CPL World Tour 2006 Cancelled

InsaneLampshade writes "BBC News reports pro-gamers are mourning the loss of the most lucrative tournament in computer gaming. In 2005 the World Tour organized by the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) gave away $1m in prizes to pro-gamers at 10 events held around the globe. But the tour has been canceled for 2006, leaving many pro-gamers wondering how to make their lifestyle pay."

CPL was doomed.

[dick pubes]

"Professional" gaming remains a myth. Even the very top players can barely afford to live off their prize money. You know all those big figures you see quoted for the prizes? Those all get split 5 ways. With only the CPL and WCG having decent prize-money, a team would need to win both in a single year to manage a reasonable income. This is for a "job" which takes pretty much constant play in order to maintain your edge. Sponsorship helps a little, but it normally only just covers travel expenses etc, rather than providing an actual income.

Re:Anyone interested in this?

[MeanQuestion]

It will probably live on a long time at about the same rank as "professional hotdog eating". At least until gaming becomes even more mainstream and understandable by the general public than it is today.

But then again, hotdog eating is pretty mainstream and understandable today and it hasn't helped that the sport at all...

Pro Gaming interest

[Dashcolon]

in North America and Europe is nowhere near the level of South Korea and China. The CPL gave away nice prices, but it's been short lived.
If we got American television channels to follow the path Korean ones like OnGameNet [ongamenet.com] or MBC Game [mbcgame.co.kr], then that would be something.
Americans suck at RTS games, though ;)

Re:CPL was doomed.

[evilNomad]

Uhm, so how about the ESWC that offers the greatest amount of money every year, besides that there are plenty of other events the Eurocup in CS has a $7500 first prize, and that is just an online cup.. And if you think sponsors only pay for the trips you are again mistaking, stop trying to play experts if you do not have a clue, why would a team go on a promotion tour in asia if all they got was a $700 trip twice a year? You know the trip for ESWC and WCG is not even paid by the teams right?

Get a clue before you attempt to sound smart..

Re:Get a job

[XenoRyet]

You can work up to it. Getting in the smaller, local tournaments is not to difficult, and it's no where near a full time job to be competative at that level. In fact, the gaming that most gamers already do is sufficent to train to beginner levels of competition, if you stay focused.

I actualy live with a pro-gamer, he's won a few thousand dollars from CPL events, and a Truck from a Halo 2 tourney. He does spend a fair ammount of time gaming, but he's also getting a Comp Sci degree, and has no trouble keeping his grades up.

As for sociaty's view of gaming, I suppose it's up to each gamer to decide how to deal with what sociaty thinks of the hobby. It's the same way across the board. Do NASCAR fans, or drivers for that matter, care that Indy fans think they're a bunch of hicks? Do baseball fans care that football fans think their sport is boring? For my part, I really don't care that someone who knows nothing about gaming thinks I'm waisting my time.

Re:Poker

[drinkypoo]

Professional Gaming is old news ... out the window ... instead turn your attention towards Proessional Poker ... that's where the real money is at!

Now this may be a troll (Actually, if anything, it's flamebait) but it does (accidentally) raise an interesting point. I know a [very] little about it because I work for a California tribal casino.

Anyway, table games were all but dead before the comeback of poker. Pretty much all casino visitors wanted to do was shove their money into slot machines. There was little desire to play tables in any age group. Then bingo! The world series of poker came along. A crapload of money was spent. Now we also have the world poker tour, upon which a second crapload of money was spent. Suddenly people are playing card games again. Anecdote: This place didn't even have poker until a short while ago, but people were finding us on the 'net by searching for "texas hold em".

So basically, what's the point? Some people are going to have to spend big piles of money to develop the interest, because it's all about how it's marketed. Or in this case, since gaming is only continuing to gain acceptance, calm down and wait a while for people to be more interested.