Fast Break

BASKETBALL

Bjorklund, Low, Weaver make cut

It was quite a day Sunday for area basketball standouts as University High School’s Angie Bjorklund and Washington State guards Derrick Lowe and Kyle Weaver all advanced in various USA Basketball team tryouts.

Bjorklund, who will be a freshman at Tennessee this year, was named to the USA U19 World Championship team. The tournament runs July 26-Aug. 5 in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Low and Weaver made the cut for the USA Pan American Games men’s team. They are among 14 players remaining on the roster; two will be cut before the Pan Am tournament, which is July 25-29 at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Low said, “It’s an honor to make it past that first cut, but I’m also not getting too hyped about it because there are still two players left that are not going to make the trip.”

Said Weaver, “When I heard my name, it was a sigh of relief, joy, a bunch of emotions riled up into one.”

ENTERTAINMENT

Here’s a league you never thought of

Four race cars barrel down a virtual track, jostling for position. Announcers shout their commentary over growling engines until a winner speeds past a checkered flag.

The frenetic race televised on DirecTV wasn’t a NASCAR event. It was staged as part of a new video game league that aims to turn gaming into a full-fledged sport, as compelling to watch as the National Basketball Association or Major League Baseball.

The Championship Gaming Series debuted last week in the U.S. and has franchises around the world that pay top players base salaries of $30,000 plus bonuses.

Organizers hope to attract an audience of the same young gamers who pushed computer and video game software sales to $7.4 billion in 2006 — a 6 percent increase from 2005, according to the Entertainment Software Association.

Advertisers are eager to reach those 18 to 24 year-old consumers.

The challenge for the league is making the on-screen action compelling enough to persuade those gamers to stop playing and start watching.