Angel, are you ready for round two?

Yes! It seems that our previous interview created more questions than answers, so I’m happy to help clarify or expand on any of my responses.

We spoke way back at Summer CPL 2005 when I was merely a news writer about the 2006 World Tour and you said then that the WT would be moving to a two game format with a team game being the primary game and tentatively a one versus one game as a secondary game. Granted that there were unforeseen issues in holding a World Tour in 2006, why the move back to one game in 2007?

After reviewing every statistic generated during the World Tour 2005, we realized that the secret to its success was its simplicity. The game was really secondary and the focus was on the competitors and the competition. Not before (or since) has the community of gamers cared so much about the results of a finals tournament, and the 110,000 people that tuned in online and the 1.1 million people that watched on MTV is a confirmation of that statement.

The CPL has always pursued a narrow selection of games anyway, and I already stated in a previous interview with JP McDaniel for GotFrag DPAD that we are going to continue our focus on PC tournaments. That being said we are soon announcing a partnership with an established console league that will bring global console tournaments to CPL, but managed and sanctioned by their organization.

Anyway, the right formula for CPL is to showcase a seasoned game in the simplest format possible. We have concluded that having two primary tournament games creates unnecessary confusion to the uninitiated spectator and unwarranted complexity for the general media.

Linoleum in the GotFrag forums had this to say: Remember Angel said simplicity would be the key to the WT so my guess is: Pong. I personally was leaning towards Frogger or Space Invaders, what say you?

Pong, Frogger and Space Invader are the realm of my friend Walter Day, from Twin Galaxies. And although I know I’m not worthy of his Video Game Book of World Records I used to play an intense game of arcade PacMan in the 80’s, passing the infamous 7th key without a single error and attracting a modest crowd of spectators. So maybe that’s the World Tour game!

All kidding aside, there has been tons of speculation about what game is going to be the 2007 World Tour game, and I watch a lot of CSI so I put a few of the clues together. Back in September the CPL announced that Quake 3 has been unanimously selected as the one-versus-one competition game for its 2007 World Season, last time we spoke you described how a minimalist Zen-like quality enhances your organization, the re-brand of your next years event from a World Season back to a World Tour, and its similarity to 2005 leads me to believe that Quake 3 is next years game. Is my reasoning correct?

It’s PacMan!

Seriously, your investigation has yielded some positive results.

The primary game for the CPL World Tour 2007 is Quake 3.

I know this is announcement will create a flood of questions, but I promise that I will answer most of them at the Championship Finals next month. Anyone interested in finding out more information on version, mods, prizes, countries etc., can join us at the winter event for an open discussion titled “CPL, Esports and the World Tour” (more details to be announced soon).