CPL World Tour 2006 Cancelled 60
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."
Oh I dunno.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Okay, it was coming, you knew it was, get the first post out of the way and make way for the insightful ones.
What?
Oh, there's nothing insightful to be said here?
Oops.
Re:Oh I dunno.... (Score:2)
CPL has always been a joke.
Re:Oh I dunno.... (Score:1)
People follow pro gamers pretty obsessively in South Korea. Why not just accept it's something that you might not necessarily enjoy doing, and that it might be something other people would enjoy?
Re:Oh I dunno.... (Score:1)
Re:Oh I dunno.... (Score:1)
Korea at least proves that some people, somewhere, will watch it. I mean, there's other examples too, MTV showed the finals of a CPL match a few months ago.
Re:Oh I dunno.... (Score:2)
Get a job (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Get a job (Score:2)
I agree that this isn't a deathblow for competative gaming. However, if it is no longer possible to actualy make a living as a tournament gamer, that is going to drop the level of competition. Without the big tournaments, it's like doing the same job for much less pay, and it
Re:Get a job (Score:1)
Also, consider that unlike sports, you can't really work up to it. Kids can play pop warner football and sports in schools, but what about gaming? If you try to spend free time gaming when you're a kid, your parents think you need more time outdoors so they sign you up for pop warner football.
It
Re:Get a job (Score:3, Interesting)
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 ke
waisting my time (Score:2)
Re:waisting my time (Score:2)
Once again I've been taken down a peg. A whole peg!
For the record: lack of caffine and/or spellchecker != lack of education.
Re:Get a job (Score:3, Insightful)
Look at it this way, yes, working at the Chevy plant is honest, respectable work, but when the plant shuts down you best find some other job.
I consider pro gaming at least as respectable as pro baseball (maybe more if you count in steroid usage). But just like when that XFL league shut down a few years ago, these pros need to stop moaning and go look elseware for employment.
Yeah, I know it's hard. Buddy, it's hard for all of us. My NT4.0 skills go completely unused these day
Re:Get a job (Score:3, Insightful)
No, it means that's how they make money. There's a difference.
If they can no longer make money doing it, then there is nothing "pro" about what they do. They are simply gamers, like everybody else.
You can't just take any leisure activity and call it a professional activity and have it be sustainable. Hey, look at me, I'm a professional lemonade drinker! Just because someone gave me a dollar once to wat
Re:Get a job (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Get a job (Score:1)
CPL Sponsors [thecpl.com] include AMD and Verizon
Major League Gaming has sponsors like Scion, Boost Moble, and Gamestop
And Intel, nVidia, and ATI constantly sponser tournaments. I don't suspect sponsorship is an issue.
Re:Get a job (Score:2)
Re:Get a job (Score:2)
A few nights ago, a "Masters Cup" for Challenge Promode Arena [promode.org], where the match was set up through GTV and a streaming shoutcast server, so for all intents and purposes it was like watching TV...and if I had relied on the announcer to switch the view for me then it WOULD have been like watching the match on TV. Th
Re:Get a job (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Get a job (Score:1)
Anyone interested in this? (Score:1)
Re:Anyone interested in this? (Score:3, Insightful)
ok, a little broad but still....
I think they need to work on building teams more and find some billionaire owners and cool $20 mil arena to watch them in and.... nah
Re:Anyone interested in this? (Score:2)
Yeah, I think the more interesting side of this story would be how to make a new genre of entertainment profitable. It's not like every athletic event makes cash. Look at the XFL, arena football and professional hacky sack.
But now that it seems that pro gaming is going the way of the battle bots (at least for the moment) maybe it's time to consider a new business mode
Re:Anyone interested in this? (Score:1, Interesting)
But then again, hotdog eating is pretty mainstream and understandable today and it hasn't helped that the sport at all...
shil for logitech? endorse a mouse? (Score:2)
Re:shil for logitech? endorse a mouse? (Score:1)
uhh? (Score:2, Funny)
CPL was doomed. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:CPL was doomed. (Score:2, Interesting)
Get a clue befor
Re:CPL was doomed. (Score:2)
I just think it's too early. You just don't have the momentum that sports competition has. Even though gaming has broad appeal, the fact is that for most people, watching someone else play a videogame is about as exciting as watching the dog take a shit on the lawn. That will change eventually, it really can be entertaining, but people just aren't used to it yet. You can't have a professional gaming league without money, and you can't have money without sponsors, and you can't have sponsors without interes
Re:CPL was doomed. (Score:2)
Re:CPL was doomed. (Score:2)
Re:CPL was doomed. (Score:2)
No, American football and baseball have constant breaks because the advertisers demand
Re:CPL was doomed. (Score:2)
I disagree. Both of those games (baseball, more so) existed and thrived long
Re:CPL was doomed. (Score:2)
Back then the games took nowhere near as long as they do now. It's been padded out for the sake of TV and profit. You're more likely to be able to charge someone $200 for a ticket and $25 parking if they think they're getting four hours out of it than two hours, even if the ball's in play the same amount of time.
But none of the major televised sports were designed for TV, so why do the televise
Re:Angel Munoz (Score:1)
Intel Extreme Edition Challenge 3 (Score:1)
The winner got to join the Four Kings [four-kings.com] UK squad and compete in the CPL World Tour.
Re:Intel Extreme Edition Challenge 3 (Score:1)
In any case, I had never seen Painkiller multiplayer before and it looks really fun. The description of the map was good of them to give, making me think about strategy on my own. I didn't think there was enough ingame footage -- but what they had was really interesting anyway.
The players seemed to have a good sense for when it
Re:Poker (Score:3, Interesting)
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. Ther
Pro Gaming interest (Score:2, Interesting)
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:Pro Gaming interest (Score:2)
These kids got beat up a lot in school. (Score:2, Insightful)
*snicker snicker*
Assumed More Gamers (Score:2, Informative)
WSVG (Score:2, Informative)
Re:WSVG (Score:1)
Career advice for forlorn Cyberathletes (Score:2)
Yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, get a job.
Re:Fractured Competition (Score:1)
Troll me... (Score:1)
Dances on grave