The CPL and Gamers' Gauntlet

In mid-October, we contacted CPL in the hope of our party (Gamers' Gauntlet) becoming a CPL qualifying event. It was hoped that having a public association with the Cyberathlete Professional League would be a big draw to serious Quake 3 players who may otherwise not have attended our party. Not only would we be paying the airfare to Dallas of our main tournament's winner, but it was thought the association would lend some increased creditiblity and professionalism to our nonprofit organization.

On October 14, 2000, Gouki sent Angel Munoz a request to be make our November Gamers' Gauntlet party an official qualifier event for the Babbage's CPL in December. It was forwarded to Mike Wardwell, who handled such requests, and he replied on the 16th. "We would be glad to list your tournament as a qualifier for the Babbages CPL event," was his reply. He then laid down the requirements for qualifiers, which pretty much only consists of providing airfare to our auto-berthed tourney winner.

After confirming we would be able to meet the airfare requirements and describing our tournament and rules, Mike Wardwell sent this reply:

From: "Mike Wardwell" <mike@thecpl.com>
To: "Gouki" <gouki@***.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 22, 2000 10:47 PM
Subject: RE: Qualifier tournament for the babbages cpl event

Everything sounds good. I'll send the information over to be posted on www.thecpl.com. In the meantime you may publicize however you choose on your end. Be sure to send the information for your auto-berthed winner back to this address. Cheers, and thanks for your interest in the CPL.

Mike

Nine days later, there was still no official announcement from CPL about our status as a qualifier, and so Gouki once more contacted Mike Wardwell, expressing our concern that people might question our claimed relationship with the CPL when it was not being confirmed.

From: "Mike D. Wardwell" <mike@thecpl.com>
To: "Gouki" <gouki@***.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2000 5:48 PM
Subject: RE: Qualifier tournament for the babbages cpl event

The last time I sent it off, it must have fallen through the cracks. I have requested that it be posted again. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Mike

Shockingly, there was still only silence coming from the CPL by November 6th. Though they posted an updated list of qualifying centers, nothing had been said about qualifying events. (Note that a "center" differs from an "event" in that a center is a business that offers gameplaying on a regular daily basis, not just a monthly or semi-monthly LAN party.)

Gouki once more contacted Mike Wardwell about the lack of announcements. It's important to note that a qualifying event such as Gamers' Gauntlet gets absolutely nothing from the CPL in return for running an auto-berth, except for added publicity. In fact, we are out several hundred dollars to pay for the round-trip ticket of our tournament winner. Without official acknowledgement from CPL, Gamers' Gauntlet staff could not help seeing this arrangement as blatantly one-sided.

Mike Wardwell once again forwarded our event's information, and then the shit hit the fan.

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