Article by Max "Goodeh" Silver, Editor in Chief Cadred.org



LOS ANGELES, California -- Michael "ODEE" O'Dell is renowned for finding an uncut diamond, and cutting and polishing the stone until it gleams and is worthy of winning some kind of award. The award in question is the CGS World Championship Trophy and the uncut diamond is the Birmingham Salvo team.

Only a few months ago his team saw the UK Championship won by London Mint, Michael could only look on as his team suffered one failure after another, to lose the match by a massive 12 points. On this day he vowed never to lose in that way again, and focused every day on being with the players, and molding them into winners.

The fruit has ripened.

In the first game of inaugural Championship Gaming Series World Final, Salvo blew out the Sinistro 30-16. Birmingham FIFA 07 player Michael "Bazza" Barrett showed the most improvement, from losing 7-0 at the UK Live Qualifiers, to winning 3-0 in a match that served as the first step to a $500,000 payday for the team. Although he was not ODEE's first pick, he's gone from zero to hero.

“Once I lost the coin toss I knew Sujoy Roy would to go Chris "ChrisyB" Bullard,” said O’Dell. “I've known Michael for two years so I know what he's capable of. It was a little bit better than I expected, the best I was hoping for was a two goal margin, either way, it was the best start we could have hoped for."

The Birmingham Salvo have now made a keen statement on their intent to win the entire competition, "I think anybody would be pretty dumb to underestimate us, and I'm pretty sure no one will," spoke a confident O’Dell. When asked if he sees the final score as being much different if Bazza hadn't won, he oozed pride in his team, "I don't think it would have changed a thing in the grand scheme of the match, not a thing."

With only one loss, being in Dead or Alive 4 Women’s, O’Dell was not too concerned going into the game against Singapore, "Yeah Samantha "Ricochet" Whale lost concentration and went from 3-1 up to 5-3 down, that's disappointing for her, but with the team doing so well I can't complain too much. She knows what went wrong and I'll work with her so we can solve the problems for the game against Singapore."

O’Dell is well known for his dislike of wearing suits, but during the CGS team game he put away his pride and slapped on a shirt and tie, the cameras however do not faze him, having been in the spotlight for years.

"Shirt and tie is all right, ever since I was 12 I've hated blazers. Normally in eSports the players are louder than the crowd, the players were nervous beforehand but once they got going it was business as usual. Once it started I didn't really notice the cameras, even though there were loads of them.

Birmingham will face Singapore Sword later on today, who are on a high right now after their Dead or Alive 4 Men’s player Chia “Tetra” Wilson, defeated the, Ryan "Offbeat Ninja" Ward, the top finishing player from Region 1. O'Dell is expecting a much closer match here, "I think there are three games which we must win; I won't say which for tactical reasons. I'm sure Singapore has been studying us, we've been doing the same and we think we have them measured up. They are a strong team with no major weakness, and we think it's going to be a great game."

One of the big talking points of the match will undoubtedly be the Counter-Strike: Source game, with the Singapore team yet to play here at the World Final. The Salvo will be looking to bring some exceptional form with them to the table, "Stuart "Harriman" Harriman was amazing in the last game, they kept on walking into him and he shut down catwalk. He had a really strong game. Sam "RattlesnK" Gawn's AWPing was immense, which is why I've stuck with him over the years, we'll be looking to him to rack up the numbers against Singapore."

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One thing is for sure, the match is going to be one of the most intense so far, stay tuned at TheCGS.com for all the action.

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