Recently the news broke that the Cyberathlete Amateur League (CAL), the online gaming league run by the management of the CPL was potentially considering a “pay to play” format, where teams would have to pay per-season fee’s to be competitors in the league. The initial announcement has since been verified by our online staff, and we’ve gotten more details about the future of CAL.

We’ve spoken to the man at the top of both organizations, Angel Munoz, to get all of the details on the upcoming changes to CAL. First, he would like to reassure everyone that the upcoming season of CAL will not require payment to join the league. Their plans for introducing a fee system to join are exactly that – plans, nothing that’s going to happen immediately. The number they have in mind is $5 per player per season, though that figure is certainly subject to change. They’re not planning to introduce the fee’s in the upcoming season.

Nearly a year ago, the CPL announced that it was going to become officially associated with CAL, at least for presentation. Angel would be the President of both organizations, and the theme suggested that they may become more integrated. After speaking to Angel today, it’s clear that more cooperation between the online and professional leagues it is their intent. In fact, he was forthcoming in saying that CAL – the Cyberathlete Amateur League, was no longer very amateur.

The community drives in the league

Part of the plan of introducing a pay-to-play system in CAL is that it will allow the league to grow, not necessarily in terms of team or player count, but more to make the league more of a business – and in doing so improve it. Angel explained that the fee’s charged to enter the league would go directly back into it to improve the quality of service that the league delivers to it’s teams, increasing the prizes available to the players and teams involved, and helping to secure more paid admin positions to handle the day to day operations of the league.

The trend is clearly driven towards making CAL an attractive business venture to the CPL. He confirmed that the league would certainly feature the official game of the CPL World Tour – the CPL’s primary focus in the year 2005 which will feature a single game, which will be 1v1 deathmatch. That game, which has yet to be announced, will not become the only CAL game – they have no intention of removing Counter-Strike.

When we asked Angel about the consideration that the number of teams in the league would slip significantly, he brushed it off – saying that if teams don’t want to play in CAL, they can certainly play in other online leagues. In fact, this decision will make it easier for other leagues to become larger. The CPL’s goal is to make the league better, not larger. Additionally, they would not confirm (but were considering) the idea of making the Invite divisions of the league free.

Expansion past North America

But what about Europe, Asia and the rest of the world? They’re invited too, eventually. Angel said that there’s no doubt, they want to expand CAL to become a worldwide league, even referencing the name of “The Planet”, their new infrastructure sponsor. Just as the CPL events have always aspired to, and the World Tour seems to be doing, CAL has plans to expand to beyond the borders of the United States.

We’ve all got a while to wait before we find out the fate of CAL, but in the meantime we can anticipate the upcoming announcement to conclude this tournament, with more information about the World Tour. Stay tuned!