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."

Comments

Oh I dunno....

[numbski]

Mickey-D's is usually hiring. ;P

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....

[Max Threshold]

I'd say that was pretty insightful.

CPL has always been a joke.

Re:Oh I dunno....

[Covetous Knight]

Plagerize much?

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....

[generic-man]

Because the rest of the world isn't South Korea, and as a result the rest of the world can't support an industry dedicated to watching people play video games? I mean, even The Wizard isn't available on DVD in the USA (though it was released on DVD in Germany)

Re:Oh I dunno....

[Covetous Knight]

Just like USA isn't Korea, "The Wizard" (being a horrible fictional piece) isn't actual coverage of Pro Gamers.

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....

[despisethesun]

The fact that MTV showed it is not proof that anyone watched it.

Get a job

[RoadDoggFL]

"leaving many pro-gamers wondering how to make their lifestyle pay."

Uhh, they could get fucking jobs. And aren't there other tournaments? If anything, the fewer prizes should mean that competition will only get more fierce. It sucks that it's cancelled for the year, but the world of competetive gaming isn't exactly over because of this.

Re:Get a job

[XenoRyet]

The "pro" prefix in the term "pro-gamers" means profesional. That means those tournaments are their job, much like any other profesional athelete. And don't go off about how gaming isn't athletic at all, that's not the point here.

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 will become not worth it to many of the pros.

While this isn't earth shattering news eather way, the response of "Get a fucking job!" isn't exactly relevant.

Re:Get a job

[TheJediGeek]

How does one break into this though? To be able to compete with these "pros" you essentially need to really do nothing but. Who, besides failing high school kids and failing college kids, can actually do that?
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 just seems like there's not a practical way to get more people into this. As long as gaming is viewed in society as a waste of time, there's no way pro-gaming can be taken seriously enough to compare it to pro sports.
Right now, you either have to be a CEO, or have a nice trust fund to be able to "train" to be a pro gamer.
I dunno. It just seems like these are the few people that can do what many of us wish we could do, but it's seen as irresponsible or whatever to make your living playing video games.

Re:Get a job

[blackcoot]

i think you're right -- i don't think the economics of pro-gaming as a spectator sport make any sense, other than advertising ("oooh, ($new_fps|$new_gaming_box|$new_mouse)... must.buy.now!"). i'm willing to wager that the vast majority of people (i.e. not 0.00001% that the slashdot crowd comprises) would rather play games than watch them, which means no ad revenue, which means no sponsors, which means no sustainable leagues that can support professional play.

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:Get a job

[mattluria]

Maybe they could try walmart, I hear they have flexible schedules and give great discounts, just you don't have decent healthcare.

Re:Get a job

[MunkeyFunk]

No sponsors??

CPL Sponsors 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

[Total_Wimp]

You're right, but so are they.

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 days. But I've since found work that doesnt' include NT4.0 and I'm doing more than ok. So will f@+@!1+i (or however you spell his name).

TW

Re:Get a job

[badasscat]

The "pro" prefix in the term "pro-gamers" means profesional. That means those tournaments are their job

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 watch me drink a glass of lemonade doesn't mean I can actually sustain myself doing it for the long term. Same applies here. There needs to be an actual market for it, along with a level of skill that can both be easily appreciated and incredibly difficult to match. Otherwise nobody's going to be interested, even if the activity itself is interesting. And honestly, watching other people play video or computer games has never even been interesting to begin with.

(Now, you could argue that the same is true for a lot of major sports, but the market has proven you wrong.)

In closing, let me agree with the "get a job" sentiment, etc. etc.

Re:Get a job

[blackcoot]

finding a few people to kick in a couple thousand here and there isn't a big deal, the problem is that you need at least $x per league contestant + prizes to have those pro gamers have even a hope of earning a living (never mind a good living). if you let $x be twice the minimum wage in the us, you're talking on the order of $83k per year per team of four for salaries. add in another $20k for equipment, another $15k on travel, and $10k for tournament fees per team and you're up to $128k per year. suppose the league gives out $2mil in prizes over a season and has 20 teams, you're talking about $4.54mil per year to run the league. if your average sponsor kicks in $50k per year (which is about five half-page color ads in a major newspaper), you're going to need about 92 sponsors. convincing that many sponsors that $50k per year out of their advertising budgets spent on pro-gaming is going to be a hard sell until those gaming leagues generate several times that amount in revenue. i don't see that kind of serious revenue generation happening any time soon, and i suspect that most people who would consider sponsoring those leagues feel the same way as i do.

