“The current fragmentation of the sport, a crowded field of competing leagues, and the current economic climate have prompted the CPL to suspend its pro-tournament operations,” says the official news item on the CPL's page.
"When you have a monopoly, the only way you can really lose it is by giving your competitors reasons to exist."
That crowded field part of the quote is CPL's own fault. If I were alone with Monica Bellucci I sure as hell would remember to lock the door. And the windows. When you have a monopoly, the only way you can really lose it is by giving your competitors reasons to exist.In CPL's case, the door was wide open.
At some point the CPL got complacent and either did not know what was needed to become perfect or did not want to spend the money on that. Indirectly, the CPL brought this “crowded field of competing leagues” upon itself. Each single thing that the CPL could have done better but chose not to was a reason for its opponents to grow.
Of course, I could have written that the people that ran the CPL did not understand esports well enough. Or that Angel has got a reputation for being a real hardass in negotiations and rumour has it that it often cost him important business relationships. This would all be true but too simple an explanation to leave it at that.
ONLINE GAMING AN ORPHAN
The CPL has always focused on big LAN events in order to milk the media attention and shine in the flashes of cameras. While it always got profits from that, the online component was left for someone else to be handled well. It did not seem interesting enough, demanded too much work and was not rewarding enough.
However, the people that follow gaming events do not grow on trees. The maniacs that would rather watch a game on HLTV than go out and get drunk all come from flourishing online leagues. So does every gaming champion.
Investing money into a healthy online structure would not have been a waste of money. A structure where the winners get good prizes, go to LAN finals and professional CPL events. It would have been Angel's best investment into the company's future.
"To think that Angel had the power to nip all such competition in a bud."
But that is not the only reason. Building an online league was probably the cheapest and most stable way to grow a company in esports. This is how ESL started and look at where it is now. ESL's Extreme Masters is funded by the same source that used to sponsor CPL events!To think that Angel had the power to nip all such competition in a bud.
EUROPE AN ORPHAN
Turtle Entertainment, ESL's parent company, used to run European events for CPL until 2003. Discontinuing that relationship was a mistake. The original plan to hold two events in the U.S. and two events in Europe each year was the wisest thing that came out of Angel's mouth.
Two “Grand Slam” European events per year would have made it this much harder for the Electronic Sports World Cup to ever become what it is right now. On top of that, such a Grand Slam structure would have been a very solid foundation for the World Tour, a circuit of events that I personally found quite shaky.
I do not know about the details of the CPL-TE breakup. What I do know is that the CPL was much bigger than TE at the time and had a very good position to bargain. What I do know is that withdrawing from one of the most important esports markets was a huge step away from a monopoly.
YOUR SPECTATOR AN ORPHAN
"The amount of complacency that the CPL has shown over the years is amazing."
The amount of complacency that the CPL has shown over the years is amazing. With the budget to put up a wonderful show every time a final is held and research the proper structure for their competitions, the CPL sat on their hands all the time while everyone around them worked as hard as they could to improve the smallest details.“What can you offer me that the CPL can't give me?” That is what nVIDIA would have told the people behind ESWC if the CPL had come up with the simple idea of staging their finals in a cinema theatre by 2002.
They had all the means available in order to pull off a show that would make the ESWC look like mere copy-cats. Instead, the CPL allowed the ESWC to show the world how miserable an event in the Gaylord Hotel basement was.
Nearly everything, starting with the rules, competition structure, game choice and the show was better about the ESWC.
YOUR COMMUNITY AN ORPHAN
"One lesson that Angel has never learnt is that true esports can live without him."
One lesson that Angel has never learnt is that true esports can live without him. The CPL couldn't live without true esports.Perhaps the biggest mistake that Angel has ever made was to never notice what really brought him success in the first place. The only games worthy of having a big tournament are those that actually have a community that would deliver both the spectators and the champions.
As time passed, the CPL kept trading popular and exciting games for games that were less popular and less interesting to watch. Neither Quake 3 nor Counter-Strike have found worthy successors. Giving away perfectly healthy games to the hands of the competition was as smart for the CPL as selling Alaska to the US was for the Russians.
Sure, in the short run the PainKillers of this world brought the CPL a quick buck, but in the long run each of those games was a dead end. Imagine a $1,000,000 CPL World Tour with Quake 3 or Counter-Strike, or Warcraft 3, or even FIFA.
The story concludes here. It seemed a done deal but Monica Bellucci ran away.
Polish version
