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.

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]

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

[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.

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: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

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 ;)

These kids got beat up a lot in school.

[BecomingLumberg]

Cyberathlete

*snicker snicker*

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: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.