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Play games on TV for a living

BSkyB's league offers you cash.

Television giant BSkyB wants to give you cash for being good at computer games.

It's extending its Championship Gaming Series to the UK, you see, which pays you to compete in a league, offers bundles of money as prizes, and gets you on telly.

To become a professional you need to do three things: qualify online before 3rd August; qualify at a live event in Birmingham on 9th August; and triumph in London at the UK Championship finals where you'll be picked by a captain to become one of ten members in the professional London or Birmingham team.

After that you'll spend a month or two training, like Rocky, before flying out to Los Angeles in Novemeber for the big banana: the GCS World Championship.

The games played in the event are Counter Strike: Source, Dead or Alive 4, Project Gotham Racing 3 and FIFA 07 on PC.

All of the qualifying events will be on Sky One and Sky Two, as will the UK and World Championships.

Updates can be gotten through the freshly launched Sky Games site, which also acts as a portal for downloadable PC and TV games - mobile content is expected sometime in the future.

"We know that many of our customers enjoy gaming so our involvement with the CGS is a natural fit with our entertainment business, and in particular our multi-platform Sky Games service," said Mike Darcey, big cheese at BSkyB. "We look forward to bringing the excitement of the CGS into the homes of our customers, while also expanding our own gaming services."

It's not quite Games Master with Dominik Diamond - where one of our web developers lost to his sister - but it does hint at an increased attraction towards the industry in general. Is this the generation computer games finally saturate the mass telly-watching audience?

Head over to our Championship Gaming Series gallery for a snippet of the television tension.