Tournament.com giving away cash @ Gaming Target

Written by Jason Cisarano on April 17, 2007

News: Who says gaming doesn't pay?

While Tournament.com is in beta, everyone who takes part in the testing will get paid real(ish) cash for their efforts. Every match earns players a virtual dollar that can later be applied to real money matches with real money prizes. In other words, you'll win money you can bet once the beta testing is over and the system goes live. They have also awarded a few out-and-out cash prizes so far, but no upcoming prizes have been announced.

When it goes live, Tournament.com will be a matchmaking service where players can play Counter Strike: Source and Hal-Life 2 Deathmatch for real cash. You'll pay to play, and winners will get prizes in several categories, including head-to-head matches and larger clan matches. It also looks like there will be some sort of monthly jackpot and prizes awarded for individual skill over multiple matches.

To keep things fair, the system offers what they call УSmart Rank.Ф Smart Rank tracks your skill as you play and then matches you up with players of similar skill level on subsequent matches. A cool feature, since it wouldn't be any fun putting your money on the line in a match you have no chance of winning. Along the same lines, the good folks at Tournament.com are working on extensive anti-cheating protocols.

The beta is free and open to all comers, so all you'll need to get into the action is copy of the game (only CS:S and HL2:DM are supported now) and a quick download from the website. Since the service is still in beta testing, expect some server down time and bugs. No word yet on just when the system will finally go live.