Editors Note: The following is an editorial article. It is solely the opinion of the author and does not reflect the opinion of GotFrag or its parent company Major League Gaming.

- “Step right up ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to Dr. Munoz’ Traveling Road Show and Emporium!"

The $475 registration fee for the $1,000,000 2007 CPL Winter Halo 3 tournament should have sent red flags up a few poles. This is the same organization that had canceled two events within a month, and sent emails begging for attendance to the Counter Strike tournaments at their winter event, with the threat of cancellation. Now there is no million dollar prize at all for Halo. What the hell is going on over at the CPL?

- “You don’t believe it works? Just look at the satisfied customers!”

The team representative body known as G7 announced that it will boycott the CPL 2007 winter event due to money owed its members by the CPL, and the lack of cooperation on the part of the CPL in resolving these monies owed. The G7 federation is made up of many of the top eSports multi-gaming organizations in the world including Complexity, fnatic, PGS, wNv and several more.

Not only is money owed to players and teams from past events, the cancellation of recent events has cost players and management travel and accommodation monies that cannot be refunded, with no sign of assistance from the CPL. The G7 organization has cited that the CPL failed in their obligation to payout prize money and to assist players and teams in that process.

- “Come on people, don't be shy! The fact is, many of you owe your lives to the great magical potions of Dr. Munoz.”

In response to the G7 announcement, the CPL was quite clear that it believes it is responsible for those team's existence as professionals, with little regard to that relationship working both ways.

The CPL reply stated, “We are saddened that two teams that were made famous and somewhat financially independent by competitions and cash prizes at the CPL have engaged in this type of action...”

- “Here fella, I will sell you this second bottle at a discount as long as you don't tell anyone the first bottle didn't work.”

In the CPL's response to the G7 announcement, the statement read, “The CPL also explained that threatening the league with a G7 boycott was improper and that our organization does not cooperate under threat.” The statement went on to read, “... and while the CPL respects his right to publicly post his views and to refuse to attend the Winter Event, management believes his action may have other motivating factors.” Furthermore, the statement had this to say, “...(CPL)will not agree to blindly hand out checks just because some organization threatens it with negative publicity.”

The fact that Munoz acknowledges the right to publicly speak out against the CPL, yet maintains a policy of no cooperation in the face of perceived ”threats”, strongly suggests a “no tell” policy on the part of the CPL. Personally attacking Sam Matthews by saying he has “other motivating factors”, without evidence, reeks of strong arm tactics.

Jonas “bsl” Vikan, newly chosen manager of the Championship Gaming Series Berlin franchise, had this to say about the CPL's response, “That they(CPL) have the nerve to lash out against G7 is phenomenal considering their tainted history, their broken promises and general disdain (in practice) for a community they claimed to valiantly serve for the higher purpose of "for the good of the gamers.”

Vikan went on to say this about G7's decision to boycott, “The CPL has always maintained a piss-poor attitude towards paying teams their money. For those that actually get paid, it takes ~6-10 months and there are obviously always a lot of angry people that do not get it. It's fantastic that G7 chose to boycott their events as they have been a farce for years, unfortunately they were the only alternative to gamers for a long while...”

- "...and another satisfied customer!"

Speaking with Team x3o Owner Nick Fitz, he had no problem stating that the x3o organization is still owed $1250 from CPL Winter 2006. Fitz stated, “ I tried to e-mail the CPL and just didn't get a response back whatsoever.” He went on to say, “I don't have a personal direct contact with cpl staff there, so there wasn't anyone I could call directly.”

How has this affected x3o attending this winter's event? “We were planning on still attending the event, for the general exposure CPL is supposed to bring; but now with no CGS teams and no g7 teams - I don't see how they are going to be able to get even 32 teams. I would see some where between 16-24 CSS teams; which would make it not worth our attendance”, says Fitz.

- Continued on next page -