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The Cyberathlete Proffessional League, the organization founded by Angel Munoz, has partnered with the World Series of Gaming. The CPL World Championship will become the second event in the World Series circuit. From the article: "The event, which currently has over 3,000 gamers registered from 58 countries, will be expanded to occupy 150,000 square feet of convention space, and is now expected to attract over 15,000 attendees from across the globe. Prizing for the two tournaments previously announced by the CPL will be adjusted to fit into the $1,000,000 World Series of Video Games format." No word yet on whether Snoop Dog's gaming tournament will be a part of the World Series.

Sam Machkovech writes "My buddy Paul Kix of The Dallas Observer did some digging to uncover the life of Matt Leto (aka Zyos), whose track record places him in the top rankings of worldwide Halo & Halo 2 competitions. Professional gaming leagues are nothing new to those who know about the CPL, but this story shines a light at console-focused leagues like the MLG that may very well get the mainstream crowd interested in gaming as a viable sport, along with gamers like Zyos who buck negative stereotypes associated with hardcore gamers -- 'perhaps surprising, Leto's not a nerd. He's an athlete' -- while still kicking virtual ass. Show this article to your parents/spouses next time they harass you about your habit."

Simon Bysshe writes "The third film in the "Intel Extreme Edition Challenge" series has just been released as this time the subject is the popular 1v1 game Painkiller. The film features an 8 player "Bloodline" Painkiller tournament with the prize to become a new member of the Four Kings UK squad and travel the world to compete at the CPL World Tour. The last two Intel Extreme Edition Challenge films were downloaded over 500,000 times. The intention of this film is to raise the profile of competitive computer gaming & present it in a way which could be seen by mainstream television audiences. The film is available for download already. (26minutes running time, wmv & divx formats available, 170mb filesize)"

gnoos writes "The BBC is reporting that this month gamers will get the chance to compete in a $1M tournament. The CPL World Tour will stage a 'Pop Idol type competition' to find competitors for the world's most lucrative tournament, and signups end on Friday." We've previously reported on this tournament and the decision on a game.

Antony.S writes "This morning, the CPL (Cyberathelete Professional League) confirmed that they have dropped Doom 3 as the World Tour game. The press release states they "are in discussion with two other publishers/developers". Could one of them Atari/Epic of Unreal Tournament 2004, seen by many as the only serious contender left, or maybe Dreamcatcher of Painkiller, the Summer CPL 1vs1 game? Which ever game is chosen, Doom 3 is still being played at Winter CPL this December."

Antony.S writes "This morning, the CPL (Cyberathelete Professional League) confirmed that they have dropped Doom 3 as the World Tour game. The press release states they "are in discussion with two other publishers/developers". Could one of them Atari/Epic of Unreal Tournament 2004, seen by many as the only serious contender left, or maybe Dreamcatcher of Painkiller, the Summer CPL 1vs1 game? Which ever game is chosen, Doom 3 is still being played at Winter CPL this December."

fluor2 writes "'Guys, somebody stepped on a switch. I'm not kidding; someone actually stepped on a switch and unplugged our network!' These are not the words one would like to hear from one of the staff in the middle of Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) Extreme World Championships $100,000 Counter-Strike finals. But it happened. Finally, after the game was restarted, Team Eyeballers (Sweden) is the new CPL CS Champion over Schroet Kommando (also Sweden), winning (7-5;6-0)." Update: 08/02 01:06 GMT by S : There's a more detailed report over at Gotfrag.

George Kaspiris writes "It seems the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) has announced a 2005 'CPL World Tour' with one million dollars in cash prizes, the largest cash prize ever for professional videogaming. The tour will include ten worldwide stops." There'll be more information revealed at the CPL World Championships (which includes Counter-Strike, Unreal Tournament 2004, Call Of Duty, Halo PC, and Painkiller tournaments) in Texas this July, and over at independent eSports site Gotfrag, reaction has been largely positive, with commenters arguing "competitive gaming could become kinda like the PGA Tour", although another commenter worries: "Right now, there are far too few teams and players... that have the [financial or scheduling] ability to follow this series of tournaments around."

Dillon Hamilton writes "AMD has chosen to sponsor Team NoA, a 6-member professional Counter-Strike team, with their latest hardware along with other unspecified support. NoA (Norwegians of America) is composed of three Norwegian players, two Americans, and one Canadian. All but one of the players (the newest addition and a Norwegian) currently live together in California to practice for the upcoming Cyberathlete Professional League championship tournament in Grapevine, TX, as well as the E-Sports World Cup in Toulouse, France. AMD will presumably be flying Ola Moum, the new member, from his home in Horten, Norway to the States as part of the deal. This is definitely a huge step forward for the concept of professional gaming, not only in the United States but worldwide. With teams like Team 3D and Schroet Kommando getting sponsored by bigger companies, (Subway, NVIDIA, and Shuttle in 3D's case) who knows where this might be in the next few years?"

