Since the death of the CPL (Cyberathlete Professional League) the man whose face was always synonymous with the brand, founder Angel Munoz, has kept a low profile publicly. Now a clue to his current dealings emerges as he appeared on episode 52 of the podcast over at the Adrenaline Vault, the website he founded back in 1995.

The podcast's writeup says:



Certainly an interesting step down in importance for the man who once held competitive gaming in a sometimes loving, sometimes threatening, chokehold for so many years. Angel's CPL was the standard bearer within the industry and within Counter-Strike their Dallas-based events were considered the world championship for the first half of CS' life. The CPL promised so many things: world tours with millions of dollars, esports stadiums and more. However, few of these promises materialized and in the process a number went entirely unfulfilled including unpaid prizes to players who had done the hard part of placing highly in competitions only to sit waiting for a cheque which would never arrive.

Ironically so many of the CPL's dreams have since come true via other organizations' efforts. ESWC successfully pioneered the stage concept in Western esports, while the first esports stadium was built recently in China. ESL's global tours of events have even begun to approach the levels of prize money originally promised, though not all paid out, in the CPL's ambitious first attempt.

Negatives aside the CPL did run some of the most loved and fondly remembered tournaments of all time within Western esports. Who will forget fatal1ty's victory at Razer CPL in 2000 which netted him $40k? Or how about the NiP-X3 clash at CPL Winter 2001 which is still remembered today as one of the greatest finals ever? How about SK's 5 CS championships and two top 3 placings outside of those?

To keep up to date with the happenings in the life of Mr Munoz fans can follow his twitter feed where they'll discover he finished Wolfenstein earlier this month and thinks third person mode in Modern Warfare 2 is a cool idea. Angel also describes himself in his bio as, amongst other things, an "Artist, Philosopher and Music Producer".

Source: Adrenaline Vault