by Craig "Torbull" Levine, Manager

As an old school member of the counter-strike community, I wanted to achieve something where other managers have failed—to form a successful, professional Counter-Strike team with the best players in North America, and gaining the support of big corporations looking to invest in e-sports and the players themselves. With this intention, I formed Team 3D in April of 2002.

I contacted Kyle "Ksharp" Miller, perhaps the most well-known Counter-Strike player on the entire continent. Kyle began playing Counter-Strike early in his teens and by age 14, was thrown into online stardom as part of a top U.S. team. Fueld by Strawberry Fanta and Sunkist soda, Kyle's flashy game style, though not deliberate, is exciting to watch, especially when he exhibits seemingly superhuman abilities. As a result, fans and teammates alike view him as one of the few truly game-deciding players at the top level—and this has made the name Ksharp known to gamers around the world. Kyle had been in clans such as CK3 and X3 (Xtreme 3) and had won several online and LAN tournaments. He was also a part of every Counter-Strike dynasty that had existed up to that point. X3, his previous team, had just disbanded after they were unable to obtain serious sponsorship so I gave him a rundown of my background, experiences, and plans and he was interested.

I asked him who he would need on the team in order to compete with the best in the world and he quickly suggested Sean "Bullseye" Morgan and Ronald "rambo" Kim, who were both teammates in X3. As one of the more mature members of the team, Sean brings a positive attitude to the unit and is in every night ready to practice hard. Sean's style may look less impressive than that of Ksharp, but he rarely has an "off" match and consistently gets the job done. Ronald, as one of the least vocal members of the American CS elite, lets his playing do the talking. His calm demeanor both in and out of the game makes him one of the game's best players under pressure—something that can mean the difference between a win and a loss. Together, Kyle, Sean and Ronald became the core of what soon after came to be known as Team 3D.

After a disappointing finish at the CPL Summer 2002 Championship we decided that we needed to mix up the lineup and bring in a more tactical game leader. After all, Counter-Strike is as much about outperforming your opponents as it is out-thinking them. We brought in Dave "moto" Geffon, who was world renowned for his in-game strategies and ability to read the opposition and predict their next set up. Dave not only brings his sixth sense to the team, but also a tremendous amount of leadership in and out of the game.

Along with moto, we also added Dave "Kane" Cannon, a long time teammate of moto, and Ognian "steel" Gueorguiev, a former teammate of mine and member of the defending World Cyber Games Canada team. Ognian, or Ogo, as he is referred to by his teammates, opponents and fans, is the only Canadian on Team3D, and has proven himself on every major pro-gaming platform, winning both CPL (with Team 3D) and WCG (with Team Canada). In addition to his clutch rifle abilities, Ogo's easy-going personality can lighten the atmosphere in tense situations.

This six-person rotation went on to win several online championships and in October of 2002, Team 3D won the World Cyber Games USA Finals, representing the United States in Korea for the WCG Grand Finals. After returning from Korea with a disappointing seventh place finish, we knew we could do better and were determined to show what we were really capable of at the upcoming CPL Winter 2002 event. The only problem now was that our sponsorship, with New York-based game center web2zone, had ended, and the sponsor I had lined up to pay for our travel to Winter CPL backed out at the last minute. With very little time and the team about ready to leave for Dallas to boot camp but in jeopardy of not being able to attend at all, Steelpad, a small Danish manufacturer of professional gaming mouse pads came to our rescue. With Steelpad's help, we were able get to Dallas and compete in the Winter CPL tournament. After several grueling days of matches we emerged as CPL Champion and the first team to ever go undefeated throughout the entire event.

After winning the CPL, we were able to work out a sponsorship deal with CompUSA and NVIDIA to become the first truly professional gaming Team in North America. We were also able to achieve what few in the world have been able to do—make a living off of gaming. We have since competed in tournaments throughout the country and in France, helping our sponsors gain international exposure.

Soon after we returned from France, we released longtime teammate Dave "kane" Cannon and went into the CPL Summer 2003 event as the defending champions with our five man roster. Although we played very well in the event, we made some key mistakes that our opponents capitalized on went on to place with a respectful third. We were also the only North American team in the top five.

With the WCG USA finals coming up we recruited Johnny "boms" Quach to complete our WCG USA roster (steel could not play with us because the WCG is a national based event and steel is Canadian). Johnny quickly meshed with the team and played a key role in our decisive WCG USA victory and will be competing with Team 3D to represent to the United States for the second straight year in Korea in October.