The CPL Ceases Operations

[CSN NewsBot]

The CPL has canceled any and all competitive events for the remainder of 2008.

Effective immediately, the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) will cease operations. Therefore, all CPL events currently scheduled for 2008 are hereby canceled.



The CPL was launched in June 1997 with the pioneering mission of promoting and sanctioning video game competitions as a professional sport. For ten years the CPL events experienced increased growth - commencing with a small LAN event in Dallas, Texas, and culminating in world-class competitions across five continents.



However, the current fragmentation of the sport, a crowded field of competing leagues, and the current economic climate have prompted the CPL to suspend its pro-tournament operations. The CPL regrets that this news will disappoint those that were planning on attending the summer and winter events this year.

As noted, the CPL held a number of competitions all around the world, many of which included Counter-Strike events. This is certainly quite the blow to the world of competitive gaming.

[StealthMonkey]

WOW! That is sad.

[Gpig]

de_stroyed

[Que_?]

Someone has to pick it back up. There are tons of people that still play! and love to watch people making a lot of money playing a game they love, and play them self.



Counter-Strike

31765 servers, 75061 players



Counter-Strike: Condition Zero

3745 servers, 3455 players



cstrike

29376 servers, 30942 players



There is a lot of money in this - "video game competitions as a professional sport" Someone will step up.

[Zips]

That's the problem... too many have "picked it up."

[Que_?]

Yeah I guess I been out of the loop... did a little google.

I have to say I see this comming. The CPL cannot contend with MLG and CGS. CPL has picked the worst games the past few years. I think they must have been smoking something. And the past few years they havent been advancing esports they have been splitting up communities with its flip flopping from cs1.6 to CSS and Q4/Q3/no quake.



MLG has signed on with ESPN! and may other big names, making huge strides in bringing esports to people. and the CGS has deals with DirectTV! Also advancing and solidifying esports. All the CGS needs is a good dueling game to get some of the guys outta retirement.



Its sad to see an esports event die but the CPL has been sucking for a long time now.

http://www.gotfrag.com/portal/story/41895/?cpage=2



Looks like they also owe a lot of people some money.

[debman3]

oh my god CPL winter CPL summer . . . ... how could i forget :'(

but #5 is also true, they didn't give the price to the winners in a lot of competitions, maybe that's why they are shutting down :F

[Renegade[CSR]]

The way I see it is: If they are offering a 500,000 dollar prize or something for first place, you play the games they tell you to play and pay what they ask you to pay.



Shame CPL closed its doors, maybe online competitive play will pick up.

[SlApNuTs]

^^ Lol?



Are you missing the point? The fact is people didn't want to play those games, let alone at those costs. So no one started showing up. After ditching CS they tried going back to it last winter but virtually no one would show up after already being slighted, and committed to other organizations like the CGS with exclusive contracts.



There is no pitty for the CPL here, they tried to move past what made them famous, and money, and they lost out because of it.

[Sintra]

There's just too much competition from other leagues.

Why wait half a year for the CPL when there's ESWC, NGL, EM, etc...

[orion]

Speaking as a 'retired vet' (if you will, run with it) I started playing CS when I was 14, and I am now 20 years old.



The better years of my teenage life were spent with CS, I actually used to have SoGamed, CSNation, Gotfrag, and DoG saved in my Opera favorites and I'd check them every day. So much so I eventually bothered rizzuh enough and became one of the eSports coverage guys here at CSN and did a handful of interviews.



I literally 'grew up' rooting for teams like Rival, NiP, WEW, zEx, and I probably watched the Electronic Warfare cs movie 4,000 times.



However, I'm 'old' now and I've gotten out of the loop. It seems as I rew older, so did the players I used to watch. Many players got out of the loop or moved on. Many of the players left, too many leagues sprung up, bigger leagues (ala CPL) didn't pay out to many of the winning teams, and 1.6 coming out had a huge impact on the community as far as competition. Shortly after 1.6 was released Source came out, and created a further divide between the community.



It is really hard to wrap this up without making a huge dialogue, but the point I'm dragging out like a triple-cunted hooker being tied to a horse is this..



We are playing a game built on (theoretically ala Quake) 12-13 year old engine. Counter-strike itself is almost, what now?, 7 years old I believe?



The game is running its course and its time has come, remember Nothing gold can stay.



Either Source will take over and give the Counter-strike name another good ten years, or CS will be passed by and replaced by something else.

[Linux]

Edited by [user="168813"] @ [time="1205517391"]

orion wrote..

Speaking as a 'retired vet' (if you will, run with it) I started playing CS when I was 14, and I am now 20 years old.



The better years of my teenage life were spent with CS, I actually used to have SoGamed, CSNation, Gotfrag, and DoG saved in my Opera favorites and I'd check them every day. So much so I eventually bothered rizzuh enough and became one of the eSports coverage guys here at CSN and did a handful of interviews.



I literally 'grew up' rooting for teams like Rival, NiP, WEW, zEx, and I probably watched the Electronic Warfare cs movie 4,000 times.



However, I'm 'old' now and I've gotten out of the loop. It seems as I rew older, so did the players I used to watch. Many players got out of the loop or moved on. Many of the players left, too many leagues sprung up, bigger leagues (ala CPL) didn't pay out to many of the winning teams, and 1.6 coming out had a huge impact on the community as far as competition. Shortly after 1.6 was released Source came out, and created a further divide between the community.



It is really hard to wrap this up without making a huge dialogue, but the point I'm dragging out like a triple-cunted hooker being tied to a horse is this..



We are playing a game built on (theoretically ala Quake) 12-13 year old engine. Counter-strike itself is almost, what now?, 7 years old I believe?



The game is running its course and its time has come, remember Nothing gold can stay.



Either Source will take over and give the Counter-strike name another good ten years, or CS will be passed by and replaced by something else.

I'm in the same boat as you, I was playing these games and Quake and all that good stuff the days it came out, way in my young years, was on a computer and playing stuff around 5\6 lol. But yes I do remember the CPL, I had the chance to got to it 3 times, and it was fun but really not as fun as some other stuff I've gone to around that time and now. I remember the fails of CAL and then it kinda tied over to the fails of CPL. Its a bummer to see things like this go, but again the competition is needed in things like this so it can give people more options to do what they want to.



I guess the least we can say is remember the years that were good, forget the ones that were bad, and keep playing what, where, and against who you want in games. I personally have moved onto other things, but I still play CS, TFC, and all the news ones (CS: S, TF2, etc) because they are still fun to me.

CPL did do a good console tournament from time to time, those were interesting.

Somethings that people will post in comments on the CPL website sometime just make me wounder if they should be allowed on a computer... If you want to flame about the CPL honestly go do it somewhere else, they lead the way for eSports along with many others.

[Gpig]

Same as Orion, played in clans from 14 up till I was 20 last year. I didn't stop until cgs killed off 1.6 so that I had no more teams to watch.



I had fun, and I still find CS fun to play so there you go. Now watch me get hopelessly addicted to Call of Duty 4 (it has wall spamming, I mean, what's not to love).

[ph03nix(k)]

don't forget grenade spamming

[Linux]

ph03nix(k) wrote..

don't forget grenade spamming

Ohhh, the joy of Nades and spamming. That was always fun.