FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Rockville, Maryland, USA; X3O Professional Gaming, a division of X3O Emerging Technologies and X3O Gaming Centers is officially announcing the change of our competitive Counter-Strike 1.6 team, for 2007. After looking more closely at our company’s goals and vision for the year, a change in the team was necessary. Though recently a powerful presence online and on LAN, the previous roster lacked the experience and dedication necessary for continued success. The new roster for the remainder of 2007 will be:

Ryan “NineSpot” Bell
James “Jame^s” O’Connor
Spencer “skiM” Kim
Josh “pinekone” Springer
Ted “LuckeyTed” Weinrich
Tarik “rockyte” Elkahtib

Unfortunately with this new lineup we will be releasing three of the east coast’s most talented players and friends:

Dan “dsingh” Singh
Ian “pyrite” Thomas
Chris “bautista” Bautista

These players, as previously mentioned, were close friends and very talented however were not able to meet the physical time expectations required or were not able to meet the vision required to compete internationally in 2007. They will be greatly missed, and I wish them the best of luck in all of their future endeavors.
Team x3o will continue to compete in CEVO-P CS1.6 Season 5 and CEVO-P CS Source Season 3 and are currently discussing our continued participation of CAL-I Season 18. We hope that the new roster will distill renewed confidence in our fans and community and look forward to competing nationally and abroad in the months to come.

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Dear X3O Community,

I know that these roster changes may come as a complete surprise, with some of you even playing locally with our former players this past weekend; however this was no rash decision. Though our recent success has been exciting and to some even shocking, there were several underlying issues within the team that needed to be taken care of.

LuckeyTed @ Winter CPL 06

First of all, I can not thank enough the efforts that Dan, Ian, and Chris have put into this team. Without them, we would not have gotten to the point where we are today. With that being said, we must look onto the future. 2007 is looking to be a great year for competitive gaming, with new tournament organizers and games taking wind, and new sponsors supporting teams internationally.

The decision to pick up James, Josh, and Ted did not come out of the blue, or made in one night. These players have been competing in upper levels of competitive play for several years, and have a very strong foundation of experience, commitment, and dedication to not only the betterment of the game, however their own personal improvement. They are able to make the time commitments required to grow and develop a team, travel to events and LAN boot camps, as well as have the right mental attitude towards the game.

I truly do wish them the best of luck with future teams they may play for, as they are strong players, and will work to my fullest ability to make any transitions run as smoothly as possible for them.

More information about the new roster's activities for the year will be posted shortly, as well as introductory biographies of each of the new players. We are currently working hard on developing the final version of this site, which will include a dedicated team page and more. I wanted to take a moment to say thank you to all of our fans that have and will continue to support us throughout this transition, as well welcome to all of our new fans that join us.

Jame^s @ Winter CPL 06

Sincerely,
Nick Fitz