Cyberathlete Professional League makes superstars out of gamers with international PC game competitions

Sports fans come in all shapes and sizes.  Now athletes can come in all shapes and sizes, too, thanks to the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL), the world’s first professional computer gaming competition.  Angel Munoz, Creator and President of the CPL, gives GameZone Online the scoop on the upcoming Winter Event.

by Louis Bedigian

Have you ever wanted to be a professional athlete?  Don’t deny it – I know you have.  Everyone has at one time or another.  The fame, the fortune, the glory of success…it’s an unmatched feeling that can’t be achieved from anything else.

Of course, not everyone can be an athlete. Some people have the skill, but are too short.  Other people are the right size, but don’t have the skill.  Or maybe they’re just the right size, and have just enough skill, but never managed to be at the right place at the right time.  Whatever the reason, very few people get the chance to compete professionally in their favorite sport.

Angel Munoz intends to change that by creating a new type of superstar: cyberathletes.  Cyberathletes are not at all like your typical sports figure.  You won’t see them throwing balls on the field, nor will you see them throw a few punches when frustration ensues.  But you will see them shoot a few million computer-generated bullets, laser blasts and as many rockets as they can find.  Cyberathletes are not created through hours and hours of excruciating muscle-building (their hands tend to go through a pretty extensive workout though).  They are not born into the business, nor do they have to be at the right place, at the right time to succeed.  That’s because these “cyber athletes” are hardcore gamers just like you and me.

The CPL was created for gamers, by gamers.  There’s nothing a gamer loves more than competition, which is the main draw of PC gaming.  The CPL brings gamers together for more than just another LAN party/tournament; it’s a professional, televised sporting event where gamers can not only compete, but also pay to watch the stars compete live and in person.

To learn more about the CPL and its upcoming Winter Event, GameZone went straight to the CPL’s creator and president, Angel Munoz.

Question: How did the CPL begin?

Angel Munoz: After I launched the Adrenaline Vault website in 1995, I became aware that gamers were competing against each other in small gatherings called LAN parties.  I was convinced that some of these competitors deserved recognition for the hours of practice and the skill they had developed.  At that time I was reading a novel called Neuromancer, by William Gibson.  In this novel Gibson describes a global computer network, linking all people and sources of information, which one could navigate as through a virtual landscape. He called it "cyberspace."  It was quite obvious to me that gamers were competing in the virtual landscape of computer games with highly specialized skills, somewhat analogous to those displayed by professional athletes.  That's how the term "cyberathlete" came about, which lead to the launch of the Cyberathlete Professional League.

The first person I contacted was Stevie Case, a female gamer that had gained notoriety because she had just beaten John Romero (co-creator of Doom and Quake) in a Quake match.  Stevie immediately realized that I was very serious about this concept and introduced me to Tom Mustaine (lead designer at Ritual), and between both of them they recommended a few people that could help me build this new organization.  Jerry Wolski, one of the founding members of QuakeCon, was their first recommendation. Other people that joined the organization at that time were Jeremy Degroat, Tim Schuh, Frank Cabanski, Mike Wardwell, Steve Gibson and Monte Fontenot.

After five years, most of the original crew is still associated with the CPL. Stevie Case helps the CPL with public relations, Tom Mustaine is a member of the CPL advisory board, Jerry Wolski manages back-office programming for CPL and CAL, Tim Schuh manages the network at our live events, Mike Wardwell, after being league commissioner for several years, is now an advisor to the league and Monte Fontenot is the events director.

Q: The upcoming Winter Event is just around the corner.  What can spectators and competitors expect from it?  Will there be any changes/additions from the previous events?

AM: It has been one of my current goals to increase the entertainment value of our events.  As one of the people that initiated the concept of professional gaming, I have become concerned that all of the seriousness that I established at gaming tournaments may actually reduce the fun-factor that should always accompany a gaming event.  Therefore at the CPL(r) Pentium(r) 4 Processor Winter 2002 Event, the CPL and its sponsors will be increasing the fun-factor by bringing a number of fun activities including a music jam, digital art exhibition, classic arcades, PC and Xbox informal competitions, licensed movies to watch in the spectator area, a larger sponsor exhibition area, daily raffles and product unveilings, like Halo for the PC, NVIDIA's GeForce FX and hands on testing of Intel's new P4 3.06Ghz processor. 

Q: What was your greatest challenge in putting the CPL together?

AM: For me personally it has always been dealing with the skepticism and criticism of a small, but very vocal group of gamers.  It has always been puzzling to me that some gamers would actually rejoice if the CPL failed, not understanding the incredible inroads that we have established for the gaming community.  For example, no longer are gamers just considered "consumers" by technology companies, but now these companies have an honest desire to help the community grow and gain recognition.  At the end of the day, it is smart business for these companies to establish strong bonds with hardcore gamers, which are in fact early adopters and the most consistent purchasers of technology products.

Q: How have game developers and publishers reacted to the CPL?  Obviously, the makers of Half-Life are very pleased.  But what do the others have to say about it?  Have any developers/publishers come to you with a request for their game to be included in a future event?

