iGames announced its first-ever Intel-sponsored competitions, comprising a 6-month series of tournaments and other special events to be held at 40+ iGames member centers across North America. With $40K in cash and prizes in the balance, the Intel competitions will feature the best local LAN teams fragging it out on today's most popular competitive games, including Counter-StrikeT 1.6 and Call of Duty 2.

"This campaign is focused on bringing the excitement of eSports to the grassroots level," said Mark Nielsen, Executive Director of iGames. "iGames and our 500+ member centers have run hundreds of local and online tournaments. With Intel's continued support to LAN centers, we are excited to launch the first phase of a comprehensive program to provide both aspiring professional players and local weekend warriors the chance to showcase their skills with the same professional format and high-end systems used by big-tournament players."

"We are excited to be working with iGames to bring this level of competition to local game centers featuring Intel-based technology" said Tim Takeuchi, gaming campaign strategist at Intel Corporation. "iGames centers and the greater eSports community will benefit from these broadly coordinated LAN events and Intel products will provide the infrastructure needed for an amazing gaming experience."

The Intel events will begin in June and will run monthly through November. Sponsored by Intel, in association with CEVO, the first event will be the Intel $5K CS Open (Counter-Strike 1.6 Open Tournament), which will be held Saturday and Sunday, June 24-25, at eight (8) iGames member centers.

Centers participating in the Intel $5K Open will include:
- eBash (Terre Haute, IN)
- euphNET v3 (San Jose, CA)
- Head 2 Head Games (London, ONT Canada)
- interPeer (Williamstown, NJ)
- NETplay (Indian Trail, NC)
- PC Gamerz Hawaii (Aiea, HI).
- Sin City PC (Las Vegas, NV)
- Xtreme Player Zone (Flower Mound, TX)

The matches will be 5v5 competitions, combining pool play and double-elimination matches. In addition to $5K in cash to be divided between the best Counter-Strike players, there will also be special raffles and other surprises for all participants.