by Drew “Drewdg21” T



The World Tour:An Opinion

The Views of the author do not necessarily reflect the views of Gotfrag or its staff

Note: This article is written to all competitive gamers who feel that the CPL is doing an injustice to competitive gaming by selecting Painkiller as the official World Tour Game. In no way is this article degrading the CPL. The CPL has been the best thing for competitive gaming as it has thrown “e-Sports” into mainstream society in numerous nations.

This World Tour will, no doubt, shine a light on “e-Sports” and maybe for a few brief instances bring competitive gaming into the world spotlight. One million dollars is up for grabs, and that alone should attract some attention from gamers and non-gamers alike. This CPL Tour will hopefully show the general public what gamers put into the games --all the time, effort, dedication, and hard work. These gamers, I myself included, spend countless hours fine-tuning their aim, skill, and understanding of their favorite games.

This article, however, has not been written to show what gamers are putting into the games, but rather what the CPL and other organizations have been taking out of competitive gaming. Gamers are allowing the CPL to decide how gaming is being presented to society and which games are being highlighted by the CPL. With the CPL’s choice of Painkiller as the official World Tour game, the CPL has decided to ignore the claims of the majority of gamers across the world. Only a small amount of gamers have been pushing for Painkiller to be the game presented to the World as the “featured game” for the most prestigious gaming tournament in competitive gaming history, while the majority of competitive gamers were hoping for a team-oriented game to be selected for the Tour. Painkiller promotes the idea that competitive gaming is about one gamer playing another gamer in a “who can kill the other guy first” scenario. Team gaming, the type of competitive gaming that should be presented at the CPL, is about a group of gamers who must learn to play together and use their individual skill as a team to achieve a goal. Good teamwork between a group of gamers is extremely hard to achieve and can only be achieved with the utmost dedication and hard-work. These gamers spend countless hours fine-tuning strategies and developing teamwork and chemistry. Competitive gaming, presented to the World through events such as the CPL, needs to be presented with team-oriented games such as Counter-Strike, Call of Duty, and Day of Defeat. In the following pages I have outlined reasons why Counter-Strike should be used as the 2005 Official CPL World Tour game, instead of Painkiller.

Painkiller’s Positive Side: Now, I know that many of you out there (the 10 or 15 of you that truly hold Painkiller dear) love Painkiller and are very excited that your game has been given 1 Million dollars to blow off in a few LAN events. First off, I want everyone who is reading this article to know that I feel Painkiller is a fun game to play with friends at a LAN party or small get-together. It’s very exciting and can be used as a secondary way of gaining excitement for the CPL World Tour. Painkiller should be chosen as the “mini-game” of large LAN events, as it was at the past CPL and as it should be in the upcoming World Tour. Painkiller hasn’t brought in the revenue, excitement, or participation level as many games in today’s society. Counter-Strike and other team-oriented FPS have seemed to attract the largest amount of avid gamers, fans, excitement, and money.

Past Achievements: Painkiller is a game that is not LAN proven or CPL-proven, for that matter. The total purse a Painkiller tournament at any CPL has not been over $20,000, while the total purse for each Counter-Strike tournament at past CPL’s has been at least $100,000. Counter-Strike has been the mainstream game at the CPL for over 2 years and has been gaining more fans and more revenue with each passing tournament. The World Tour would allow Counter-Strike to bring in tons of revenue and loads of excitement to the CPL, while throwing “e-sports” and competitive gaming into the World spotlight. Counter-Strike is supported by a large fan base (near 100,000 players I would estimate) with a large amount of competitive gamers regularly practicing, playing, and studying the game. Over 25,000 HLTV spectators watched the 2004 Counter-Strike Summer CPL Grand Finals match between EYEballers and SK-gaming. At that point in time, I don’t think 25,000 people even knew what Painkiller was, nor would have wanted it to represent competitive gamers and competitive gaming across the world.