AM: We maintain an arms length relationship with developers and publishers, and beyond working with them to develop tools that make it easier for us to use their games at our tournaments, we really have no other dealings with them. And contrary to what some people avow, we do not accept compensation from developers or publishers for the use of their games in our official tournaments.  We also do not believe that a developer should demand payments from us for the use of their games in our tournaments, and will simply not do business with any developer that demands percentages of revenue or any form of compensation for the use of their games.  Valve Software, is an outstanding organization,  they travel to each of our events, to make sure that we have all of the support necessary to run our Counter-Strike tournaments flawlessly.   Furthermore, almost every request we have presented to them has been implemented in some form.  This is really beyond the call of duty and has made it easy for us to continue using their games and wanting to do so  for the foreseeable future.

Q: How can someone get involved with the CPL?  Is it like being in the NBA -- you play basketball in high school, then in college, and then, if you're really lucky, move onto the pros?

AM: There are two roads to the pro tourneys at CPL.   The first is to join the

Cyberathlete Amateur League or CAL and compete online to gain familiarity with CPL games, standards, maps, and rules.  When a CPL qualifier is announced pro aspirants should sign up.  It's a great experience and winners of our qualifiers

receive travel and accommodations to the main CPL events.

The other way is to signup directly for one of our tournaments the moment we open our online registration.  These spots fill up quickly and are offered on a first-come first-served basis only, so being aware of the time and date that we intend to offer spots is essential to make it to one of our tournaments.

Q: Approximately how long is the CPL event?  How long can the fans stay and watch players compete?

AM: The CPL events are five days long and fans can participate for the entire five days.

Also, fans can either watch the matches online via HLTV, join the CPL IRC channels at GamesNET, listen to the action on CyberKastRadio, download the event movies filmed by MFA Video Productions, or now watch our events on television.  Gamer.tv is filming all of our events and will later broadcast them on international television.

Q: Will any cable TV stations be covering the Winter Event?

AM: MTV will be following the CPL champion, Johnathan Wendel, at the Winter Event for their show True Life and TechTV is planning to air a report on the CPL Winter Event.

Q: What do you think of multiplayer gaming on the consoles?  Do you think it can ever compete with the all-mighty PC?

AM: I am excited about console platforms supporting multiplayer games. This will introduce a large group of people to online gaming and many may also explore PC gaming. Console gaming is experiencing major growth, according to USA Today, Sony, a major record label and movie producer, got nearly 60% of its profit last year from sales of hardware and software for its latest-generation video game console, the PlayStation 2.

I see console gaming and PC gaming as complimentary, and I dare predict that once an open format is established where gamers can use either platform and still compete against each other online, the entire industry will experience even further growth.

Q: Will console gaming ever be a part of the CPL?

AM: It's not in our immediate future, but we are keeping a close eye on the market development of the Xbox.

Q: Are there any upcoming games (PC or console) that you think would be great for a future CPL event?

AM: I can not afford these type of predictions, because people are very disappointed if the league does not use games.   Instead I will state that Counter-Strike will be used at our 2003 events and that depending on how well Unreal Tournament 2003 does at our Winter Event we may hold a large tournament for that game in 2003.

Q: Hardcore gamers tend to go long periods of time without eating.  Are there any restrictions or requirements that prevent CPL participants from endangering their health?  Do players receive frequent breaks?

AM: The tournaments at our events do not run 24 hours a day and are designed to give sufficient rest periods to all of the competitors.  Our tournaments start around 10AM and go to about 10PM, a team may play only twice in a day on average, but sometimes more.   As far as eating is concerned, sufficient  is to say that at our last summer event our attendees ate over 1,000 Papa John's pizzas, hundreds of Chinese dinners and drank about 10,000 bottles of BAWLS.

Q: Are there any plans to make the CPL a traveling event, similar to the Olympics?  I'm sure that there are a lot of gamers out there who would love to see the event in person, but can't afford to or don't have time to make the trip.

AM: Our plans are focused on having permanent locations for our qualifiers at about 20 locations across the United States and expanding our international qualifiers, with the help of iGames.org.  CPL qualifiers offer winners a tournament berth, and free travel and accommodations.

Q: Can you give us any information about the next Half-Life Mod Expo?

AM: That is a Valve project.  They held it at the Summer Event this year, and while we would gladly host it at any of our events, there are currently no discussions to do so.

Q: What are your plans for the future?  Where do you want to go next?  Are there specific goals in mind, or is this a never-ending process where you will continually strive to make the CPL grow to a bigger-than-the-Super-Bowl level?

AM: Our current growth plans are focused on our amateur league. CAL now has well over 50,000 registered members and last month grew by almost 10,000 members. CAL will be the main entry point for many aspiring gamers that want to make it to the pros.  We are excited about the potential of this league and have a number of exciting plans for CAL in 2003.  CPL will also be announcing some new partnerships this month that will continue to expand our leadership in professional computer gaming.

Thank you for your time, Angel.

Note to our readers: The CPL 2002 Winter Championship is being held at the Dallas Hyatt Regency and begins on December 18^th.  The championship will commence on December 22^nd.  Be sure to stay tuned to the Cyberathlete Professional League Web site for updates and videos direct from the event!

Check out the interview with the CPL competitor Gary Sanchez
CPL Winter Event Competitor Interview #2

Check out the interview with CPL competitor SirScoots

CPL Winter Event Competitor Interview