Angel Munoz is a man who, to most eSports fans, needs no introduction. Seen as a pioneer in the gaming industry and called the (god)father of competitive gaming, he laid the foundation to what eSports has become today.
The Cyberathletes Professional League or short CPL still stands as one of the best competitive tournaments the world has seen and in its prime years counted as the reference for everyone else.
Angel Munoz lead the CPL for over 11 years and sold the company in 2008 to an investment group from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates who now continue to run CPL branded events. After that Angel stepped out of the spotlight of competitive gaming to focus on other projects but has returned to grant us an exclusive interview.
First of all Angel, welcome and thanks for agreeing to this interview. After the sale of the CPL you seem to have dropped off the grid. What have you been up to lately?
Thanks for inviting me. After we completed the sale of the CPL I spent a couple of years outside of the public eye to help re-focus my attention on the current market trends and to try to determine which trends showed promising opportunities. Recently I’ve realized that digital media is experiencing a huge transformation, and I’m working in establishing some key fronts in that evolving landscape.
What is the idea behind The Adrenaline Vault, what makes it stand out from the rest?
I think Michele White, Editor-in-Chief, describes Adrenaline Vault best when she says, “The Avault of today still holds true to its original goal, but instead of being merely an online repository of ‘all the gaming news that’s fit to print’, it’s become an interactive online community for sharing ideas and opinions.” I’m not sure there is anything immensely different about the Adrenaline Vault (Avault) from other gaming sites, but there’s a core group of people that read the site daily (about 5,000) and that is enough to motivate us to get them timely and honest information about our common passion… video games.
Angel Munoz posing for a picture during one of his CPL World Tour events.
How do you hope to see this project evolve? Where do you see it in five years from now?
Well the Adrenaline Vault (and its popular Podcast show) is just one of the projects we are working on. We recently announced a new Podcast show with gaming icon Stevie Case that will launch this month on St. Patrick’s Day (March 17) and is called Stevie FTW (www.ftwpodcast.com). Some will remember Stevie as CPL’s first female pro-gamer. We also signed an agreement with another talent called Evil Ed which will have a Podcast show more in line with the likes of Howard Stern, and we are working on a few more shows. Eventually we hope to manage a network of compelling shows that should have something interesting for about everyone in technology and gaming; this will most likely take a few years to fully develop.
Did you start Avault because you wanted something different? It took you nearly two years to get back on your feet after the CPL, was Avault the fresh start you needed, away from the controversy struck world of eSports?
The Adrenaline Vault celebrates its 15th birthday on November 1st of this year, so it’s not a new project. I launched Avault a few years before CPL. :)
In the two years that I was observing the current market trends, I also worked as a consultant for several gaming ventures (including the now defunct CGS), and finally worked with the Adrenaline Vault staff to make the site relevant again.
I would have loved to be a better son, a better brother, a better father, a better husband, a better friend, a better person and of course a better leader for CPL and the gaming community, but we get to play our role in the theater of life only once
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so true man, so true....
At least someone who knows what he's talking about.
The only thing Angel thinks off is money money money, still needs to pay players from the days of Fatal1ty probably. Which obviously is never gonna happen.
Sure he didn't handle everything right but he was breaking ground.
He had his flaws (prize money) but he still set up the ground work for future esports events....
For that last couple of years I have seen the myth of the CPL never paying prizes repeated online by people that either have no idea what they are talking about, or repeat what they watched in a "mockumentary" that was reformatted to give credence to every obscure rumor about CPL, without giving anyone at CPL an opportunity to respond. It is true that the CPL was not responsible for prizes offered by organizations licensing our brands to run events, tournaments run at our events by other organizations, or prizes from sponsors that never paid. This policy should be logical to anyone with any business experience. Most critics probably don't even realize that for most of its history CPL or myself never actually paid any of prizes, because that was managed under contract by Frank Nuccio (an ex-commissioner of the league). Our policy was to transfer the prize funds to an account that Frank controlled and he would pay the prizes and send us reports back. I have no reason to believe that Frank did anything wrong, but he was the person paying them. It's interesting that no one has ever asked Frank if once in ten years did he receive instructions from anyone at CPL to intentionally not pay anyone's prizes.
I've read a couple of interviews with Mr. Munoz and remember listening to an interview with him a few years back on Epileptic Gaming, and the work he did for competitive gaming through the CPL in it's so called glory days was impressive to say the least.
However, not once have I seen him comment (unless the above comment isn't bait ofcourse) on the hundreds of thousands of dollars owed to the players that made the CPL popular.
Like with any other business, if you can't generate revenue, you should'nt be in business in the first place, and I can understand why operations were ceased and the brand eventually sold - but in the spirit of being a fucking selfproclaimed pioneer, you can at least have the decency to stand by your commitment and make sure those prizes are paid later rather then never, even if someone else managed the actual pay-outs.
I have little to no respect for people who don't mind sucking up all the praise and fame for their hard work, but when the shit hits the fan they are really just spineless snakes that will do anything to make the next buck.
Your legacy died along with the hope from those players to ever see the money they won.
Good interview but you should have done a little more research i think. Example
Did you start Avault because you wanted something different? It took you nearly two years to get back on your feet after the CPL, was Avault the fresh start you needed, away from the controversy struck world of eSports?
The Adrenaline Vault celebrates its 15th birthday on November 1st of this year, so it’s not a new project. I launched Avault a few years before CPL. :)
What a great guy. It was a pleasure to follow these events from home. I think a lot of young guys dreamed to attend the CPL and so got motivated to train even harder.
imo all the pay-prizes problems he had still lays in the shadow of him kicking off the "esport revolution", which he in my opinion (not alone, tho) did.
New sports simply cannot be forced on people. - Says the guy who attempted to force Source on everyone. Saw how that turned out.
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so true man, so true....
guys a complete cunt. Owes like $500,000
The only thing Angel thinks off is money money money, still needs to pay players from the days of Fatal1ty probably. Which obviously is never gonna happen.
He's just a mess.
edited 2010-03-11 18:57:21
He had his flaws (prize money) but he still set up the ground work for future esports events....
However, not once have I seen him comment (unless the above comment isn't bait ofcourse) on the hundreds of thousands of dollars owed to the players that made the CPL popular.
Like with any other business, if you can't generate revenue, you should'nt be in business in the first place, and I can understand why operations were ceased and the brand eventually sold - but in the spirit of being a fucking selfproclaimed pioneer, you can at least have the decency to stand by your commitment and make sure those prizes are paid later rather then never, even if someone else managed the actual pay-outs.
I have little to no respect for people who don't mind sucking up all the praise and fame for their hard work, but when the shit hits the fan they are really just spineless snakes that will do anything to make the next buck.
Your legacy died along with the hope from those players to ever see the money they won.
edited 2010-03-11 21:11:01
Did you start Avault because you wanted something different? It took you nearly two years to get back on your feet after the CPL, was Avault the fresh start you needed, away from the controversy struck world of eSports?
The Adrenaline Vault celebrates its 15th birthday on November 1st of this year, so it’s not a new project. I launched Avault a few years before CPL. :)
Unless i have just misinterpreted the question
edited 2010-03-11 22:04:09
Harvey S. Firestone
Thanks for the great moments.
interesting movie
From left to right: Boomerman, Corey Dunn, Hunter, Josh, ??, Cody, ??, Croc, Warwitch, Thunder, Hoo-man, Bridger
Joe could probably name some more.
Heh, just noticed I am not on the TsN wikipedia despite doing nearly 100 Battlefield matches for them.
edited 2010-03-12 16:17:29