Re:Get a job

[Drakin030]

Uhh, they could get fucking jobs.

You know what? Do some people that is a job. A job that others cannot do. Being a professional gamer is fierce hardwork and requires alot of detication that most can give.

Re:Get a job

[RoadDoggFL]

Yea, it's a job. And guess what? They got fired. Unless they can win other tournaments, that's why I said the competition will become more fierce. Perhaps certain players felt comfortable competing only in CPL or local matches. Well now those people will compete in more tourneys, and if they're good, no problem.

Re:Get a job

[AlexMax2742]

This is false. The problem is that they turn these events into a media circus, and focus more on the musical guests and uninformed opinions of big media celebraties than playing the actual game.

A few nights ago, a "Masters Cup" for Challenge Promode Arena, 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. The announcer was knowledgable (except when he accidently called the plasma rifle the "Hyperblaster", but whatever), the game itself was fun to watch, and I defeniatly would have tuned in to watch the match on TV had it been on TV.

I beleive it IS possible to do it right, it's just that media outlets haven't hit it yet. And to be honest, I don't even know if they will even bother trying.

Anyone interested in this?

[_RiZ_]

Doesn't seem like anyone is interested in this. I don't think pro gamers are going to ever be thought of in the same light as true pro athletes. This was bound to burst eventually.

Re:Anyone interested in this?

[hurfy]

hehe, i am still trying to figure out why we think of true pro athletes as true pro athletes ;) Most of them are just playing games too :)

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?

[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...

Re:Anyone interested in this?

[east coast]

hehe, i am still trying to figure out why we think of true pro athletes as true pro athletes ;) Most of them are just playing games too :)

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 model.

Just to come clean, I don't know if there was ever such a thing as professional hacky sack. It just sounded funny, at the time.

damn...

[Anonymous Coward]

wondering how to make their lifestyle pay

Hell, I'm still waiting for the $1M masturbation tournament. I can't help what I'm good at, dammmit!

shil for logitech? endorse a mouse?

[way2trivial]

Fatl1ty anyone?

WOW

[Anonymous Coward]

leaving many pro-gamers wondering how to make their lifestyle pay

I heard gold in World of Warcraft is still selling well.

uhh?

[tont0r]

You mean all that mental training they did to become extremely good at videos games has gone to waste?? Now you get to join the ranks of the college football player who shot out his back while earning his "Journalism degree"

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: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:CPL was doomed.

[drinkypoo]

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 interest.

Professional gaming's immediate future is isolated tournaments. When there's enough of them going, then it will be time to form [some of] them up into a league. One successful league will lead to others - but it's just not time.

Re:CPL was doomed.

[noahm]

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 interest.

I think part of it also has to do with exactly how people watch these various events. Constant action is desirable in gaming, but viewers want breaks for analysis, replays, commentary, etc. Look at how baseball and American football are presented on TV. There's some action, then there's a pause that gives time for the viewers to digest and enjoy what they've seen, aided by whole mess of commentary and slow motion replays. Somehow there needs to be a bridge to keep gaming interesting for both spectators and players. I'm not sure what that bridge looks like. I can't imagine how to keep CTF or Onslaught (the two UT2004 modes I play the most) interesting for viewers. They're too fast-paced and there's action all over the place.

noah

Re:CPL was doomed.

[Anonymous Coward]

Get a clue before you attempt to sound smart..

At least he sounded smart...

Re:CPL was doomed.

[drinkypoo]

It simply won't work as a live broadcast, unless you develop a mod that provides pauses at intervals, and allows for team captains to call time-out to run out the clock :P

Re:CPL was doomed.

[drsquare]

I think part of it also has to do with exactly how people watch these various events. Constant action is desirable in gaming, but viewers want breaks for analysis, replays, commentary, etc. Look at how baseball and American football are presented on TV. There's some action, then there's a pause that gives time for the viewers to digest and enjoy what they've seen, aided by whole mess of commentary and slow motion replays.

