SK Gaming

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:

"Angel dropped in to help the guys celebrate a year’s worth of shows, and discuss his involvement in the soon to launch Online Combat Arena (OCA) and his advisory contribution for the Puerto Rico Association of Gamers (PRAG)."

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

Thorin

@Thooorin on twitter.
http://www.facebook.com/Thooorin

Esports journalism

Professional:
2001-2002 Pro-cybernews (Editor-in-Chief)
2002-2003 Gamers.nu (Lead Editor)
2004-2005 ESportsEA (Editor-in-Chief, Consultant)
2006-2008 ESportsEA (Editor, Community feature host)
2008 TAO-CS volume 1 (Co-author)
2008 TAO-fRoD (Co-author)
2008-2009 WinOut.net (Editor-in-Chief, Consultant)
2009-2012 SK Gaming (Editor-in-Chief)
2012-2013 Team Acer (Editor-in-Chief)
2013-2014 OnGamers (Senior eSports Content Creator)

Pro bono publico:
2001-2002 XSReality (Site administrator)
2003-2004 Team3D (Editor-in-Chief, Consultant)
2012-2013 fragbite (Blogger)
2013-XXXX [POD]Cast (Co-host)

CS movies:
2005 Down with the s1ckn3ss
2006 T01_natu
2009 fRoD Quick and nasty (part 1)

Events attended for coverage purposes:
2001 CPL London (Pro-cybernews)
2001 WCG Qualifier (Pro-cybernews)
2002 CPL Summer (Gamers.nu)
2002 WCG Qualifier (Gamers.nu)
2002 CPL Oslo (Gamers.nu)
2002 CPL Winter (Gamers.nu)
2003 CPL Cannes (Gamers.nu)
2003 Clikarena (Gamers.nu)
2004 CPL Winter (ESportsEA)
2009 WEM (SK Gaming)
2010 IEM IV European Championship (SK Gaming)
2010 IEM IV World Championship (SK Gaming)
2010 Arbalet Best of Four (SK Gaming)
2010 Arbalet Cup Europe (SK Gaming)
2010 e-Stars Seoul (SK Gaming)
2010 WCG (SK Gaming)
2010 WEM (SK Gaming)
2011 IEM V European Championship (SK Gaming)
2011 Assembly Winter (SK Gaming)
2011 IEM V World Championship (SK Gaming)
2011 Copenhagen Games (SK Gaming)
2011 Dreamhack Summer (SK Gaming)
2011 SK vs. FX showmatch (SK Gaming)
2011 e-Stars Seoul (SK Gaming)
2011 ESWC (SK Gaming)
2012 IEM VI Kiev (SK Gaming)
2012 IEM VI World Championship (SK Gaming)
2012 WCS Europe (Team Acer)
2012 Dreamhack Open Valencia (Team Acer)
2012 Dreamhack Winter (Team Acer)
2012 IPL5 (Team Acer)
2012 HomeStory Cup VI (Team Acer)
2013 IEM VII World Championship (Team Acer)
2013 MLG Winter Championship (Team Acer)
2013 LCS Europe Spring Week 10 (Team Acer)
2013 WCS EU S1 Ro16 (Team Acer)
2013 LCS Europe Summer Week 9 (Team Acer)
2013 WCS EU S2 final / LCS Europe Summer playoffs (Team Acer)
2013 Riot S3 World Championship (Team Acer)
2013 Battle of the Atlantic (OnGamers)
2013 Battle of the Atlantic (OnGamers)
2014 LCS Europe Spring Week 5 (OnGamers)

Esports commentary/analysis

Professional:
2010 IEM IV European Championship (ESL-TV)
2010 IEM IV Asian Finals (ESL-TV)
2010 IEM IV World Championship (ESL-TV)
2010 IEM V Shanghai (ESL-TV)
2011 ESEA-invite S8 (WinOut)
2011 GameGune (WinOut)
2011 SEC (WinOut)
2013 Dreamhack SteelSeries CS:GO Championship (DH-TV)
2014 Dreamhack Steelseries CS:GO Invitational (DH-TV)
2014 Dreamhack Summer (DH-TV)
2014 Gfinity G3
2014 Dreamhack Stockholm CS:GO Invitational (DH-TV)

Pro bono publico:
2010 ESWC (lvl^)
2010 Arbalet Cup Dallas (lvl^)
2010 GameGune (lvl^)
2010 fnatic PLAY (lvl^)
2010 WCG Nordic (SK Gaming)
2011 Dreamhack Winter BEAT IT (whisenhunt)
2011 EPS Winter (whisenhunt/ESL-TV)
2011 WCG (whisenhunt)
2011 IEM VI Kiev EU qualifier (SK Gaming)
2013 FACEIT Sunday Cup April 28th (FACEIT)
2013 Prague Challenge (District)
2013 FACEIT Sunday Cup September 8th (FACEIT)
2013 FACEIT Monday Cup September 9th (FACEIT)
2014 ESEA Invite S15 LAN finals (NiPTV)

Miscellaneous:
* Winner of the Heaven Media 'E-sports Journalist of the year' awards for 2012 and 2013.