Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everybody! And with that New Year arriving soon, pro-gamers and those looking for pro-tournaments will have two more places they can go to show off their skills.

Launching on January 1st, 2011; Getgosu.com promises to be the place for PC pro-gamers and tournaments.

Created and maintained by the Philadelphia based company “Hit the Sticks LLC“, Getgosu.com looks promising, offering gamers easy access to tournaments and competitions with a few clicks of the mouse, no traveling required.  The only thing gamers have to do is pay to play, as the servers (and tournaments) are hosted by Getgosu.com. But everything else they offer is for free, such as a community environment that can be joined effortlessly, enticing players with customizable user pages and easy to make clans. The potential rewards, however, are the meat and potatoes of this new community, as Getgosu.com promises to have serious monetary cash prizes for those who win in their tourneys (Players, amateur and professional, have to be 15 years or older, and cash prizes have to comply with applicable local/state/federal taxes).

Currently there are only two games supported by the service, which are Counter Strike 1.6 and Counter Strike: Source, but assurances by the staff tell us that more games will be added later on. It is worth noting that the service is in beta stage right now, and those participating now are earning “beta money” (which, if the service was live, would have been real money) to test out the rewards system. Other than that, the service is technically live, with players participating in scrimmages/pick up games and faux tournaments.

The other service is VirginGaming.com, created and maintained by the mega corporation Virgin.

“How is this different from the above?” you may ask.

One major difference is that this service caters to the console crowd. PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii–if it’s a console that connects to the internet, it’s eligible. Since this service is console-based, it has tons more support for all the different games available on the consoles (due to the fact that servers don’t have to be created and maintained). So whether it’s Halo: Reach, Call Of Duty, or even Super Smash Brothers: Brawl; if you have the game and and skills to beat the best, Virgin will pay you your hard earned cash. And best of all, Virgin supports PayPal, making your transfer of (potential) winnings easier. As far as features go, it’s mostly the same as above, a community oriented site that promises to pay pro-gamers for showing off their skills, though situated on the console side of things.

More info on these sites [via Getgosu.com and Virgin Gaming.com]

This much I know: 2011 is looking good for pro-gamers.