SINGAPORE'S first professional cybergamers have landed contracts that will pay them each US$30,000 (S$44,000) a year to play.

It is the prize the nine men and one woman of the 'Singapore Swords' team have bagged, for emerging among the top four of six teams in the Pan-Asian leg of the Championship Gaming Series (CGS) in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.

CGS is global media giant News Corp's - and the world's - first worldwide professional gaming league, which has US$5 million in prize money and contracts at stake.

The best four from the Pan-Asian round - Singapore, China, South Korea and Australia - have been drafted into the pro league. These teams will go up against eight other teams from the Americas and Europe to vie for the US$1 million prize purse at the CGS 2007 World Championships in Los Angeles in December.

CGS professionals also get TV coverage on News Corp's international channels like DirectTV, Sky and Star. Each player is signed on to a US$30,000 annual contract, and stands to earn more from tournament winnings.

They can continue to hold their day job or to study 'as long as they can meet their commitments as CGS athletes', said Mr Andrew Reif, CGS chief executive.

In KL, the six Pan-Asian teams were divided into two groups of three.

The Singapore team beat Seoul Jinhwa 28-20 and Kuala Lumpur Taufan 29-18 to top its group and be drafted into the pro league.

Mr Kenneth 'Monster' Yeo, 19, who plays CounterStrike, called it 'a dream come true' and said he wants 'to keep this moment in my mind forever'.

The recent graduate from a polytechnic here started playing competitively at age 12 and represented Singapore a year later at the first World Cyber Games in South Korea in 2001. Like the others on the team, for him it has been a long road to turning pro.

Many of them have had to face family pressure, competition stress and lack of sponsorship on overseas trips.

Fellow veteran Aaron Aw, 27, has been competing since he was 15. He started with action shooters but gave up the gun for the steering wheel in 2004 and is Singapore's racing champion.

The software programmer said: 'For many years, my parents questioned my gaming. They thought it was a bad habit, but they have been supporting me fully since I started winning and representing Singapore internationally.'

The lone rose among the thorns, Ms Daphne Chow, 27, was in the right place at the right time.

The team's original top choice female player of gongfu-fighting game Dead Or Alive 4 had turned down the offer to go to KL, and the second choice player's passport had expired.

Ms Chow, who had boarded the bus to KL to support her fiance, Mr Aw, was asked to play instead. The casual gamer, who had never played competitively and last played the game in 2005 for fun, was given a three-hour crash course by team mate Wilson Chia, 25, and practised with the others.

She was worried about letting the team down, but felt more confident when she won one of her two games. She and Mr Aw plan to tie the knot next year.

She joked: 'The extra money will really come in handy right now!'