The G7 Teams today have decided not to attend CPL Winter 2007 in Dallas. The reason for not competing at this event is based on the fact that the organising company behind it is lacking the necessary efforts that are needed in paying out cash prizes from tournaments they organize or by licensees dating back to 2003 until today.

Earlier in 2007 the G7 Teams opened up a process to help any team or player from the community to receive due payments from tournaments and/or leagues. Numerous mails came in and all of them could be solved with the organisers, except most of the ones regarding the CPL.

To grow eSports worldwide, all parties including leagues and tournaments shall need to work together. When it comes to payouts from those leagues and tournaments, certain rules and timeframes have to be followed, meaning forms have to be filed and sent in within a certain timeframe. On the other hand an organiser has the responsibility to help as well, reminding teams and players but also correct mistakes in the process.

In this particular case, the G7 Teams have recognized a huge imbalance between the parties. Whilst teams and players seem to try to do their best, the organiser fails to help and therefore does not show the will to actually proceed with payouts.

Travelling to an event anywhere in the world has become a smaller to larger investment from the teams and players perspective. Being treated like described above just does not feel encouraging enough to compete in a tournament. The decision is not limited to a specific game nor is it limited to this particular event. Until the imbalance and misunderstandings have been cleared up 100%, no G7 Team will send any player to any event of the organisation above or its licensees.

The G7 organization.

The CPL have also released a statement now:
Fnatic announced today that two teams from the G7 organization (SK and Fnatic) are not attending the CPL Winter Event in Dallas. The main reason given is: “the organiser does not show the will to actually proceed with [prize] payouts.”

We are saddened that two teams that were made famous and somewhat financially independent by competitions and cash prizes at the CPL have engaged in this type of action for reasons we are told are less honorable than “representing the community.”

Sam Mathews, from Fnatic, did present the CPL with a small list of teams claiming they had not received prizes, mostly from licensees of the CPL holding their own cash tournaments with their own sponsors. The CPL explained that while it is not responsible for prizes promised by third-parties, it has repeatedly attempted to contact these third-parties on behalf of the gamers.

The CPL also explained that threatening the league with a G7 boycott was improper and that our organization does not cooperate under threat. Still the CPL Commissioner went through the list and explained the issues involving each claim.

This was obviously insufficient for Mr. Matthews as he decided to act on his threat, and while the CPL respects his right to publicly post his views and to refuse to attend the Winter Event, management believes his action may have other motivating factors.

As a matter of record it is important to also state that the CPL does operate under strict deadline policies which are disclosed in the Terms and Conditions Agreement [link], and communicated repeatedly to all tournament winners via email after the events. Failure to comply does result in a forfeiture of prizes. It is also important to note that less than 2% of our winners in ten years have failed to comply with the deadlines and did not receive their prizes.

The CPL will continue to assist in any possible way the gamers that did not receive prizes promised at unofficial tournaments, but will not agree to blindly hand out checks just because some organization threatens it with negative publicity.