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CPL World Tour 2006 Cancelled 60

Posted by Zonk from the lamentable dept.
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."
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CPL World Tour 2006 Cancelled More

CPL World Tour 2006 Cancelled

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  • Oh I dunno.... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by numbski ( 515011 ) * <numbski&hksilver,net> on Wednesday April 26, 2006 @02:13PM (#15206408) Homepage Journal
    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 (Score:4, Insightful)

    by RoadDoggFL ( 876257 ) on Wednesday April 26, 2006 @02:13PM (#15206410) Homepage
    "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.
    • 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

      • 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

        • Re:Get a job (Score:3, Interesting)

          by XenoRyet ( 824514 )
          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 ke

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

      • Re:Get a job (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Total_Wimp ( 564548 )
        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 day

      • Re:Get a job (Score:3, Insightful)

        by badasscat ( 563442 )
        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 wat

    • Re:Get a job (Score:2, Insightful)

      by blackcoot ( 124938 )
      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.
      • No sponsors??

        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.
        • 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 th
      • 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 [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

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

  • uhh? (Score:2, Funny)

    by tont0r ( 868535 )
    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. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by dick pubes ( 963843 ) on Wednesday April 26, 2006 @02:23PM (#15206506)
    "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. (Score:2, Interesting)

      by evilNomad ( 807119 )
      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 befor

    • 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

      • 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
        • 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
        • 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
          • 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

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

    The winner got to join the Four Kings [four-kings.com] UK squad and compete in the CPL World Tour.

    • 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 it

  • Pro Gaming interest (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Dashcolon ( 946284 )
    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 ;)
    • 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.
  • Cyberathlete

    *snicker snicker*

  • Assumed More Gamers (Score:2, Informative)

    by MunkeyFunk ( 970929 )
    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 F

  • WSVG (Score:2, Informative)

    by dukiebbtwin ( 912572 )
    This has been known for a while now in the competitive gaming community. The WSVG [thewsvg.com] - 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.
    • 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 Vid
  • ...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.
  • ... I don't care. This is the greatest news ever.

    Dances on grave

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