King
of the CPL
By
Stephanie "Bobbi"
Bergman
|
Vol.
2, Issue 12
February 17, 2000
|
How
do you feel about a universal ranking system for gamers?
When organizations
talk about a universal ranking system they seem to believe that
the CPL will agree with their methodology and in some way use
their system or promote it, this is clearly not going to happen.
The only way for a gamer to be ranked high in our league is by
playing in our tournaments.
Each year we crown a CPL Champion and the point system we use,
only accounts for performance data generated at our events.
In
order to accumulate points for the CPL a player must physically
attend a CPL event, if I remember right. Are there any plans change
this to allow for more players to be eligible?
No. All
major sports require a commitment from the players to leave the
comfort of their house and physically go to a park, court, stadium,
etc. The CPL follows the same principles, but through our growing
number of CPL Qualifying Centers we want to make the league more
accessible to the gamers that may find our events a bit remote.
We envision having an official
qualifying center in every major city of the US within the next
two years.
Where
would you like to see the CPL in 10 years?
In 10
years I want the CPL to be a multi-billion dollar franchise with
operations in every major city of the world, holding large international
events with millions of spectators worldwide. I also want the
top professional gamers to be generating millions in sponsorship
and prize winnings.
How
realistic do you think that is? (Genuinely curious, I have no
idea myself)
When I
launched the CPL I could have listened to the hundreds of "realistic"
people that told me it was a preposterous idea. Now, people worldwide
hail the CPL as the standard for all LAN tournaments. I extrapolate
from that experience that an average reasonable person would predict
that the chances of professional game tournaments becoming a multi-billion
dollar business are close to zero but then again the CPL team
is neither average or reasonable :)
Therefore,
my prediction is that we have a great chance of building a new
sport and solid
business around that new sport that could in fact create a new
billion dollar industry.
Take "professional"
wrestling as an example, if someone told you that if you dress
up two people in sometimes ridiculous costumes, put them up in
a ring and have them pretend to fight each other, you could build
a billion dollar business, would you have been skeptical let's
say ten years ago?
...But Vincent McMahon did it and today that franchise is worth
about a billion dollars.
Next
month is your next event...what do you expect to see there? How
many participants, any workshops, etc.
What we
are going to see at the Razer/CPL event in Dallas is the highest
attendance from international gamers in the history of competitive
gaming. Here's a current breakdown:
- 7 gamers
from United Kingdom
-10 gamers from
Sweden
- 4 gamers from
South Africa
- 1 gamer from
Poland
- 2 gamers from
Norway
- 1 gamer from
New Zealand
- 3 gamers from
Netherlands
- 8 gamers from
Germany
- 7 gamers from
France
- 1 gamer from
Denmark
- 22 gamers from
Canada
We also
expect gamers from Russia, Greece and other countries to sign
up when we re-open our tournament registration.
WOW...why
do you think you're seeing such a large international turnout?
I think
for two main reasons:
1. Our
cash purses for our large events are now pushing six figures
2. The
CPL tournaments have an international reputation of being fair
and well run.
Do
you think events like QuakeCon raise the standard for what is
expected at LAN Parties? How will you compete?
I am happy
to see that QuakeCon has incorporated some of our standards into
their events. Let's not forget that many event standards, like
having all of the tournament computers exactly the same, were
created by the CPL. I have only the highest respect for the organizers
of QuakeCon and I also admire the fact that they have maintained
that operation non-profit for the benefit of id's customers.
Thanks!!
-
Stephanie "Bobbi" Bergman needs to come up with better
taglines.
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