Vanessa Arteaga was the first overall pick of the draft CGS
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For a moment I caught myself doing the same, sitting on press row (yes, they have those too), sandwiched between video game reporters frantically putting the final touches on their mock drafts (no joke) before I turned around and took a look at the scene behind me. What was I doing? Who was I to turn my back on the Playboy Mansion? There might be other video game drafts, but who knows when I'll be invited back to the Mansion again?

With that I left the tent and headed towards the pool and put my arm around Cassandra Lynn, Playboy Playmate, February 2006. I know her mini bio because that's exactly the way she introduced herself to me, almost as if to say, "I'm kind of a big deal, and who are you supposed to be?" While she wasn't exactly floored with the "SI.com Staff Writer" tag at the end of my name she was kind of enough to give me a tour of the Mansion. She walked me through the grotto, the private zoo and "The Van Room," a cushioned alcove inside of the game room which resembles, well, the back of a van. As she led me past the aviary and the tennis courts, the cheering in the distance reminded me that this wasn't a dream and that I actually did have a draft to cover. Even if it was slightly different than any draft I'd ever covered before.

"They're drafting people to play video games and paying them?" asked Lynn, sounding as bewildered as I was when I first got the assignment. "That's definitely different."

The CGS is hoping that difference will separate them from other start up leagues that can only dream of having the sponsors and worldwide television coverage that they will enjoy when the league officially kicks off (or is it boots up?) on July 9. There will be two, two-hour live shows airing in HD every week on DirecTV as well as BSkyB (United Kingdom) and STAR (Asia and Australia) with a reach of over 120 million homes worldwide, making it almost as accessible as the NHL Playoffs these days.

Last year, David Hill, the current Chairman and CEO of Fox Sports and former president of the DirecTV entertainment group identified the $30 billion video gaming industry as the next frontier in sports television and announced the formation of the CGS, which is owned and operated by DirecTV. Hill, an avid gamer with a soft spot for racing titles, believes that the CGS can become a bigger player in the sports landscape than poker was a couple years ago. After all, you don't need to be 21 to play Counter-Strike: Source, Dead or Alive 4, Project Gotham Racing 3 or FIFA 07, the four titles that will be used during the league's first season.

"This is the next sport and we have a deep experience in sports broadcasting," said Steven Roberts, DirecTV's VP and GM of Games and Strategic Initiatives. "This is burning new ground. We've already been successful with the NFL Sunday Ticket and the NASCAR Hot Pass and we're going to treat the CGS the same way."

The league wasted little time burning new ground during the draft as Kat Hunter, the lone female GM, selected Vanessa Arteaga, a 20-year-old female from Modesta, Calif., to the San Francisco Optx with the first overall pick in the draft. Much like the other 60 players drafted, Arteaga will earn a base salary of $30,000 with the possibility of earning up over $100,000 at the end of the two-month season with incentives and bonuses.

Arteaga, a Dead or Alive 4 player, was projected to be the top pick by the three-man announce team (think Mel Kiper and company only less obnoxious) before the draft due to her dominance over other women during the CGS Combine. Each 10-player co-ed team will be divvied up into five different categories according to game title and accumulate points for their wins and Arteaga was the best player in her category, easily beating every female she played.

"Vanessa is a guaranteed win," said Hunter. "It was an easy choice."

While I'm sure the rest of the draft went off without a hitch, it was also an easy choice for me to head back to Lynn and rest of the Playmates frolicking around the nearby grotto after the first few picks. As Emmanuel "Master" Rodriguez, who was selected third by the Dallas Venom, said, "How can you argue with the Playboy Mansion? The draft is great but the Mansion is the Mansion."