Pay to Play Gaming Tournaments to Hit the UK

money1.jpgThat rhyme was not intentional by the way. Damn it. Anyway, yahoogames reports that the UK will start a service at the UK based website, tournament.com that allows players to pay a small entrance fee in order to win various amounts of money.  The entrance fees range from free for practice and $10 for buy in.  The only game that is available now is Counter Strike and Half Life 2.  The rationale behind this is simple:

“Gambling rewards a player based purely on luck, while Tournament.com is a service that rewards players based on their skill. They’re two very different models.”

We’re confident that [our anti-cheating software] is some of the best out there and we use a combination of different anti-cheating software developed by third parties in conjunction with our internally developed Tournament Anti-Cheat, also known as TAC.”To supplement our security, we also have admins who continuously monitor in-game play, making sure that everyone is playing fair.”

This seems to be the equivalent to the online poker craze that swept the nation a few years ago, although far more in depth.  I see the only flaw being this.  Sometimes luck is a good thing. There are no doubt some awesome players who will keep piling up the wins and laughing with your money.  I hope the ranking system will take this into account.