Angel Munoz - A Man With A Vision
There are certain names within the Counter-Strike community that 90% of gamers should recognise instantly. For example Gooseman, who has perhaps god status within CS as its creator, Cliffe - again right up there with Gooseman from counter-strike.net fame. DaveJ - should ring a few bells as a creator of the most popular online maps ever. Now a new name has risen among them, and he is Angel Munoz the founder of the Cyberathlete Professional League. He is the guy we mention about once in every 10 news posts, he is the guy you saw in most of those "CPL Featured in whatever magazine" newsposts.
I suggest before you read this it might be worth checking out my previous interview with Angel. It gives a lot of the background information not covered here.
So without further ado, here's the interview.
Angel, rather than explaining all about yourself and the CPL's history for the 50th time, how about we take a different approach: where do you see yourself and the CPL in 10 years time?
Angel - Ten years...? That's a long time, I'll speak in general terms of what the CPL is working on right now. We are working with a television network on the proper format for live television competitions (initially invitationals) in the US; we are working with a publisher on a monthly magazine about the new sport and we are working on solving our venue needs. The venue would be built from the ground up to perfectly accommodate our needs and would include in-house food franchises.
I remember reading that the CPL had plans to develop its own game for future competitions, can you elaborate on this?
Angel - The CPL will not build games, but maybe an organization related to the CPL will. We will announce more details in about 30 days.
This year, after some delays, the VGA organisation held qualifiers for the CPL with Infinity-eSports winning and attending the event. However they were the only UK clan to do so and following their success would it be possible for more UK clans to attend in the future? Do you plan on changing the qualifying system at all such as funding the winning clans yourself and why did it take so long to arrange the UK qualifier?
Angel - The CPL has no interest in paying for teams to compete in our tournaments. We realize that other organizations have that type of model and if it works for them long term, that's great. In my eyes that business model is not sound. The CPL is an entrepreneurial organization that prefers to partner with self-motivated organizations that have no difficulties seeking their own sponsorships.
The reason the UK qualifier was delayed was because of the problems in identifying solid sponsors. Once the sponsors were identified the process got started right away.
At the start of the event there seemed to be a problem with the ranking and several clans, such as Infinity-eSports, had their ranking lowered considerably. Why did the ranking need to be changed?
Angel - I am not even remotely involved with rankings. The seeding and ranking of clans is managed by the League Commissioner, Frank Nuccio and his tournament assistants. World Rankings are managed by Frank Nuccio and Edward Watson from the UK and qualifier rankings are managed by Frank Nuccio, Carol Bennett (igames.org) and the qualifying centers.
Did you get a chance to meet with Infinity-eSports and Sujoy? if so what was your opinion of them and their final ranking?
Angel - I met with them at E3 in Los Angeles. I have known Sujoy for a long time and he has high ambitions. I do not know about his operation in enough details to make any sound judgement. All that I know is that he promised to run the UK Qualifiers and as I expected, did so exceptionally well.
Are their any plans to hold another CPL event in the UK, such as CPL London last year?
Angel - Ralf Reichert, managing director of CPL Europe is the best person to direct that question to. I have seen a preliminary calendar of events for CPL Europe and I do not recall UK being in that list. The upcoming European events are: Oslo, Norway (which I will attend), Paris, Holland and Cologne.
Apart from the dates, what will be the biggest change from this summer event compared to the Winter World Championships?
Angel - The biggest change will be that we are holding three official tournaments. The event announcement will be out Monday.
Were you happy about giving up the CPL name for Pentium 4?
Angel - The CPL has held six tournaments in which it used the main sponsor's name: Razer CPL Event, Gateway Country Challenge, Babbages CPL Event, Speakeasy CPL Event, CPL Nostromo Exhibition Tournament, and the CPL Pentium 4 Summer Championship. We are proud to use the Pentium 4 name again for our upcoming winter event, the CPL Pentium 4 Winter 2002 Event.
CAL Europe - Who? What? When? Why? Where?
Angel - Who - Frank Nuccio, what - Cyberathlete Amateur League Europe, when - March 2003, why - Because it is gives amateurs an opportunity to play under CPL rules/formats from their home computers. Where - UK, Germany, Norway, France, Spain and others.
