R.I.P. CPL

23 Comments by James Ransom-Wiley Mar 18th 2008 5:30PM
Filed under: Culture, Competitive Gaming, Business

We're feeling kinda guilty for just now noticing the rotting heap in our inbox. The Cyberathlete Professional League has been dead for five days, apparently, and the fist-pumping silhouette that has represented the CPL for so many years has become a ghostly reminder that competitive gaming is a long ways away from being oohed and awed by a mainstream market. Still, the CPL managed to stay on its feet for an impressive 10-year run, and perhaps, in some not-so-unimaginable future (okay, fine, it's a long shot!), the league will be immortalized in popular culture as an incubator for a great cyber-capitalist industry. So save those CPL tees if you've got 'em! Today's worthless rags could be tomorrow's vintage gold. We repeat, could be.

[Thanks, Row Zee]

Tags: cpl, cyberathlete-professional-league, fist-pump

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

ballistic3188: Mar 18th 2008; 5:50PM

I personally can't see pro gaming to be very main stream. games are fun to play not to watch. case and point the madden challenge. 90% of the whole show is devoted to the gamers and the athlete they represent. all the madden is in shown in a highlight reel.
point two. G4's arena was extremely boring to watch. also the format for the game show was pretty weak.

I will make two exceptions. 1. fighting games are watchable. 2. nickelodoen arcade was a great game show

Magetto: Mar 18th 2008; 6:14PM

I can. Just look at South Korea and Star Craft.

Dragod: Mar 18th 2008; 8:02PM

I dunno... the MLG videos from Halo 2 really entertain me. It's just like watching a sport, but I think it's much more fun. When something amazing happens, you just know it. You jump up, scream "YEAH!" along with your friends, and you all have something to watch that is incredibly entertaining.

Morisato: Mar 18th 2008; 6:01PM

I see competitive gaming more of an underground thing... like cock-fighting... but digital.

dbeech: Mar 18th 2008; 6:16PM

...And with smaller cocks.

Oh, I see what I did there.

Mills and Boom: Mar 18th 2008; 6:15PM

I'm sorry I've never heard of it.

mundox: Mar 18th 2008; 6:28PM

ggkthxbai

DangerMouse: Mar 18th 2008; 6:44PM

"We're feeling kinda guilty for just now noticing the rotting heap in our inbox."

You're not the only ones who don't care.

Croove55: Mar 18th 2008; 7:03PM

Maybe they shouldn't have used the word "cyberathlete" when naming their league. That's the worst compound word I've heard of in a while. Also, anyone who trains to be good at video games professionally is usually difficult to look at without cringing, and it's even worse when they think they carry some sort of importance. Our hobby is not known to be practiced by the most charismatic people.

Dragod: Mar 18th 2008; 8:05PM

Hardly... have you seen some of the MLG pros? Tsquared doesn't look geeky, malnourished, nor does he reek of BO.

Obie: Mar 18th 2008; 7:07PM

I wonder if MLG will also go the way of the dodo.

Matt B: Mar 18th 2008; 7:21PM

What's fatality going to do now?

StuScotsLazyEye: Mar 18th 2008; 10:31PM

Keep placing at championships around the globe instead of playing with his team in the CPL? Hello QuakeCon.

Easo: Mar 18th 2008; 8:41PM

Hopefully the MLG wont be far behind

EMaster: Mar 19th 2008; 12:17AM

I agree. These people are not athletes. Please stop treating them like it.

EMaster: Mar 19th 2008; 12:17AM

Cyber Athlete? Athlete? Gimme a fucking break!

jaybcorreia: Mar 19th 2008; 3:09AM

Morisato lmao that was good I have to give you that one. As for "pro gaming" I think it will prob be a niche/underground type if MLG can broaden its game titles instead of Halo and use more fighting titles and change a lil of the show format i think it will get a stronger fanbase and advertisers will see that as a premium spot bcuz of loyalty :-) do you think that would work for you?

develin: Mar 19th 2008; 8:59AM

I said it before and I say it again:
Games are meant to be played not watched, so who needs a professional league? If I want to watch somebody shoot somebody else, I have a bunch of action movies around...

Limech: Mar 19th 2008; 9:18AM

I said it before and I say it again:
Sports are meant to be played not watched, so who needs a professional league?

While I'm the first to agree that gamers shouldn't be called athletes and gaming most certainly isn't a sport, the rest of the comparisons I believe still stand.

I'm sure a lot of people play golf but can't stand watching others do it. I'm sure people play Texas Hold'em poker but can't stand to watch people play it. I'm also sure there are people that play football but like watching those with immense skill in football play it out against each other on TV.

I'm one of those that like games and like watching those at the top of their game going at it. I sure love watching that over poker, darts, bowling, ..I'll stop, that list is way too long.

Other problem is matches aren't broadcasted properly on TV. Either they only show snippets or spend too much time showing people sitting down pressing keys. I want to see the match, not the people playing it.

If you want to see what a REAL full match broadcast looks like, check out my site www.ProGamingTV.com.
(Don't rant on the 'pro' part, good domain names are hard to find). Anyway, there you will see various casting crews that do a descent job of broadcasting full matches online.

As always, everybody has their own tastes and opinions.

jynxycat: Mar 19th 2008; 12:46PM

CPL was making all of this competitive gaming stuff known to the PC community before the original Xbox was even out. That's pretty crazy to think about.

Does anyone know if this affects the CAL ? That's where pretty much anyone who's anyone cuts their teeth in the CS tourny environment.

Edge: Mar 20th 2008; 2:09PM

"Anyone who's anyone" doesn't waste their time on pro-gaming, except for the companies exploiting wannabes.

Edge: Mar 19th 2008; 12:54PM

I would like to see real atheletes glitch their way to the top.

http://www.wayodd.com/funny-pictures2/funny-pictures-steroids-naahhh-0q5.jpg

...Sorry i asked...

killdashnine: Mar 20th 2008; 1:53PM

This will have huge consequences for the market of e-sports. For more information read this:

http://www.warfactory.net/death-of-the-cpl/

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