Editor's note: John Gaudiosi writes the "Gaming Guru" blog for WRAL.com.

CARY, N.C. - Carolina has another professional team in its borders. Add the Carolina Core to the Hurricanes, Panthers and Bobcats.

The professional videogame team, part of DirecTV's new Championship Gaming Series, is competing in its first tournaments out at Electronic Arts' Los Angeles studio. DirecTV has partnered with Microsoft, Mountain Dew, Fox and Best Buy to create the first pro gaming league with a full season and $5 million in salaries for the six teams.

Each team represents a city. Charlotte made the cut and the Carolina Core were born.
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Directly from the Championship Gaming Series website the regular season is slated to begin on June 27. The players will be arriving in Los Angeles in the next few days and begin a month of preparation and competition to determine the Region 1 Champion. There will be several ways during the season to catch the action. In week 1 the matches will be covered by http://www.thecgs.com. You can come to the CGS website for up to the minute scores, video on demand and player reactions. Week 2 will be broadband week, where all matches will be streamed live on thecgs.com. Starting week 3 the matches will air live on DirecTV's channel 101. The full schedule can be found after the jump.
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Well known comedian and television star Drew Carey is combining his love of soccer, Xbox 360 gaming and helping a good cause by taking on 5 of the best soccer players from both the men's and women's...
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Soccer games are bigger than ever before, raking in millions for the likes of EA and Konami (especially in the UK). But what does 'next-gen' really mean for soccer games? Well, less repetitive commentary for a start... Speaking recently about the future of soccer games and their move to next-gen systems, Andrew Wilson, executive producer of soccer, EA explained, "We ran out of space on the disc with current gen. Last year's FIFA had 26 leagues, 15 thousand players, kits, players, stadiums, ... » Read More

For the late-comers, Japanese magazine Famitsu has four editors award points on a 1-10 scale with 10 being the best. Here's this week's:

Bionicle Heroes (PS2) - 6, 6, 6, 5
Shining Force Ikusa (PS2) - 9, 9, 8, 9
.hack//G.U. Vol. 3 (PS2) - 8, 7, 8, 8
Dragon Shadow Spell (PS2) - 8, 8, 8, 8
Meitantei Evangelion (PS2) - 6, 6, 6, 4
Excite Truck (Wii) - 8, 8, 7, 8
Gears of War (Xbox 360) - 10, 9, 9, 9
The Sims 2 (PSP) - 6, 6, 5, 5
FIFA 07 (PSP) - 7, 7, 7, 7
Mahha Combat Heroes (PSP) - 8, 7, 8, 7
Sekaiju no Meikyu (DS) - 8, 8, 8, 8
Ochaken no Heya DS 2 (DS) - 8, 7, 6, 8
Wario: Master of Disguise (DS) - 8, 7, 7, 7
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The third annual FIFA Interactive World Cup (FIWC) reached its spectacular conclusion at the Final in Amsterdam's Westergasfabriek as 128 of the world's finest interactive footballers battled it out for the ultimate title of FIFA Interactive World Player 2006, competing on FIFA 07 for the Xbox 360. After intense action, some amazing skills and plenty of noise from the assembled fans, Andries Smit from The Netherlands emerged victoriously, having beaten Austrian Wolfgang Meier in a gruelling final that saw Andries' Brazil team beat Barcelona 6:4 in the Grand Final.
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Amazon just reduced a boat load of games/accessories today including:

$19.99 Phantasy Star Universe
$39.99 Dead or Alive Extreme 2
$54.99 Tony Hawk Project 8
$49.99 FIFA Soccer 07
$49.99 Splinter Cell Double Agent
$29.99 Xbox LIVE Vision
$54.99 Gears of War Limited Edition
$39.99 NHL 2K7
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There have been no new entries in the UK top ten this week, but considerable movement, as soccer simulation FIFA 07 moves up three places to reclaim the number one spot. The PlayStation 2 version is now outselling Pro Evolution Soccer 6 on PlayStation 2 by a factor of 3:2, while the Xbox 360 version of Konami's title is outselling its FIFA 07 equivalent by the same ratio.

