August 30, 2005 Dallas, TX - The CPL has just announced the possible cancellation of the World Tour stop in China. China has recently banned PainKiller from their country and as such has made it questionable for the World Tour to come to China.

Tuesday 30 August 2005, 15:04

"THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA is continuing its headlong crash into the modern age of internet gaming with the country banning several more violent games and demanding developers edit out violent content in new ones. This is what we know, yesterday the Ministry of Culture (which is responsible for overseeing all videogames sold in China) banned Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Painkiller and ordered MMORPG developer Object Software to remove its Player vs Player system which rewards players for killing other players, something the MoC terms "unhealthy" according to Interfax China.

This comes at the same time as World of Warcraft players in China are launching an online protest concerning the three hour restriction which the Chinese government has placed on online games. According to the new rules, players cannot stay online in a videogame for more than three hours, and developers have been ordered to build in systems to their games to ensure that this rule is adhered to.

The actual deployment of the system may take a long time, but meanwhile the Chinese government continues to ban and censor videogames left and right in an attempt to maintain the country's traditional censorship stranglehold on the media."

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GotFrag had the chance to ask Angel Munoz of the CPL a few questions on this matter.

Please can you explain why the CPL Chinese WT stop has been cancelled?

We have not yet officially canceled the World Tour stop in China as we are attempting to determine what the new ruling from the Ministry of Culture is really all about.

This is what we know, yesterday the Ministry of Culture (which is responsible for overseeing all videogames sold in China) banned Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Painkiller and ordered MMORPG developer Object Software to remove its Player vs Player system which rewards players for killing other players.

If the ban is effective immediately we will cancel the CPL China World Tour stop.

This is the 3rd CPL WT stop to suffer such a fate. Is this cancellation on similar terms as the previous cancellations? Can you explain the differences?

a. The first one was Turkey which we moved back a month because of inclement weather.
b. The second was Germany for reasons that Scott outlined publicly in his release. We should be announcing an alternative stop for Germany early next week.
c. And now China for the reasons we've discussed.

These are just a few of the challenges of producing live events worldwide, and in the case of weather or political intervention there's not much we can do to anticipate them in advance.

Given the rumors relating to Germany's cancellation and trouble with the age rating in other countries do you regret using PainKiller as the WT game and will the age rating of Quake IV or other possible titles for next year play a far more significant role in the selection process?

At the time we launched the World Tour, Painkiller was the best choice. Even the players themselves have stated that while the game lacks in several areas, it is fun to watch in a live environment and the competitions can be intense to the last minute.

The games we select for next year will be the ones that the community of gamers want to play, our sponsors want to sponsor and CPL wants to support. We just have to do a better job in selecting countries that embrace computer gaming for its positive aspects and support our competitions.

The CPL has always had the strictest standards when it comes to M-rated games and we feel that making these tournaments available only to participants that are 17 or above and is a great way to curb the general concerns about violence and gaming.

What is your view on countries banning games such as Painkiller and how does this effect the future of eSports in your opinion?

I personally think it is wrong to ban a game like Painkiller, but moving into the future, I'm committed to work closer with the different countries (including the USA) to dispel the myths that surround gaming and to help get more factual information to them, so that the growth of e-sports is not negatively impacted by misguided information.

Will the CPL now try to squeeze in another WT stop, or reduce the number of stops? If you plan on getting a different location, can you divulge where that stop will be?

We are already working on replacing China with another stop.

On the top of our list would be Hong Kong, and Singapore. But it is too early to tell as we explore the opportunities ahead of us.

Can you layout the schedule of the World Tour as it stands now, dates and locations?

As of right now we have UK starting this weekend and Santiago, Chile is 100% confirmed. Another European stop could be announced early next week and the Asian one when we find a suitable replacement for China.