Just a few weeks back, a platoon of professional gamers arrived in Toronto to prove their profession was not, in fact, an oxymoron.

The simultaneous appearance of the World Series of Video Games (WSVG) and the World Cyber Games (WCG) at Toronto’s Fan Expo seemed to portend a new era in pro gaming, a small step towards the adulation the “e-sport” enjoys across Asia, especially Korea which boasts millions of fans, three dedicated gaming TV networks and cyber-athletes who no doubt roll around in cash and groupies.

Sure, North Americans were unlikely to fully board said bandwagon--our pro gamers would not be attaining rock star status anytime soon--but at least they could make a living doing what they love. Plus, the WSVG began making mainstream inroads after CBS Sports aired a World of Warcraft tournament earlier this summer and had plans to air two more tournies.

But earlier this week the WSVG stopped putting quarters in the proverbial machine. In a surprise announcement, Games Media Properties, WSVG's parent company, canceled it’s upcoming events in L.A., London and Sweden citing "the continuing challenges of securing adequate revenues to sustain the production of the WSVG's large scale events and television programming, in a very crowded field of competitive gaming leagues, has prompted us to re-evaluate our direction as an organization."

The geek press was shocked while mainstream outlets like Variety brushed it off as another example of “how difficult it can be to translate videogames to other media.” Part of the problem being that it is far more fun to play games than to watch other people play games, no matter how awesome they are.

But fret not, eager fraggers, there are a few lives left for competitive gaming.

Major League Gaming recently expanded into Canada, with their first MLG Canadian Open set for early November as part of the 2007 Northern Digital Expo. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp still runs the Championship Gaming Series and PC players are all about the ten-year-old Cyberathlete Professional League. As well, the World Cyber Games have spent the year building towards their Grand Final in Seattle, Oct. 4-7 with 700 gamers from 75 countries competing (including the winners of August’s Canadian championship in Toronto) and highlights airing on Spike TV.

So North American gamers can still dream of one day being Fred Savage and friends in The Wizard.