Team Pandemic - News - Congratulations to Pandemic.CSS's CGS Draftees

Congratulations are in order for the latest batch of Team Pandemic Counter-Strike: Source members selected into the 2008 Championship Gaming Series. This year's draft was held this past weekend in Austin, Texas and saw new opportunities arise for our very own Kyle 'Mustang' Cummings, Jon 'Juan' Mumm, Nick 'nickn0it' Nowakowski, and Mike 'Paradox' Stanowski.

Pandemic's President Chris Lemley takes a look back at their time with his team, provides some well earned thanks, and wishes them luck in their new roles within the professional gaming community. He also discusses what this means for Pandemic as a whole and what comes next for the organization.

Pandemic shows off their CPL medals with the Griff pose.

It is with great pride that I report to you today the departure of our Counter-Strike: Source team members to play in the 2008 Championship Gaming Series.

Some of you may already be wondering why I'd be happy to see them go or perhaps thinking I'm just covering up negative emotion by 'being a good sport,' but I can tell you in all truth that we are nothing but thrilled for these guys. While we'll certainly miss having them on board, the opportunity that they've been given by the CGS today far exceeds anything available elsewhere in their game of choice worldwide.

As they sign their contracts this week and undergo their orientation as CGS employees, I can't help but look back on their road to this point and how hard they've worked to earn it. These players were Source pioneers. In the days when 1.6ers in transition for the greener pastures of CGS were thought to be vastly superior to this new generation, here were our boys (Verge Gaming at the time) holding serve for the CSS community at-large who knew otherwise.

They broke out on the scene with a win at Digitallife 2005, dethroning then-top-ranked Powers Gaming fresh off their historic CPL victory. Keeping the bulk of the lineup together, the team was able to enjoy rejuvenated success in 2007 when they took home another first prize at the Buy.com LAN in early spring before being picked up by Pandemic; they would then go on to win their very own CPL Championship in their debut event under the new banner. The team would reach as high as #2 in GotFrag.com's North American CS:S rankings in April - ahead of five of the six CGS 'professional' franchises - a true testament to the skill still left outside of the previous season's draft.

Pandemic.CSS 2007/'08 Achievements:
1st - Buy.com LAN
1st - CPL Summer Championship
1st - Showdown LAN
3rd - GGL Digitallife
3rd - CEVO-Professional
3rd - CGS Combine
4th - Newegg LANFest2k7

Kyle "Mustang" Cummings was the first to go, drafted as the Dallas Venom's first selection from CS:S. It's no doubt Alex Conroy's squad will benefit from Kyle's rifling skills - some of the best in the game - and the personality and positive attitude he brings to the table. Kyle's primary obstacle to overcome will be having to adjust to a very foreign environment... not only is he away from his long-time teammates, but the new Venom.CSS is very much a 'project' that Jax will have to develop: full of talent, but questionable chemistry at best.

Jon and Nick are New York 3D's newest members. Picture: theCGS.com

Jon "Juan" Mumm and Nick "nickn0it" Nowakowski went second and third from our team, respectively, but managed to find a common home with Dave Geffon's reworked New York 3D squad. By replacing Lin and Rector, it's no doubt that Dave has pegged Juan as his new in-game leader while opting for Nick's AWP to complement his calls and ease transitions with a familiar face. Geffon's draft puts the bulk of the 'Pandemic raid' in prime position with one of the most well-balanced and talented teams in the league.

Last but not least we saw Mike "Paradox" Stanowski go to Kat Hunter's San Francisco Optx, where he will join another former Pandemic.CS member in Garret 'GRT' Bambrough - a well timed 'steal' from DKT's Chicago Chimera. This may well be your new strongest CSS squad and the 'coL killer' formula everyone seems to be searching for.

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Though the draft marks the end of an era for Pandemic.CSS, the organization will not miss a beat. Pandemic.WoW returns to action next month for the $200,000 Blizzard 3v3 World Championship, TF2 takes the #1 seed going into this week's CEVO-P playoffs, CoD4 is bearing down into what's become a grueling season, and some big changes are in the works within the team itself and in both existing and upcoming divisions.

Thanks again to the 2007/'08 Pandemic.CSS roster for taking us on an incredible journey, and best of luck to all of you in your future gaming careers. Only time will tell if Pandemic will reinvest into Source - or 1.6? - or if it's simply time for this organization's 'life after Counter-Strike.'