In your opinion can the World Cyber Games and The Cyberathlete Professional League co-exist forever, or sooner or later will one of the two die out?
Angel - Just like the National Football League
(NFL) and the Olympic Commission can coexist, so can the CPL and WCG. We are a league, focused on individual and team championships not on country championships. For example Sweden did not win the Summer $100,000 CS Tournament, Shroet Kommando did.
Why not hold the World Championships in say... Stockholm, the Swedes have earned it. Is this a possibility in the future?
Angel - If CPL Europe wants to conduct a World championship in Europe I see no problems with that. But the US team of CPL
concentrates on US tournaments only.
Do you or your family personally play Counter-Strike? Would you allow a member of your family to compete in the CPL?
Angel - No I do not play or have ever played Counter-Strike. This keeps my perspective clear of biases, and allows me to venture into other possible games for the CPL. Immediate members of my family are prohibited from participating in CPL Event, but if it was not for this internal policy I would allow them to compete in the CPL.
What about TFC at the CPL?
Angel - We are finally recognizing the very well established and mature TFC community at our December event with their own official tournament. Some details on this tournament will be part of our Monday press release.
What game in your opinion will be 'The next big thing'?
Angel - A CPL-endorsed game? Stay tuned :)
Are the delays in Gearbox releasing Counter-Strike: Condition Zero becoming tiring considering this was meant to be the game for the tournament this summer?
Angel - Not at all. Gearbox wants to make the best game possible and if it is going to take them another year to do so that is exactly what they should do. I'd rather wait for a phenomenal game than get some mediocre game that no one wants to play.
Updated rankings on cssports.net, a case of 'Wrong again' or 'about right this time'? Do the CPL have any plans to create their own ranking system?
Angel - cssports.net hosts the official ranking system of the CPL, so that is our system. Frank Nuccio and Edward Watson discussed the new changes integrated to the system before publishing. There are plans to move the CPL ranking system to CAL once it launches with its new interface and membership features, but that is still months away.
Would clans wearing logos of their sponsors conflicting with the sponsors at CPL event bother you
Angel - It does not bother me at all. Teams should wear their sponsors logos. Although all logos must be pre-approved by the CPL's commissioner before wearing them at our events.
Once again down to the UKTerrorist scoop part of the interview, let us know something about you or the CPL no-one elses knows.
Angel - Ok here's something no one knows: The
CPL is in final negotiations with an international bank to introduce a CPL-branded Visa card. The card will be black, breaking all traditions of what credit cards should look like and will offer discounts on CPL admissions and products.
Finally any messages to the UK CPL wannabes reading this?
Angel - "CPL wannabes" who are those? :)
I'd like to thank Angel a lot for his time, he is without doubt one of the busiest people in the esports community.
Comments
Official Capybara Herder
UKTerrorist
18:14 16/8/2002
Clan ONE
18:24 16/8/2002
19:53 16/8/2002
Official Capybara Herder
UKTerrorist
19:54 16/8/2002
20:05 16/8/2002
Get frank nuccio next time please :) [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Infinity-eSports
20:22 16/8/2002
We chatted with him loads, he's the guy that actually runs the tournament, and knows about the teams.
If you want an interview looking at the cs aspect of the CPL, Frank is the man.
Even though it was clear Rich tried to ask some new questions so it wasnt a typical Angel interview, i swear he has a set of answers to questions which he just copies and pastes :D [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Rush!
20:57 16/8/2002
here's a line of upside down question marks
¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿
:| [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Rush!
21:33 16/8/2002
How about "Angel Munoz - A Man With Vision"
Vision Express would totally sponsor CPL then.
yes, im bored... [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
theb0g
21:57 16/8/2002
Game2XS.Monkey Magic
22:56 16/8/2002
:/ [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
23:01 16/8/2002
nice scoop tho!! Black Credit card might own my goldish one! [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Editor
UKTerrorist
23:55 16/8/2002
00:48 17/8/2002
01:12 17/8/2002
22:51 18/8/2002
22:51 18/8/2002
03:04 19/8/2002
Saviour of UKT
UKTerrorist
12:51 19/8/2002
20:18 22/8/2002
"Just count, and you know it to be truue"
Saviour of UKT
UKTerrorist
11:21 28/8/2002
09:40 5/9/2002
Hmm... [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]