Shortly after the CPL, Nightfall parted ways with the team. The back and forth banter began with Jason Powers and the remaining members citing Nightfall’s in game attitude. Jacob stated he was simply taking a break from gaming but also offered some not so flattering remarks about his old team. NightFall was quickly replaced with former x6 member Drew "Drew" Morehead. Thus began a series of roster changes and run-ins with NightFall for PG that would ultimately lead to the demise of the team, or at least contribute greatly to it.

Three weeks after the Summer 05 CPL, PG would once again face Upper on LAN. The Newegg LANfest 2K5 in Pasadena, California was the next big showcase for CS: Source with several of the top North American teams in attendance. The PG roster now consisted of Yazan "clowN" Ammari, Laurent "Warmach1ne" Keoula, Drew "Drew" Morehead, Trevor "p0s" Randolph and Kevin "wukev" Roberts. Upper had gone through some major changes after CPL as well. Not only had the roster been revamped but the organization officially became part of the Weekend Warriors organization. The roster for Upper/WEW would be Mohamed "mOE" Assad, Dallas "Fleshy" Dutcher, Joshua "haqshot^" Lanigan, Cheyne "cadaviar" Last and Blake "hollywood" Street. Almost all of these players from both rosters would play a significant role in the short legacy of Powers gaming.

PG and WEW/Upper sailed through the group play unscathed at LANfest. WEW defeated PG, to much surprise, in the first round of double elimination. PG would battle back to face WEW in the Grand final. The stage was set for a rematch of CPL, albeit with slightly different rosters. PG, coming from the lower bracket was faced with having to defeat WEW twice for the championship. PG handed WEW its hat, so to speak, with a 16-1 trouncing on Dust2. On Inferno however, WEW was able to hold off the onslaught of PG to win 16-14 and take the LANfest 2K5 championship.

It looked as though a rivalry was in the making. The thought that this could be just the thing that Source needed to give it a boost was definitely on a portion of the community’s mind. PG, although taking second place at LANfest, had established itself as the premier team in North American Source. WEW/Upper had also established itself as a top two team. Unfortunately, this rivalry never came to fruition as a roster shakeup involving the two teams rocked the Source community and resulted in one of the organizations withdrawing from Source altogether.

[img]http://admin.v3.gotfrag.net/files/upload/galleryimage_6275_ft.jpg[/img]
Trevor "p0s" Randolph

Story from [url]www.gotfrag.com[/url]

[color=Navy][size=3][u]CAL Invite Season Three[/u][/size][/color]

Immediately after LANFest, PG picked up Ben "Struk" Kaminski from the CPL Summer Upper lineup. Ben remained an integral part of the PG story from that time on. On the first regular season match night of CAL Invite CS: Source SIII, the PG organization announced a huge roster change. Warmach1ne and Drew would be departing the team, making way for Haqshot, Moe, Cadaviar and Ph1l from Team WEW. The shakeup devastated WEW’s roster and the organization announced shortly afterwards that it would be dropping Source altogether. Pandemic had already chosen not to continue with Source and although TEC picked up Drew from PG, that team’s days were also numbered in the Source world.

During this time Jason Powers became even more visible and active in the Source community and continued to be a driving force in the game. Many Source related projects were in the works including the PG website, research into anti-cheat development, movie development, shoutcast development, acquiring sponsors for PG and Source in general and more. It was also during this time that Powers announced the formation of the PowersGaming Ladies Source team. Powers stated at the time, "We've added a girl's CS:S team to PowersGaming, calling it 'PowersGaming[L]'. This is the first ever all girls Source team, and the players on this new team are awesome! We've added them to our Invite roster until we can secure them their own team berth." Although the ladies team never made it to invite level, Powers worked to build a top notch multi-team organization and bring female gamers to the forefront as well.

Just a couple of weeks after the big roster change for PG and WEW, Warmach1ne was added back to the PG roster. About this same time, a friendship began to develop between Team 3D manager Craig “Torbull” Levine and Jason Powers. As PG rolled through CAL Invite, the team also began to branch out and play exhibition type matches with 3D in Xfire promoted events. The team also began to scrim with team 3D at Source in preparation for the upcoming WCG Grand Finals in which 3D would be representing the USA.

PG would go on to beat Forbidden in the Finals of CAL Invite SIII to become the champions of season three. Before the season would end however, another major Source tournament loomed on the horizon for PG. The team would also face Team 3D in an exhibition match aimed at preparing 3D further for the WCG final.

[img]http://admin.v3.gotfrag.net/files/upload/galleryimage_6271_ft.jpg[/img]
Laurent "Warmach1ne" Keoula

Story from [url]www.gotfrag.com[/url]

[color=Navy][size=3][u]Newegg | Digitallife[/u][/size][/color]

The NewEgg|Digitallife CS: Source tournament took place in New York City along with he “Ultimate consumer technology and entertainment convention” at the Javits Convention Center October 14-16, 2005. Several important events would occur during this tournament for PG. Possibly the biggest news to come from this event for PG was a meeting between Jason Powers, Craig Levine. During this meeting a plan was hatched to play exhibition matches of CS:Source online between PG and 3D to be fully covered by GotFrag with scores, statistics and Source TV. Newegg also got wind of the matches and contributed prizes for giveaway to lucky fans spectating the matches. But before all this could take place, PG had a tournament at hand and a win, as we would see, was not in the bag.

