CPL Announces $1,000,000 Gaming World Tour

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."

I'd compete...

...if Minesweeper was one of the games.

Interesting thought

"Right now, there are far too few teams and players... that have the [financial or scheduling] ability to follow this series of tournaments around."

Well thanks for sharing this thought.
This is really a huge problem and there is no solution in sight.

Except that there is : I heard the CPL is gonna have cash prices worth 1,000,000$ this year !

Me too!

I should qualify as a cyber athlete. I mean, granted what I do is really more of a solitaire than a competitive activity, but I guarantee you I work up more of a sweat than some 1337 c4mp1n9 5h0ck wh0r3

Surprise surprise...

Everything is a fucking FPS.

This Stuff NEEDS to be Televised

Alright, if world poker tour makes ESPN, video game CAL tournaments has got to at least make tech TV. There needs to be a channel dedicated to gaming.

1 pm wolfenstein hour
2 pm UT2004 hour
3 pm Call of Duty madness

Look at that.... this channel will be a hit. They can take all the server battles and enhance the taping with a ridiculous graphics card and play it on TV.

Why just the latest games?

One of the most interesting FPS games of all time (IMHO) is Aliens vs. Predator (and its somewhat improved sequel).

There haven't been too many games derived from movie(s) that get it about 90% right. In this case, though, the wall-walking aliens are the Coolest Thing Ever.
I'm sure there are many other examples of perfectly good, yet aging, games that are far better in terms of gameplay and uniqueness that could take the place of the latest and "greatest". Aside from vehicles, there is not much difference between the four mentioned titles in terms of mechanics and/or gameplay, is there not? At the least, they could have included Chrome, so that there would be a few maps' worth of trying to hunt foes down on an island covered in five foot high grass...

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm in the mood for a pred face sandwich. Rawr.

Is Painkiller any good for a tournament?

Granted Ive only played the demos, but is it much different than the slow pace of the demos single player game?

What about turn-based strategy on the list?

What about a turn-based strategy game for those who don't have the dexterity required required for RTS and FPS titles. I could imagine that turn based would be much more easily commented on as well. I propose that Civilization III be one of the games. That way, geeks that do not have the money to invest in heavy-duty hardware can compete. Besides, a cerebral competition is what geeks have been looking for for ages. Hasn't chess survived? With Rome: Total War being shown on the History Channel, who knows what popularity gaming would gain if a good match of Civilization III made it into mainstream media.

No more Counter-Strike

Can we please retire Counter-Strike?

Give it a rest. Let it fade into memory, so that we can be fresh and ready for the next Counter-Strike. If you love it, set it free. Set CS free already, dammit.

So...

Where is Quake 3?