Xbox 360 exclusive Gears of War was the most obvious victim in the shuffle of positions, with sales down by 45 percent on its debut week ¿ although it remains the only single format exclusive in the top ten.

Meanwhile, the newly released PlayStation 2 version of Call of Duty 3 kept the game afloat in the top ten for Activision, while the new Xbox 360 version of movie tie-in Cars did the same for THQ. Girl's toy license Bratz: Forever Diamondz proved to have the best week in the top ten though, with sales up by 45 percent ¿ led by the Nintendo DS version which accounted for 80 percent of all sales for the title.

Outside of the top ten, Nintendogs: Labrador & Friends re-entered as high as number thirteen, making for five Nintendo published titles in the top twenty. The highest new entry though was PlayStation 2 exclusive Guitar Hero II at number sixteen, which sold almost three times more than during its predecessor's debut. Home console movie tie-in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow re-entered at number twenty-three, boosted by sales of the DVD release of the movie.

There was no place however for other Christmas titles such as Warhammer: Mark of Chaos from Namco Bandai/Deep Silver, Cricket 07 from Electronic Arts, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Party Edition from Eidos, Sonic the Hedgehog from Sega or movie tie-in Happy Feet from Midway. Many of these titles stand a good chance of charting in the top forty next week, although others will no doubt be lost in the traditional Christmas rush of new titles.
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Pro Evolution Soccer 6, also known as Winning Eleven here in the States, has sold over 3 million copies in Europe. Konami announced that today. Pro Evolution Soccer 6 was released on the 26th of October in Europe, and in just 8 days it sold over 3 million copies. That's quite a lot.

The Xbox 360 version sold the most copies, followed by the Playstation 2 and PC version. Konami also announced yesterday that it is working on a patch to fix the online problems, some people are experiansing. Now we just have to wait how many copies FIFA 07 has sold, so we can see who's the better one.
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Despite the on-going debate currently raging in the forums as to which game is better, the general concensus, according to the charts at least, is that PES 6 is the champion, finally overtaking FIFA for the first time in, well, ever.

After less than one week of the games being released, there is a clear winner, for week one at least. PES outsold Dead Rising "with ease", though FIFA "easily" held on to 2nd place. And before you all go screaming blind that I'm being overly biased and missing the obvious fact, I am aware that Dead Rising was released on only one platform, not the three that PES was, hence PES easily beating Dead Rising. Nonetheless, it shows just how many it has sold.
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This fresh update of shots from Xbox 360's next-gen version of FIFA 07 won't give you much of an idea about how the game plays - fortunately our PS2 review of what's probably the best game in the series can do that for you - but they will whet your appetite for FIFA 's licensed luster when the game launches later this month. Hit the images tab above to see ... » Read More

Starting on the 27th of October, gamers with a copy of FIFA 07 (on the 360) will be able to compete online for a cash prize of $20,000, which is nice. EA say the FIFA Interactive World Cup 2006...
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Fifa 07's achievements are up online now.
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A new demo has hit the marketplace and it comes in the form of EA's footy title FIFA 07.
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Ok so the demo hasn't been released yet, but EA will be giving gamers the chance to play FIFA 07 this October...
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FIFA Soccer 07 on the Xbox 360 heralds the start of the next generation of soccer gaming and fans worldwide will have the opportunity to experience the new engine and all-new gameplay prior to the game's worldwide release when a FIFA Soccer 07 demo for the Xbox 360 system is made available on Xbox Live Marketplace in October.
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IGN get their hands-on EA's latest football title FIFA07. Is it better than 06 and better than PES5, or is just another FIFA title doomed to the bargain bin?
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Are you a little confused about the exclusivity of FIFA 07 and Pro Evolution Soccer 6 on the Xbox 360? Well it seems a few people were, so Konami, Microsoft and EA have clarified the situation.
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At the Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany yesterday, Microsoft revealed the pricing of a few new Xbox 360 accessories, EA flaunted FIFA 07 and Sony showed some progress of games in development. Click through for more Leipzig highlights...
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This is the full audio from the Press Briefing given today at the Leipzig Game Convention. This keynote is partially in German and partially in English. In this keynote it was announced (among other things) that ProEvo Soccer 6 and FIFA 07 will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 for the next 12 months.
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