Verge Gaming, a relatively unknown name in the Source community, was laying in wait for PowersGaming in New York. This team felt it had been dealt a bad hand in CAL Main the previous season with a ban on one of its players. Since then the team had fought its way back up in Open and was looking to be the spoiler. A very enthusiastic crowd of onlookers at the Newegg booth in the Javits Center watched and cheered that last day of competition as Verge Gaming upset PowersGaming in the Grand Final of the Digitallife Newegg CS:Source tournament. This was to be another one of Source’s finer moments. The event brought forth another professionally managed Source team in Verge and kept the Powers Gaming name at the forefront of the Source community. PG was still the team to beat.

Once again PG fell just short of its goal and second place finishes did not fit well with Jason Powers' plans for the team. Another roster change was soon announced with Struk and Haqshot leaving the team and veteran p0s coming back to the team as well as Adeel “Prod” Anwar also joining the team. This lineup proved to be quite volatile and was quickly a thing of the past once the 3D versus PG exhibition match took place.

[img]http://admin.v3.gotfrag.net/files/upload/galleryimage_8412_f.jpg[/img]
Adeel “Prod” Anwar and p0s

Story from [url]www.gotfrag.com[/url]

[[i] 本帖最後由 iST 於 2006-8-24 01:22 PM 編輯 [/i]]

[color=Navy][size=5][u]PG vs 3D[/u][/size][/color]

[size=3]The PG 3D exhibition matches took place on November 10th, 2005. With over 1000 spectators in Source TV (one of the largest Source TV audiences to date) 3D and PG battled it out in three maps online. The matches were close for the most part as prizes were given away and a fun atmosphere surrounded the event. The exhibition was another highlight for Source and was a good look at how 3D would fare in Singapore for the WCG Grand Final. 3D would go on to dominate the WCG finals and prove once and for all that skill did transfer over to Source. It looked as though the two halves of the CS community would bond, at least for a little while. At least on the surface it appeared that way. Source was still unpolished as far as many were concerned and Source TV was still a disaster. Something did not seem right in the PG camp either.

[color=Navy]Scoreboard        1H        2H        OT        F
Team 3D        7        9        -        16
PowersGaming        8        4        -        12
PowersGaming        5        11        -        16
Team 3D        10        3        -        13
Team 3D        11        5        -        16
PowersGaming        4        9        -        13
[/color]
Very few knew of the turmoil going on in Ventrilo between the members of PG and management during the 3D exhibition matches. On the surface the event turned out to be fun and successful for the community but underneath was another disappointing performance by PG in Jason Powers’ mind. PG had lost two of the three maps to 3D. The team had been locked in a battle over leadership of the team in vent during the matches and once again roster changes would be made. Behind the scenes, Powers would state emphatically that he believed PG could beat 3D at Source and that PG was the better Source team. Powers Gaming would get one more chance to prove that belief as EverLAN loomed on the horizon. [/size]

Story from [url]www.gotfrag.com[/url]

[[i] 本帖最後由 iST 於 2006-8-24 01:18 PM 編輯 [/i]]

[color=Navy][size=3][u]EverLAN[/u][/size][/color]

In January of 2006 PG attended the EverLAN National Invitational Tournament in Denver, Colorado. The PG roster was once again stacked after barely finishing CAL Invite with one of the PG ladies as a fifth. Johnny "cLARK" Clark, p0s, warmach1ne, clown, moE, Jordan and Jason would make what would be the team’s last major event as Powers Gaming.

For a brief moment it seemed as though Source would settle into a comfortable niche in competitive gaming. Excitement was high as Team 3D announced the team would be competing at EverLAN. Finally the community would get to see PG and 3D face off, fair and square on LAN. At this same time, CEVO Source was in full swing and the CPL announced it would have CS: Source at Summer. The GotFrag North American Rankings for Source had just been released and PG was ranked number one.

Much as expected, PG met 3D in the upper finals of EverLAN. 3D dominated on Nuke 16-9 to send PG to the lower bracket. PG came right back against a surprising The Edge of Sanity team in the consolation to face 3D once again in the Grand Final. PG took the first map, Dust2, 16-6 and it looked as though Jason Powers would have what he wanted. A victory over 3D was in sight. Team 3D proved their experience and skill by shutting down a second half comeback back by PG on Inferno to win EverLAN Winter 2005/06. Once again PG had fallen just shy of Jason Powers’s goal although the effort had been a great one.

