The 2008 CGS Region 1 Combine and Draft came to an end Sunday with the Draft Ceremony. The draft may be over but the far reaching impact to the North American Counter Strike competitive gaming community has only begun to be explored. Not only will the draft have an impact on the CS:Source community, it could also affect Counter Strike 1.6 in the U.S. on a significant level.

3D raids Pandemic

There were some surprises, some head scratchers and some well predicted choices made by the six general managers on Sunday. 3D.NY's Dave “moto” Geffon took command of his franchise destiny and chose two players that seem to be very logical choices for his team in Jon “juan” Mumm and Nick “noit” Nowakowski. 3D appeared to be in dire need of a strat caller and found a good one in Mumm and an all around beast in Nowakowski. The former Verge and Pandemic CS:S players were widely expected to be taken in the draft and for good reason. The pair, along with Mike “paradox” Stanowski, have have been a top 2 or 3 lineup in CS:S since its start.

Not only will this alter forever the face of Team 3D by adding “pure” CS:S players to the team, it also effectively ends the era of the “old” Source teams for CS:S as well. No longer will we see the Verge versus PowersGaming rivalry that basically continued with this past season of CEVO Pro by way of Pandemic and Optx.


Out with the Old, in with the Old

3D was not the only one to get in on the Verge/Pandemic dismantling. The San Francisco Optx' Kat Hunter got in on the raiding by picking up Stanowski. Along with Stanowski, Hunter picked up Garett “grt” Bambrough, thereby replacing long time Optx player Trevor “p0s” Randolph and the newest member to Optx roster before the draft, Ryan “pham” Pham. This would return two former CS 1.6 players to free agency as well as helping dismantle the best CS:Source team outside of the CGS by taking Stanowski.

Dallas Venom also got in on the Pandemic raid by acquiring Kyle “mustang” Cummings. The Venom took a piece of Devastation as well by acquiring Carson "classified" Holt. Dallas donated a couple of players back to the free agent, former 1.6 player's pool by way of moving Derek "exodus" Heidinger to the Venom taxi squad and leaving Corey "kaM" Hanes unprotected to settle for a taxi position on the Carolina Core.

The Chicago Chimera helped take apart Devastation by picking up Albert "hahn" Hahn in the last pick of the draft. The Optx' Kat Hunter appeared to throw a monkey wrench into the Chimera manager Brian "dkt" Flander's plan of action in the draft by taking Bambrough which left Flander with the Hahn pick.

Chimera did their share of sending former 1.6 players back to free agency as well. One of the most well known names in Counter Strike, Griffin “shaguar” Benger was left unprotected and was not drafted by any other team for a starter or taxi player. The Chimera also opted not to go with season one fill in player and well known CS 1.6 name, Justin “sunman” Summy, who was picked up by his former 1.6 team Complexity as a taxi player.

Chicago did enlist a well known replacement from the CS 1.6 competitive community in Eric "Da Bears" Stromberg, and in doing so took another player from a non-CGS, CEVO Pro CS:S team, Eximius.

The Carolina Core opted to go with a veteran CS 1.6 player in Cyrus "org" Habibi and returned Adam “elusive” Messner to free agency. Complexity chose to go back to the tried and true, tested lineup from last season, leaving Matt “Warden” Dickens protected for one round and picking him back up.