Cyberathelete Professional League

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Cyberathlete Professional League

The Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL), founded in June 1997, was a professional sports tournament organization specializing in computer and console video game competitions. Its Founder and President was Angel Munoz

Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, the CPL held tournaments throughout the U.S., Europe, Latin America, Australia and Asia, and hosted a variety of teams and players regarded as the best in their respective games. The CPL's tournaments were open to all registrants in the form of qualifier tournaments and invitations. Due to ESRB MATURE content rating, CPL events were restricted to participants age 17 and older with the exception of some "TEEN" rated games.

As of 2006, the CPL had distributed more than US$3,000,000 in prize money. The CPL's aim was to make computer gaming a viable competitive and spectator event, on the level of real athletic sports. However, in December 2007, G7 - an organization comprising some of the top teams, boycotted the Winter Event alleging a failure on behalf of the CPL to deliver on prize payments to the members of four teams.

The CPL announced it was ceasing tournament operations on March 13 2008.

On August 25 2008, the CPL announced that it was acquired by an investment group based in the United Arab Emirates. The investment group stated that it plans to create a new company called "CPL, LLC" which will be located in the United Arab Emirates and will host video game tournaments around the world.

Partners

In 2006, the CPL announced the microprocessors manufacturer AMD as its lead title sponsor and ATI Technologies as a secondary title sponsor. Gamerail was the official national network of the CPL and CAL, providing both leagues with network access and infrastructure.

The CPL was primarily sponsored by Intel, NVIDIA, Pizza Hut, McDonald's, BAWLS, PNY, BenQ, Hitachi, Razer, Logitech, Plantronics, CompUSA, Netgear, Verizon, D-Link, Steel Series and The Planet

The official Television Media Partners for the CPL were MTV and DirecTV, and its online Media Partner was GotFrag.

CAL Division

The CPL also operated an online league (with live finals that took place during CPL events) for amateur players and teams, known as the Cyberathlete Amateur League. CAL still operates year-round, with regular 12-week seasons, one or two matches per week, and a single-elimination postseason (playoffs). In the case of Counter-Strike and other official CPL tournament games, the CPL used CAL performance as a factor in seeding at its live events.

Past CPL World Champions

Individual Competitions

2006 - Paul "czm" Nelson - (Quake III)
2005 - Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel - (Painkiller)
2004 - Sander "Vo0" Kaasjager - (Painkiller)
2003 - none
2002 - Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel - (Unreal Tournament 2003)
2001 - Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel - (Aliens versus Predator 2)
2000 - Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel - (Quake III)
1999 - Mark "Wombat" Larsen - (Quake III)
1998 - Dan "Rix" Hammans - (Quake II))

Team Competitions

2007 - x3o - (Counter-Strike)
2006 - ORG: Team: fnatic - (Counter-Strike)
2005 - ORG: Team: SK Gaming - (Counter-Strike)
2004 - Team NoA - (Counter-Strike)
2003 - ORG: Team: SK Gaming - (Counter-Strike)
2002 - ORG: Team: SK Gaming - (Counter-Strike)
2001 - Ninjas in Pyjamas - (Counter-Strike)
2000 - e9 - (Counter-Strike)

Past CPL Event Winners

World Tour 2005

At the 2004 Cyberathlete Extreme Summer Championships, the CPL announced details on its largest event ever, the CPL World Tour. This event took place throughout 2005, with a total of 10 international stops and a finals event held in the New York City U.S. and televised by MTV.

World Season 2006

The 2006 CPL World Season was a series of electronic sports competitions organized by the CPL in the fall of 2006. It was a follow up of the 2005 CPL World Tour and was announced by the CPL on July 31, 2006.

The tour featured two games, Counter-Strike and Quake 3. After a total of 7 qualifier events, the finals were held on 16-20th December, 2006 at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Dallas, Texas. The championship finals had a total prize purse of $150,000 and were won by ORG: Team: fnatic (Counter-Strike) and Paul "czm" Nelson (Quake 3).

CPL Divisions

In mid-2006, the CPL together with its international partners announced a series of licensed divisions to bring worldwide the experience of the CPL events.