- “Whoa! You bought a bottle of Dr. Munoz' special herbal remedy from another emporium? Well that's not our responsibility now is it? ”

The CPL G7 response stated “...a small list of teams claiming they had not received prizes, mostly from licensees of the CPL holding their own cash tournaments with their own sponsors. The CPL explained that while it is not responsible for prizes promised by third-parties, it has repeatedly attempted to contact these third-parties on behalf of the gamers”.

This is the classic switcheroo. You sanction a product, you put your name on it, you make someone else do all the dirty work and when it all falls apart, you take the money, blame the ones that did the work and they blame you, sending the customer in endless circles for a refund.

- “ I personally guarantee each and every bottle of Dr. Munoz' remedies. Refunds have been mailed.”

With monies being owed and little help from the CPL as far back as 2003, the CPL has assured the community there is no need to worry by adding this “note” to the G7 response, “Players that attended the CPL Summer Championships (Dallas) have no need to fear the negative statement published by Mr. Matthews, and should know that the final round of checks were mailed this week as stated by the CPL Commissioner two days ago.”

A real guarantee may have been that the CPL put prize money in an account to hold and be distributed to winners by a specified date. Instead the CPL continues business as usual, downplaying the problem and blaming others. “As a matter of record it is important to also state that the CPL does operate under strict deadline policies which are disclosed in the Terms and Conditions Agreement... less than 2% of our winners in ten years have failed to comply with the deadlines and did not receive their prizes.”

- “...due to production overruns, unfortunately, we have had to cut back on bottle size BUT rest assured this is a concentrated potion and will provide all the benefits of a full dose.”

The CPL has now stated that the prize money for the HALO 3 tournament for winter 2007 has been reduced to $100,000. The latest CPL press release unceremoniously states the following, placing blame on X Factor and “competition”;

“The X Factor Tournament, notified yesterday all registrants of some changes to the format of the Halo 3 Competition, citing a number of issues they have experienced during the planning of their event.” - CPL

“We now understand why some organizations have recently retired as event organizers. The competition is a lot more underhanded than we anticipated, but we will not simply go away. We want to hold the largest competitions in the industry and continue to expand our relationship with the gaming community at large.” - Chris Comer (VP of Operations X Factor Tournament)

How many more times will it change before the event? Will there even be an event? Which press release do you believe? How can anyone trust the CPL, at this point, and go out on a financial limb for travel to an event that; may or may not happen, may or may not have a specified prize pool, that may or may not have the tournament game you registered for and in the end you may or may not get paid your prize money?

Is this not all starting to sound like a snake oil sales salesman? Almost like a slick bully stealing a kid's lunch money. Or at the least, a flip-flop candidate from hell. It is true Angel Munoz and the CPL helped birth eSports, but one can only ride that horse so long. How many times will the CPL's word to the community be broken? How many more times will people be lied to or promised the world before they say enough? But, who knows what might happen, because the CPL and Angel have a way of rising like a phoenix from the ashes. Don't forget Severity is coming in December and CPL Summer 2008 is an announced $100,000 for CS 1.6.

- “Ok, thats it for me folks, I think I see the sheriff...err...sponsor coming.”