No, American football and baseball have constant breaks because the advertisers demand it (and the owners are only interested in profit). Americans have been conditioned to see regular commercial breaks as acceptable or even desirable. No matter what baseball fanatics say, it's not like there's anything to 'digest' about some no-hoper batter being caught out, and it shouldn't take five minutes for the next man to come up to bat.

Note how the most popular televised sport plays for 45 minutes without any breaks. I don't see fans complaining that they didn't stop after 20 minutes for analysis, replays and commercials.

Televised gaming might get off the ground if they designed a game from scratch to be suitable for TV. Not some FPS where you can see less than 1% of the playing area at one time, and the enemies are cartoon monsters.

Re:CPL was doomed.

[noahm]

No, American football and baseball have constant breaks because the advertisers demand it (and the owners are only interested in profit). Americans have been conditioned to see regular commercial breaks as acceptable or even desirable. No matter what baseball fanatics say, it's not like there's anything to 'digest' about some no-hoper batter being caught out, and it shouldn't take five minutes for the next man to come up to bat.

I disagree. Both of those games (baseball, more so) existed and thrived long before television advertisers were around to care. While the breaks are certainly convenient for advertisers, and the advertisers are forcing more and more advertisement into shorter breaks, the games were most certainly not designed with television advertisement in mind.

Note how the most popular televised sport plays for 45 minutes without any breaks. I don't see fans complaining that they didn't stop after 20 minutes for analysis, replays and commercials.

Sure, but this game is hardly popular in the US. These gaming tournaments are largely (almost entirely?) going after US audiences. My original point, that online gaming is simply not watchable for most US viewers, still stands. Additionally, in soccer the action is around the ball. That's not the case in most video games, meaning that soccer is easier to watch than video games, and is still not popular in the US.

Televised gaming might get off the ground if they designed a game from scratch to be suitable for TV. Not some FPS where you can see less than 1% of the playing area at one time, and the enemies are cartoon monsters.

Maybe. But none of the major televised sports were designed for TV, so why do the televised video games need to be? What I think will happen, eventually, is that some creative mind will come up with a competitive game that's really fun to play and just happens to also be fun to watch. I don't know what it will look like, and I'm not even sure if it'll be an FPS.

noah

Re:CPL was doomed.

[drsquare]

Both of those games (baseball, more so) existed and thrived long before television advertisers were around to care.

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 televised video games need to be?

Televised sports happened to develop into a format which worked on TV. These computer games haven't, so they need to change.

Angel Munoz

[Anonymous Coward]

Angel Munoz has probably been squandering the funds again. He was often involved in shady dealings in things having to do with the CPL. Posting anonymously for obvious reasons.

Re:Angel Munoz

[layernheart]

err.. please be more vague.

Re:Angel Munoz

[b3x]

Ya, I bet he was involved in all the CPL's shady dealings, since he owns the friggin company.

Re:Angel Munoz

[Anonymous Coward]

Please give us *one example* about how Angel has been involved in "shady dealings having to do with the CPL."

"Posting anonymously for obvious reasons." Yes of course, because that way you can get away with slander.

Intel Extreme Edition Challenge 3

[dick pubes]

Interesting 26-minute video about an 8-player Painkiller "BLOODLINE" tournament in London: http://bloodlinedl.jolt.co.uk/

The winner got to join the Four Kings UK squad and compete in the CPL World Tour.

Re:Intel Extreme Edition Challenge 3

[sirius sam]

I enjoyed it. The advertising was painful, though. I could deal with either ridiculous product placement, OR the commercial breaks, but both?! How much money did they give these guys?

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 items are going to appear. I guess that is very important in a game where armor is probably the most important thing to swing the tide of a fight.

Poker

[neonprimetime]

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

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.

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 or MBC Game, then that would be something.
Americans suck at RTS games, though ;)

Re:Pro Gaming interest

[Rob T Firefly]

Americans also suck at gaming-related television, as many people who've sat through more than a few minutes of the meager offerings on G4, TechTV, etc. can attest. If we could get that right, it might be able to kick gaming fully into the mainstream.

These kids got beat up a lot in school.

[BecomingLumberg]

Cyberathlete

*snicker snicker*

Re:shil for logitech? endorse a mouse?

