Cyberfight: Hello Angel, we are glad that you have agreed to answer our questions. First one is probably the most important for now: Quake 3: Arena is in the list for Second Poll. Does that actually mean, that there is a chance for this game to be included as fourth?
Angel Munoz: If the community votes for Quake 3: Arena and id Software does not prevent us from using it, we will definitely add to our tournament list for the CPL Summer 2004 Extreme Championship. I think that the Quake 3 community should use this opportunity to vote for their game, and send a clear message to everyone that they do want CPL hosting Q3 tournaments again.

Cyberfight: Why there is such a big difference in European and USA tourneys organised by CPL? I.e. prize money, number of events? Will this situation be somehow improved?
Angel Munoz: The largest events will remain in Dallas for the foreseeable future. CPL Europe is being revamped to be mostly composed of country events instead of a continental approach. More on this at a later date.

Cyberfight: What are your views on future of e-sports, what type of games will dominate the scene, individual or team games?
Angel Munoz: I can talk forever about the future of pro-gaming :) But from CPL's perspective I will summarize it like this, the CPL is going to add a tightly integrated system to its tournaments, based on seasons and an online component. Our marketing will take a much more global approach and we want to have between three and four games at every main CPL tournament. Europe and Asia will become important components of this new
approach too.

In general pro-gaming will continue to grow this year and in 2005. The interest in pro-gaming from the media, beyond the casual "new phenomena" reporting, will grow in 2004. We have lots of media interested in our events, and live coverage is definitely the next frontier. We expect to realize that very soon.

Both team and individual tournaments will remain strong, but team tournaments seem to be getting a lot more "steam" these days. No pun
intended  :)

Cyberfight: How does CPL usually plan next event?
Angel Munoz: Way in advance!  Right now we are completing our contracts for Winter 2004 (which will be Dec 15-10, 2004) and Summer 2005. We also have blocked space for events all the way through Winter 2006. We are rethinking our presentation in a big way and the sponsors are very excited about some of the ideas we have planned for Summer 2004.

Cyberfight: UT2004 comes with new mode, Onslaught, which features vehicles and big aspect of teamplay requiered for good performance, is there a chance that this mode will be used some day?
Angel Munoz: We are seriously considering it, but CPL will have to see it first and invite some gamers to play test it.  Team deathmatch is also an option.

Cyberfight: How will you decide who is player of the year, since there were mostly team games used this year for CPL events?
Angel Munoz: We will not have a player of the year, but instead we will pick an MVP (Most Valuable Player) from the teams that participated in our 2003 events.

Cyberfight: Will the poll results be combined, or they are made apart for different purpose?
Angel Munoz: They will be combined and in a week when the clear leaders are determined we may narrow the list and ask for the community to vote again. After that, one more vote may be conducted to determine mod play and 1v1 or team (if it applies).

Cyberfight: Will there be European qualifiers to Summer Extreme Event for all nominations? And how many qualifiers there will be?
Angel Munoz: We would like to see five qualifiers in Europe for the Summer 2004 Extreme Championship. In fact if LAN organizers are interested in hosting qualifiers for the Summer 2004 Event they should start emailing Justin Blanchard right away. The interest in the Summer 2004 Event is much higher than we
anticipated.  We already have several hundred people registered and the massive BYOC can accommodate between 4,000 and 5,000 computers. By the way Justin's email is Justin.Blanchard@TheCPL.com