yeah - that was posted some 4 days ago i think. It'll take a massive blow for CAL to shutdown, especially if they plan on launching CPL again.

If this is what is needed to turn CAL around and bring its "prestige" back, then I am for it. If they announce a P2P system, I can't wait until everyone starts whining, *cough* hello, cevo?

CAL really needs to rethink and restructure their league. This is a league that helped start some of the best careers for teams such as coL and 3d. Unfortunetally, over the years, CAL has gotten a reputation that is tough to break. This is a league that has little to no sponsors or financial backing, no prizes or money for its winners, no coverage, and as stated earlier, a reputation.

CAL has an ACS that has not been updated in some time now becuase they dont have the finances to do so. Mix that with the reputation of its "corrupt" admins (whether theres truth to this or not) and it doesnt sit will. Even its INVITE teams recieve nothing for winning. CAL is what started it all here in the states. It was at one point the biggest league and had the most coverage. Now its been a league thats slowly dying. Its one great appeal is its free to play feature. Its competition, Cevo and ESEA, are both pay to play leagues. But with CEVO's announcement of their free league, it takes away the appeal of CAL. Also with ESL America set to make its debut here in the states, its going to grow even more difficult for CAL to stabilize themselves as a top tier league.

CAL needs to somehow bring in some sponsors and get some financial backing. Also, they need to try and see if they can work something out for its winners. CAL has come up with the idea of making a movie for the winning CAL I team. Something tells me that jsut wont be enough to hold teams interest. Its been YEARS since CAL I got coverageand its been YEARS since anyone has even cared about CAL I. Most people who play in the league couldnt even tell you the teams in CALINVITE. They need to do some MAJOR overhauling and need to fix a LOT of things. This league has been failing for a while now, hopefully the change in ownership will be just what this league needs to turn things around. Until then, look for CEVO, ESEA, and ESL to try and take advantage of this moment in time while CAL ceases its opperations.

bottom line: A lot of people will not play for the pay to play league up front. Many people will be worried about the changes and not into spending money into something less established then say cevo or esea for a pay to play league. I believe that cal should stay a free league until they, being the new business owners, have complete control over their new investment and hopefully within a few seasons we'll have three, very solid, competing leagues.

wow cal was bad but this just leads me to belive that esports is slowly losing it

# 3

I am pretty sure they had prizes this season for the winning teams. I m lazy and so I am not gonna look very far into it but I know they were giving away private css servers for the winning teams. I only know about css dunno about 1.6 or the various other leagues. Not much but its also free so you can't really complain about the lack of prizes.

I could see them coming back with a mixture of free and pay to play. Kinda hard for me to see these new owners making this purchase and then just closing the doors : /.

They didnt offer prizes for 1.6. And i understand its tough to complain about prizes in a free league but with leagues like ESEA, CEVO, and ESL getting the recognition they are getting and being CAL's competiton they need to do something. Even if its jsut a sponsor coming in and offering up a server or vent or something. The 1.6 teams that invest 8 weeks of regular seaons playoffs get nothing. Thats fine for the lower level divison like Open and IM. But when you get to the MAIN and INVITE divisions it jsut doesnt seem worth a teams time.

yeah i get what your saying its understandable.

Dunno. I agree whole heartedly Shadow - if I remember back in the day, when CAL was in its prime, they paid for CPL for invite teams or atleast the winners of main or invite. Something like that. Anywho, hopefully they take the time, take a step back and maybe work from the ground up and see where it takes them....

I think CAL should have two sections of Gaming the F2P and P2P, so that beginners can still get experience, while the experienced can be rewarded. Many starters to gaming don't want to P2P since they know they are throughing thier money away. And experienced players will invest if they believe they stand any chance. Otherwise, CAL is just wasting time and money. All CAL needs for sponsors is some basic prize rewards like PNY, BFG, Corsair, or server providers. They don't need a lot of sponsors like CEVO if everybody in the gaming community would actively participate in the P2P section. I think that P2P leagues are the only thing that is gonna make E-Sports big again, since many other events like Poker Leagues, High School Sports, Extracurricular Events and ETC require a buy-in or someone to invest a little money into what they want. But, thats how I feel.

#10 don't worry, CAL will never give up their free league. If they go p2p, it will be in addition. What I'm wondering is, how long is this break gonna be? We're sitting in the middle of a season.