[img]http://admin.v3.gotfrag.net/files/upload/galleryimage_8297_f.jpg[/img]
PG at EverLAN

[color=Navy][size=4]EverLAN Winter 06 Grand Final[/color]
[color=Navy][size=3]Final Score        1H        2H        OT        F
PowersGaming        12        4        -        16
Team 3D        3        3        -        6
Map: de_dust2
[url=http://www.gotfrag.com/css/demos/15698/]demo[/url][/color]

[color=Navy][size=4]EverLAN Winter 06 Grand Final 2[/color]
[color=Navy][size=3]Final Score        1H        2H        OT        F
Team 3D        10        6        -        16
PowersGaming        5        7        -        12
Map: de_inferno
[url=http://www.gotfrag.com/css/demos/15708/]demo[/url]
[/size][/color]

Story from [url]www.gotfrag.com[/url]

[[i] 本帖最後由 iST 於 2006-8-24 01:32 PM 編輯 [/i]]

[color=Navy][size=3][u]The End[/u][/size][/color]

At this point it was obvious that Jason Powers had become disillusioned with the team and the overall outlook of CS: Source. He had confided in GotFrag before EverLAN that he was turning the day to day operations of PG over to his son Jordan. He spoke of the game not turning out very well as an investment. After EverLAN the team made one more roster change that would rock the community and this time, PG would not survive the change.
"Powers Gaming has had a lot of fun, and achieved a lot of success with Counterstrike: Source in the last year. We invested a lot of time and money into this endeavor, with the belief that eSports and Source in particular would be a worthwhile commitment, but 2006 has turned out to be an unstable investment at best, and for this reason, PG will no longer support Source, or gaming in general. We would like to thank everybody who helped us get where we did, and wish all of you good luck."- Jason and Jordan Powers
The first match of CAL Invite after EverLAN was season four, week 2:2. That match night, PG defeated Recon Syndicate 18-12 on Cbble but during the match inner turmoil between management and players came to a head. The result of that confrontation brought about a shocking announcement to say the least. That announcement was, “Trevor “p0s” Randolph has been released from the team. PowersGaming would like to welcome back Jacob "NightFaLL" Stanton to our organization as Team Leader of our Men's Team.”

The news was a surprise to many in the community and concerns over the teams past history with Stanton were raised. There was hope that this would be a boost and maybe it could work by both the community and Jason Powers. Powers stated, “We look forward to working with Jacob in the upcoming CAL Seasons 4 and 5, and CEVO 2 and 3. Our main goal will of course be to win CPL this summer in Dallas.” Unfortunately the remaining players of PG did not feel the same way.

The remaining members of the EverLAN PG squad decided collectively to leave the PG organization immediately. The players cited they felt Jason had broken his word by replacing p0s with Nightfall. The news was a shock to the community and signaled the ultimate end of Powers Gaming. Although some attempts were made by Powers to force the members to continue and to replace them, in the end, it would be a lost cause.

Contract disputes between Powers and the five former players kept the players from completing season one of CEVO Source and forced the roster to complete the CAL Invite season under no team banner. Once the contracts were settled, Clark, warmach1ne, clown and moE announced they were moving to the Check Six roster and after a few attempts by Nightfall to build a roster, the PG website announced the end of the Powers Gaming organization. The core of the PG roster eventually found its way to EF Gaming where it remains. Nightfall is always working on some project or team and continues to be a notable figure in eSports. p0s announced his retirement from Source again but found himself leading Skull gaming at TXGF just a short time later and continues to play CS 1.6 as well.

[img]http://www.gotfrag.com/files/upload/galleryimage_10647_f.jpg[/img]
EF Gaming at TXGF 2006

As Jason Powers said goodbye to eSports, he and Jordan moved on to spending time together working on another father and son project that had taken their interest for some time, motorcycle stunt riding. What began as a father and son project ended that way but not before a little part of eSports history was made. The rise and fall of the popularity of PG and CS: Source have paralelled in many ways. At the height of the popularity of the game so far, PG was at its finest. As Jason Powers and the PG organization lost interest in the investment, many on the Source bandwagon lost interest in the game and where it was going in the future. The community has now settled into a devoted, small group of faithful and some members of the old PG roster are still playing Source. Will CS: Source survive without PowersGaming? Only time will tell now, but for a time, PG and CS: Source were synonymous.

Since the demise of Powers Gaming, the Summer 2006 CPL has passed with no CS: Source competition, no EverLAN Summer Source, the latest season of CAL Invite became very inactive and has just now started to complete, CEVO continues its Source division and CAL has a European CS:S division. Inactivity plagues every CS:Source league at the moment. There has been only one “major” LAN for Source at The Texas Gaming Festival in which the revamped PG roster placed first under the EF Gaming banner. There are no major LAN tournaments planned for Source at the moment and Source TV is still not working. Although many have givn up, some still have faith and believe that with a little more work by Valve and a little more interest by sponsors and CS: Source could still be a very popular competitive game. Recent interest in updating the game by Valve and rumors of better things to come for Source have the community talking again. In the meantime, the small Source community still keeps an eye on the old PG roster and hopes for a return to the days of CPL Summer 2005 when CS: Source and PowersGaming were center stage.

FROM gotfrag news

[url]http://www.gotfrag.com/css/story/34089/[/url]