Article by Bobby "weenus!" Hicks



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LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- 2007 was a very interesting year for Griffin “ShaGuar” Benger. Between being denied entrance to the United States from his native Canada, and winning a share of $500,000 at the CGS World Final, you could imagine that it’s been a wild ride for the 22 year old Counter-Strike veteran.

Griffin has been a staple of the Counter-Strike community for years. When he is not making headlines with legendary lineups such as tsg, zEx, NoA, 3D, EG, or currently, Chicago Chimera, he is writing groundbreaking guest articles for some of the top eSports websites in the world. Griffin has been directly credited with affecting the Counter-Strike money system, leading into a change in game play that was felt by players worldwide.

One of the standout notes about the career of ShaGuar is that early on, his father, seeing Gaming as an addiction and a waste of time, filmed a documentary titled “First-Person Shooter: The video gamer's addiction.” Little did Mr. Benger know, his son would go on to become the most decorated Canadian player in eSports.

Along with four members of EG, Griffin was drafted by Brian Flander to the Chicago Chimera in the third round of CGS’s inaugural draft. At the beginning of the North American Regional Season, however, Griffin and teammate Garett “GRT” Bambrough were denied entrance into the United States… the idea that two young men were traveling to the States for an entire month to play video games professionally was just too much to believe.

Erik “Da Bears” Stromberg and Justin “Sunman” Summy were tapped off of the Chimera's taxi team, zEx, to play in Griffin and Garett's place. The Chicago Chimera went on to win the North American region Championship, beating Carolina Core by a single point, with Counter-Strike: Source coming up huge, before Project Gotham Racing finalized the win.

Going into the World Final, General Manager Brian Flander was put in the impossible position of having to choose between his two originally drafted players, and the taxi players who had produced for him during the regular season. Brian decided that he wanted his team to play as originally intended.

This became crunch time for the original lineup. With the amount of practice that this roster could put together, they entered the World Final event and played as well as they could, considering the missing time. Despite solid performances during the event from both Griffin and Garett, the CS:S squad went a total 1-2 for the World Final event, losing to both Birmingham and Carolina. Chicago's Dead or Alive duo was able to pick up the slack, but the results along with the history leading up to the event were enough to earn Griffin a spot getting Grilled here at theCGS.com

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How does it feel to play with the Chimera for the first time and walk away with a 500,000 dollar prize purse?

It's really indescribable, but that's probably because I honestly don't think it's even settled in yet. It was a very surreal experience and I'm so thrilled gaming is going in this direction thanks to the CGS.

With a few weeks experience, how do you like playing on the stage under the bright lights and cameras? Is it as unnerving as some have said it was?

I'd already had a bit of experience on the CGS stage after competing with Team 3D in the first ever Championship Gaming Invitational, so going in I kind of knew what to expect. I think what separated us from the rest of the teams at the World Final is that we really fed off each other's energy, which was amplified by the excitement of the crowd. So if anything I think the set up helped us more than it hurt us.

You and GRT seemed to have the most energy on the team entrances and on camera, does that bother you at all? Would you like to see your teammates getting more pumped up?

Not really, Corey Pasha and Matt are pretty humble guys, so Garrett and I took it upon ourselves to get the crowd going, that's all.

Now for the half million dollar questions. Do you think it would be fair to attribute the reversal in roles with the Dead or Alive players with clutching the win in the finals for PGR on the fact that you and GRT weren't in the fold all season? Would the CS:S team have performed better at the World Final with the two of you in the entire season?

Every division of our team is strong enough to pick up the slack for one that didn't necessarily play as well as they could have. That was the case in Region 1 where the CS:S & PGR teams were able to pick up the slack when Core started out really strong against our first three divisions, and it was also the case in two of the three matches during the World Final.

It goes without saying that a full four week Region 1 Season with the original lineup would have played a factor in solidifying the team chemistry going into the World Final, but at the same time I feel that our CS:S team could have played much better than we did in the final two matches, and the reasons we lost had more to do with under performing than it did with lack of preparation.

So what changes now? A strict practice regiment or will you just let time rebuild the team's wounds? Follow up; does Brian Flander consider it a problem that needs to be addressed?

World Champions or not, the Chicago Chimera is always going to strive for perfection, if only because, to be frank, it is very attainable. Each division of our franchise has the potential to be the very best team/player at their game, and there isn't another franchise in CGS that can say that.

So with that said, we're only going to try and get better, because we know that other teams are going to take it upon themselves to give us a run for our money next time around. I can't speak for Brian, but I imagine he feels the same way. We're not unbeatable, but I honestly believe we have the potential to be, so it is our responsibility to take it to the next level and become that much better going into season two.

How do you feel about Counter-Strike: Source and the long term strategic potential of Counter-Strike: Source? Some say that it’s a more personal skill based game, other teams however are showing that strategy is alive and well. Do you see a lapse in strategy?

At the end of the day, CS:S is still just Counter-Strike, and now that I've played the game for so long, there are a lot of things about the game that is even better than 1.6. I'll always be a 1.6 purist at heart, but Counter-Strike will never be perfect, and there are just as many flaws in 1.6 as there are in Source. Regarding strategy, I actually believe there is more potential in Source for intricate grenade oriented strategies because they are so much more powerful in this version of the game, and since the CGS currently only really uses two maps, I think you'll definitely be seeing some new and interesting grenade based tactics to throw off the opposition.

What do you see in store for Chimera for Season 2? Can we expect you to dethrone LA Complexity as the top Source squad? Do you have faith in Kasumi Chan against Vanessa and Black Mamba defending the top position against Offbeat Ninja? Will PGR become the Patriots of the CGS?

With MR10, CS:S has become a game of inches, so I think any team can beat any other, especially in North America, so I think you can definitely expect us to give them a great game or two in Season 2. I have unconditional faith in Marge and Jeremy; they know the game as good or better than anyone else, and are constantly challenging themselves to get that much better, and they more than proved it during the World Final. As far as PGR is concerned, The Patriots are the Chompr/JaSonX of the NFL.



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