Today the CPL distributed a release updating the public on their arrangement with Painkiller developer Dreamcatcher Studios. The release explains the basics of an agreement that grants the CPL exclusive use of Painkiller in any tournament – online or lan, where there’s a prize of any kind – cash or merchandise. What does this mean? When it comes to competitive Painkiller, the CPL is both the gatekeeper and the keymaster for the coming year.

The benefits of this agreement are obvious; the CPL finally has a game to call their own. Make no bones about it, this is a first for competitive gaming. What has not yet been seen is the impact this will have on Painkiller worldwide.

There are a few shoe-in players for competitive Painkiller. CPL Summer PK champion vo0 is certainly on the short list. Famous gamer Fatal1ty has expressed an interest in competing in the tour. American multi-gamer Destrukt has recently signed on to the Painkiller squad in team Check Six. Top multi-gaming clan Schroet Kommando has built a solid PK squad, and there are a lot of other well known FPS gamers getting on the bandwagon.

Now that the CPL has full reign over online and LAN, how will they get local gamers to compete in the regional tour stops? The money is certainly attractive, but while games like Counter-Strike can see incredible upsets happen quite often, FPS games have traditionally been the pillar of consistency - the best player should always win, and vo0, Fatal1ty and others have a clear advantage in skill and experience.

For the World Tour to offer the entertaining competition we’ve come to expect from the CPL, a strong list of talented competitors will have to be present at each stop. This is where online comes in. Attracting local players will be key to filling up competition slots at these local tournaments. While the money is certainly a help, they won’t add any value to the competition unless they’ve practiced. Without local competition, it may be the same 10 players at all of the stops – what’s the fun in that?

As history has proven time and time again, for any game to flourish on LAN, solid competitive online play is required. Painkiller is just coming into its own online; new netcode and a handful of online tournaments are aiming to improve public interest in the game. The release states that anyone interested in hosting a Painkiller tournament has to contact the CPL to obtain approval. Obviously this places limitations on the ability for anyone but the CPL to host online tournaments, so we must ask – how will the CPL promote Painkiller online?

We’ve all heard rumors that a Painkiller division of CAL will debut in the near future. How will the rest of the world play competitive online PK? Will CAL go global? Will franchises pop-up? Will the tour stop operators open online tournaments? We just don’t know – yet.

The CPL has told Gotfrag that they will announce details regarding online competition after the official World Tour site is launched this coming week.