Wrapping up our monthlong examination of some of Australia's biggest gaming leagues and groups is a look at CyberGamer.com.au. Unlike the previous groups that we've looked at, CyberGamer is more focused on providing competitive players with the tools they need to run tournaments--think a one-stop shop for tournament hosting--as opposed to organising events themselves.

　　We caught up with CyberGamer cofounder Jeremy Klaosen to find out a little bit about the site's history, to get a rundown of the organisation's international expansion, and to find out where he sees the future will be for competitive gaming.

　　GameSpot AU: Can you talk to us about the early days of CyberGamer?

　　Jeremy Klaosen: The early days of CyberGamer were relatively similar to CyberGamer today, but certainly much simpler. For the first six or so months, we supported only one game and ran just two competitions--a Call of Duty 2 invitational league and a Call of Duty 2 Open Ladder. In these early stages, it took just a handful of volunteer moderators to maintain the CyberGamer forums, while I kept the leagues and ladders running smoothly.

　　Setting up for the Alienware 2010 Clan Challenge.

　　GS AU: How far has CyberGamer come since the beginning?

　　JK: We were founded in April 2007, and we picked up 5,000 members in our first year. Now in our fourth year we have 108,000 members and have expanded from just the one game on PC to dozens of games across PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

　　GS AU: What hurdles did you come across as you expanded?

　　JK: As we've added more games to the site, we've had to redesign our site pretty much from the ground up twice. We had to redesign our site when we added Xbox 360 to the site in mid 2008 and again earlier this year to make all of the games on the site more manageable. We've also had to move website hosts a few times to cope with the increased load as we've grown.

　　GS AU: What sorts of games do you focus on?

　　JK: The most popular game/series on CyberGamer is easily the Call of Duty series. We got our start supporting Call of Duty 2, and ever since, we have been able to run successful competitions for each new game in the series. More recently Counter-Strike Source and Starcraft II have started to really take off.

　　GS AU: How often do you host events?

　　JK: At CyberGamer we try to cater first and foremost for gaming at the highest level of competition. For gaming at the highest level, we run invitational leagues that allow the top tier of teams to compete against each other for prizes in a micromanaged competition. We then run open ladders that are fully automated and allow hundreds of teams to sign up and compete. We've also been involved in several LAN events and often run one-day online knockout tournaments.

　　No LAN event would be complete without a fridge full of soda and energy drinks.

　　GS AU: Where do you get the money to host events?

　　JK: The money required to host online events falls under the general running cost of our website, which we pay with money generated from our advertisements and premium memberships. That said, we like to make our competitions stand out and attract the best teams in Australia so we try to reward the winners of each competition with prizes.

　　Generally, the final prize for a competition is a combination of money from a few different sources. The largest portion comes from the entry fees each team in the competition pays in order to compete. We then like to sweeten the prize by adding 25 percent extra on top of the entry fee prize pool. Then finally, if a major sponsor gets onboard, they can typically supply either additional prize money or hardware.

　　GS AU: What's the biggest event/achievement that CyberGamer has pulled off recently?

　　JK: Recently, we ran a $10,000 Starcraft II competition in conjunction with several LAN cafes around Australia. This involved the players paying an entry fee to enter the tournament and having to play all of their matches at one of the participating LAN cafes. The competition was a resounding success.

　　GS AU: How can people get involved with CyberGamer to either help out or compete?

　　JK: Anyone can easily sign up on the site and join or create a team with friends and then join one of our online open ladders for their favourite game on PC, Xbox 360, or PlayStation 3. If they're interested in helping out, they can apply for a staff position using the application in the footer of our site!

　　CyberGamer's latest event raised money for the Queensland flood victims.

　　GS AU: What does the future hold for CyberGamer?

　　JK: We'd love to introduce CyberGamer to other countries and eventually establish an international gaming network. We've recently expanded into America at www.cybergamer.org, which is slowly taking off.

　　More immediately, we're working on some further upgrades to our website--looking at streamlining the user experience on CyberGamer and also to make CyberGamer more accessible from mobile devices.

　　GS AU: Compared to overseas leagues, the competitive gaming scene in Australia struggles a bit. Why do you think that is?

　　JK: Our isolation to the rest of the world holds us back as we'd have trouble running a big event here that any overseas teams would travel to. Also due to our isolation, Australian teams are unable to practice against other top overseas teams due to the high ping between us and other countries, which limits the amount of practice Australian teams are able to do. In general, Australia has always been a bit behind the rest of the world and is only now catching up.

　　GS AU: Jeremy Klaosen, thanks for your time.