[Nesetril]

actually Fatal1ty gear isn't that great. The razorback mouse is literally nothing compared to a Logitech G5 in terms of the dpi and gaming qualities, not to mention the design. Similarly, the Abit Fatal1ty SLI mobo isn't really laid out that well, doesn't have any innovative features, and is not as expandable (less slots, etc.) than its counterparts made by Asus and DFI. The bottom of the line is that a real pro gamer would never buy a Fatal1ty, if he is in the market for "pro" and "high-end" gear at all.

Make the lifestyle pay. . .

[Anonymous Coward]

by pwning nooblets on tape![purepwnage.com] ...and then selling t-shirts.

Assumed More Gamers

[MunkeyFunk]

I assumed there would be more games on here that would realize CPL isn't the only league and the US isn't the only country. Just because CPL doesn't run the tour this year doesn't mean they aren't having CPL tournaments and just because something has a setback in the US doesn't mean it is over for the rest of the world. Also some players can make a very good living off of these tournaments...admitedly this is only a very very small percentage. When the article mentioned "The overall winner of the Grand Final was Jonathan Wendel, aka Fatal1ty, who amassed cash prizes of $231,000 during the year long event" this was not a 5 vs 5 CS match. This was a 1 vs 1 Painkiller match so all that money went to him...and the government of course. Plus he has sponsers which will cover all his travel expenses. I should also mention that Major League Gaming has signed a deal with USA Network to start televising some tournaments. So I wouldn't call pro gaming dead.

WSVG

[dukiebbtwin]

This has been known for a while now in the competitive gaming community. The WSVG - World Series of Video Games is basically taking over the CPL's World Tour function. There will be 3 major events - Lanwar in Kentucky, Dreamhack in Sweden, and the CPL Summer Event in Texas. The thought that competitive gaming is dead is completely not true.

Re:WSVG

[kingofmyexcuses]

Isn't the Kentucky LAN the Million Man LAN? Oh, and to further promote the "Pro Gaming is not Dead" saying, I could list the hundreds of local LANs in Europe and Asia, and other main LANs like CPL Europe, CPL China, CPL Turkey, World E-sports Games (happening right now in China) where the winning CS team takes home 70,000 USD and I believe the winning WC3 player takes a similar large amount, the World Cyber Games that just recently were held in San Francisco, and of course, the upcoming World Series of Video Games. Yes, the cash prizes went down. But there are now more events to attend. Throw in the fact that the CPL just picked up AMD as its main sponsor (which means that both main processor designers are into eSports actively now), and I only see good things for our little niche.

BBC only 2 months late ...

[b3x]

This was known in February when the CPL decided to do what they do best: organize lan parties and distribute press releases about stuff they are or might be doing. The CPL, world reknowned wedding, and lan party organizer, will be picking out table linen and flower arrangements for the "World Series of Video Games", which will undoubtedly take the place of The CPL World Tour ...

Career advice for forlorn Cyberathletes

[Mike Buddha]

...leaving many pro-gamers wondering how to make their lifestyle pay.

Yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, get a job.

waisting my time

[RoadDoggFL]

Judging from your spelling, I'd say any time you spend gaming and not studying is a wai-excuse me, waste.

Re:waisting my time

[XenoRyet]

Way to go addressing my points there. You really refeuted my arguments and made a strong case for people to spend less time gaming. Made some insightful comments on the relationship between gaming and education. All in all a very compelling read.

Once again I've been taken down a peg. A whole peg!

For the record: lack of caffine and/or spellchecker != lack of education.

Fractured Competition

[Anonymous Coward]

Pro gaming was doomed to slump when Counter Strike and Quake3 were superceded by newer games ..those two games were absolute titans and commanded virtually the entire online gaming world, the fact they lasted so long led to huge communities which prolonged them further and allowed a stable enough base to build pro gaming. Just like every other sport you need a base of set rules locked in stone ..as soon as the new version of counter strike was shown to be unfinished and didn't take off in popularity, same with quake4 ..the world of competitive gaming fractured and wont have the focus to be anywhere near as strong
  I believe as soon as (which may not even happen) we get a new powerhouse team based combat game, and I'm shocked at the dearth of cs-mimics made over the last 8 years, then pro gaming will surge ahead bigger than before ..at some point in popularity it will drive developers to develop specifically for pro gaming and then it will become entrenched. These things take time and something to build on

Re:Fractured Competition

[ErroneousBee]

So were just waiting for UT2007 then?

Troll me...

[ChozSun]

... I don't care. This is the greatest news ever.

Dances on grave