By: Brian Crecente

The two bunnies stand shoulder-to-shoulder smiling at nothing in particular. Behind them the faded blue of the Playboy Mansion's rock-lined pool. In front of them a seething mass of gamers, mostly men, VIPs, mostly men, and journalists, mostly men.

They stand, they pose with passers-by, but mostly they just smile.

And then a voice cuts through the crowd over the speaker system. The Championship Gaming Series draft is about to start, everyone needs to go inside the tent.

The bunnies seem confused.

"Games?" asks one to the other, while playing with the fluffy white pompoms attached to her white faux fur top.

Pro-gaming's first ever draft was, in many ways, like those Playboy bunnies: Interesting to watch, but not very deep.

Unlike the DirecTV -backed league's two invitationals last year (which one attendee described as very "Nickelodeon"), last night's draft had a very distinct sports feel to it, but it still seemed a bit too superficial. As if the event was more about the presentation than the results.

But it was still a step in the right direction it what will most definitely be an uphill battle. One that will continue in July with the airing of the first ever live competitions.

Last night decided who would make up the new leagues six teams, giving 60 of the attending 225 pro-gamers a career in the burgeoning sport. Each of the gamers selected were signed on with a $30,000 base salary and a chance to win much more during the regular season of competition.

So for them, the gamers, last night was every bit real. It was, as league commissioner Andy Reif said, gaming history, a night when a league was born.

For Reif, and the others behind the scenes of the new league it was a night long in coming.

"When (DirecTV president) David Hill approached me about doing this I said I'm not a gamer. He said he wanted me to do this because I had already experienced the pain of building a sport," Reif said.

It was Reif who was instrumental in the mainstreaming of the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour.

He said that like in pro-beach volleyball his greatest challenge in pro-gaming will be in both growing the audience and maintaining the current fans of pro-gaming.

"Video games transcend all cultures and races of the world," he said. "Most sports are experiencing a shrinking audience, video games are exactly the opposite."
"But if you lose the hardcore audience, you can forget about it."

DirecTV decided to host the draft at the Playboy mansion because in part they wanted to remind everyone that pro-gaming is an "irreverent sport" and because they wanted to make the event memorable for the draftees. It also, of course, fit into their strategy of attracting a new audience while maintaining the old one.

"We were looking for an iconic place, a place that for gamers would represent that they had arrived," said Steven Roberts, vice president, general manager of DirecTV.

Roberts knows that to make pro-gaming work they're going to have to rely on more than just the sport itself. As with a sport like NASCAR, the personalities will be key in driving the league's success.

"There are some great personalities here like in any sport," he said. "What we do and we do best is tell stories. That's what it's going to take to make heroes out of these people."

One of those stories, perhaps the one most interesting to those not plugged into the burgeoning sport, was of Vanessa Arteaga, a 20-year-old receptionist turned pro-gamer who wasn't just the first woman selected in the draft, she was the first gamer selected.

Arteaga, who was signed with the San Francisco OPTX for their Dead or Alive 4 Woman's team, was shaking when she left the stage. Her hands trembled as she held the team's shirt up for a picture.

"I knew potentially I was going to be a first pick," she said later. "But it was just amazing when it happened, it was such an awesome event. Sitting in the crowd and seeing all of the draft picks happen was awesome."

Arteaga said growing up she loved to play games, something her mother didn't always support.

"My mom hid my Xbox controller a couple of times," she said. "But we finally had a talk and she realized how excited it made me feel to play games and that I was good at it so she became very supportive."

She said that she also hopes to be a role model to other female gamers, to inspire women to become pros. Male gamers "had a head start, but I think females are starting to pick up," she said.

And despite the male-dominated sport, and setting she was excited to be a part of the evening.

"It's exciting being here because it's the Playboy Mansion," she said. "I may not be excited about seeing the bunnies, but it's a once in a lifetime experience. I can tell my kids and grandkids that I was drafted here."

The night also saw the selection of the six teams new general managers, five men and one woman who will now spend their days scouting players, developing their skills and building the teams' fan bases.

Jason Lake, general manager of Complexity LA said the new league job has come with a steep learning curve, but that he thinks this is the best thing that can happen for pro-gaming.

"This is the big time. This is the show," he said. "This is what people like me have been waiting for."

While last night's event may have seemed a tad overblown to those not directly involved, it did herald, I believe, a change in the way pro-gaming will be viewed. It showed that the sport has potential, though perhaps the sweet-spot for mainstream viewers hasn't yet been found.

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