Game suddenly wont launch

Here is my problem. I purchased the game through (despite some misgivings) played for about a week no problems. Then in the middle of a match my entire system went down. I lost about a week worth of game time (no biggie) BUT the important thing is now Steam refuses to launch the game.

I get a steam warning "steam has found a problem with local game files. Game files will be reaquired from steam." I click "okay" I get the same message. This has been a week or so, so its not a busy server.

I can navigate to the steam apps folder and launch the game but I want to be able to just use my start menu/desktop icons to launch the game. Can anyone tell me what to do?