The CPL and Gamers' Gauntlet (Page 2)

Suddenly, we were no longer a CPL affiliated event, despite the agreement made and our advertising that we were. The cause of our sudden dismissal was a apparently series of messages posted by Gouki (as Tim Pearson) to the CPL's web forum.

http://forum.thecpl.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?show&read=5899

(I know the above link doesn't work anymore and I wish I had local copies of the original forum posts. Unfortunately, it appears they've been lost into the cosmic wastebasket of the Internet.)

When Monte Fontenot posted the current list of qualifying centers on 11/02/2000, we had still not been mentioned by CPL. In fact, there was no general listing of qualifying events, only centers. Gouki went ahead and posted a message saying that FRAG: G2 was a qualifier, and was immediately told that we were not listed because Monte handles centers, not events. Dennis Boehmer posted a link to the FAQ which also states that fact (that Mike Wardwell is in charge of events) but no other information on the events themselves. Obviously we already knew that, considering we'd been in contact with Mike for some time. It didn't get us any closer to being officially recognized by the CPL.

When Gouki pointed out he didn't realize there was a difference between "center" and "event", he asked for a listing of events, saying "The site is a bit cumbersome to navigate through." No such list of events has ever been made available by CPL on their main site, which was Gouki's point. When Angel replied in an obviously annoyed and irritated tone, Gouki was quick to apologize, pointing out that the comment was constructive criticism, not a personal attack. He then thanked Angel and complimented him on his past events. It seems Gouki made the mistake of expecting the CPL to actually make the information public on its own page, which they never did. Instead of pointing this out or accepting Gouki's apology, Angel continued his hurt and angry tone, berating Gouki for bringing up the issue in a public forum.

That's when Angel decided to pull our status as a qualifier and send Gouki (and Mike) the email at the top of this page. A petty and vindictive person, Angel Munoz decided to punish our entire staff, and our players, because he couldn't accept criticism of his group's obvious and undeniable shortcomings. Two entire weeks had passed since we were promised exposure and the CPL had done absolutely nothing to fulfull their end of the agreement. Apparently, Gouki had not done the bowing and scraping necessary for "the proper way to offer 'suggestions' to the CPL," which is, apparently, some sort of aristocracy.

Extremely angry and upset, Gouki sent a long message to Mike Wardwell citing the childish and unprofessional behavior of Angel, then stating that he and his friends and associates would have nothing more to do with the CPL in the future because of the behavior of its president. Mike Wardwell was plainly shocked by Gouki's accusations and defended the CPL, but admitted he hadn't seen the forum posts that Angel found so inflammatory. When directed to them, he had this to say:

From: "Mike D. Wardwell" <mike@thecpl.com>
To: "Gouki" <gouki@***.com>
Sent: Monday, November 06, 2000 3:22 PM
Subject: RE: Very Disappointed

I read the posts and I didn't think it was that big of a deal. You'll have to take this up with Angel directly though. His email address is mike@thecpl.com.

Mike

In other words, CPL is run entirely under the whim of its president, the notoriously hot-headed and petulant Angel Munoz with an over-inflated sense of self-worth.

Despite my vociferous objections, it was decided to try and rectify the situation with CPL and retain our qualifier status. And so we swallowed our pride as well as the truth of behind-the-scenes events, and contacted Angel again. LouZiffer took on the task of writing the message, knowing that a great deal of contrition and sucking up would be necessary in order to salvage the agreement. I don't envy him that chore, because I know I wouldn't have been able to keep my anger under control enough to write it. Appealing to Angel's warped and perverted sense of professionalism, he was able to convince Angel to recant some of his decision. LouZiffer, you da man.

From: "Angel L. Munoz" <angel@newworld.com>
To: "LouZiffer" <louziffer@***.net>
Cc: "Michael Wardwell" <mike@thecpl.com>
Sent: Monday, November 06, 2000 2:09 PM
Subject: Re: Free Range Action Gaming: Please Read

I appreciate your email and based on your professional demeanor we will allow you to run that qualifier, but I hope you understand that we will not promote it on our site based on our experience with your staff..

In the future please, have your staff members deal with us with respect. We are not children here.

Angel

It's not uncommon to find in the CPL forums attacks from Angel upon people who ask simple questions not covered in their sparse and inadequate FAQ. Rather then address common concerns in a simple manner (the FAQ) or even answer the questions on the forum when they're posed, he'd rather snippily tell players to use the forum's search function or email various staff members, when a simple answer would be so much easier and quicker for everyone involved.

For anyone who thought it strange that Free Range Action Gaming: Gamers' Gauntlet was a CPL qualifier event but never acknowledged by CPL, I hope the situation is now a little more clear to you. If you've ever been under the delusion that CPL is a professionally run organization, I hope you've been relieved of that opinion. Though it may be large, well-known, and the biggest thing in tournament gaming, the Cyberathlete Professional League is run by an angry, thin-skinned 6 year-old in a grown man's body.

-- Quintin Stone