Thanks to Warcry for its report revealing what's claimed to be the first corporate sponsorship for a massively multiplayer game guild. The press release explains: "The Syndicate is one of the oldest and largest guilds in online gaming... [and] has become the first guild in online gaming to obtain corporate sponsorship [from a custom PC manufacturer]." Although sponsorship of FPS teams are common, sponsoring a larger gathering of MMO players, currently playing on titles such as Ultima Online and EverQuest, is much less normal - though it's unclear exactly how 'sponsorship' will work with so many members and no FPS-style showcase competitions.

Thanks to IGN Sports for their interview with the manager of Microsoft's new XSN Sports online games series for Xbox. He talks about this Xbox Live-enabled set of titles, including NFL Fever 2004, NBA Inside Drive 2004, NHL Rivals 2004, Top Spin, Links 2004, and even Amped 2, discussing the prize-based online tournaments that'll be featured ("We have a competition structure like that already planned. That starts this year"), and the planned rise of the pro sports gamer: ("We believe very strongly in cooperative play... You have to display great teamwork, and you're going to have to practice with your teammates to win... The cyber fame you'll experience is the compelling offer we will make to you.") Can team-based online sports gaming take off in a similar way to pro FPS gaming?

Thanks to Wired News for their article discussing PC hardware makers, and their marketing efforts aimed at gamers. The piece suggests: "High-stakes video-game tournaments may be all the rage, but the real fights occur behind the scenes, where companies spend millions trying to get their technology directly into the hands of gamers." It goes on to point out the big competitive gaming deals: "Nvidia... ponied up $125,000 for QuakeCon, $30,000 for the Cyberathlete Professional League's Unreal Tournament competition and $350,000 for the winners of the Make Something Unreal game-design competition... AMD spent more than $300,000 on this year's QuakeCon." And the largest LAN parties are now greatly sought-after: "The closed bidding and increased competition has forced companies to pour more money into these tournaments or face losing coveted sponsorships."

fluor2 writes "Team Schroet Kommando from Sweden have won the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) Counter-Strike Summer Event in Dallas, Texas. The team won $60,000, from a total cash purse of $200,000. SK.swe did not lose a single match, even against US #1 team Team 3D, who finished 3rd. Team 9, also from Sweden, grabbed second place in a exciting final. There's more info via Netfire's videos and demos from the tournament, SoGamed's CPL coverage and The CPL's official final standings." The final showdown was held on de_dust2, naturally.

fluor2 writes "Team Schroet Kommando from Sweden have won the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) Counter-Strike Summer Event in Dallas, Texas. The team won $60,000, from a total cash purse of $200,000. SK.swe did not lose a single match, even against US #1 team Team 3D, who finished 3rd. Team 9, also from Sweden, grabbed second place in a exciting final. There's more info via Netfire's videos and demos from the tournament, SoGamed's CPL coverage and The CPL's official final standings." The final showdown was held on de_dust2, naturally.

fluor2 writes "Team Schroet Kommando from Sweden have won the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) Counter-Strike Summer Event in Dallas, Texas. The team won $60,000, from a total cash purse of $200,000. SK.swe did not lose a single match, even against US #1 team Team 3D, who finished 3rd. Team 9, also from Sweden, grabbed second place in a exciting final. There's more info via Netfire's videos and demos from the tournament, SoGamed's CPL coverage and The CPL's official final standings." The final showdown was held on de_dust2, naturally.

fluor2 writes "Team Schroet Kommando from Sweden have won the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) Counter-Strike Summer Event in Dallas, Texas. The team won $60,000, from a total cash purse of $200,000. SK.swe did not lose a single match, even against US #1 team Team 3D, who finished 3rd. Team 9, also from Sweden, grabbed second place in a exciting final. There's more info via Netfire's videos and demos from the tournament, SoGamed's CPL coverage and The CPL's official final standings." The final showdown was held on de_dust2, naturally.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to the Xbox.com press release announcing "that Halo: Combat Evolved has sold more than three million copies worldwide" , by far the largest-selling software title on Microsoft's console. The press release also plugs the forthcoming PC version of Halo, which, according to Avault, will have a $30,000 team tournament devoted to it at the CPL's Winter 2003 Tournament in Dallas this December. Finally, Bungie.org has news of a great-looking new Halo trick video, called 'Winning Isn't Everything' - thanks to GameTab for providing a BitTorrent mirror for this super-skilful, stunt and exploit-filled romp.

bob jacoby writes: "As reported by the Cyberathlete Professional League, Butterdish Studios has posted a sneak preview trailer for Frag , a documentary focusing on the business, technology and competition of the 3D gaming industry. Frag is currently in production and scheduled for released on January 1st, 2001."