The Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL), a pioneer in professional video gaming competitions, announces that Gamerbase, one of the world’s most advanced gaming centers, will play host to the $300,000 CPL World Tour Grand Finals here, February 27 and 28, 2008. Featuring the largest prize offering for any professional video game tournament ever held in the UK, the event is co-sponsored by video game publisher Sierra Entertainment and in association with CPL United Kingdom.

The CPL also announced the addition of a 2007 CPL World Tour London qualifying stop, with a $40,000 prize pool, January 30, 2008, also at a state-of-the-art 80 PC LAN gaming center located within the Trocadero at Piccadilly Circus in the heart of London. Winners will be eligible to enter the World Tour Finals. Registration details for the new qualifier will be announced beginning December 10 at www.cplworldtour.com.
The 2007 CPL World Tour is a grassroots competition that has attracted a large pool of the world’s top amateur players, shining a spotlight on the next generation of professional video game sports stars. Earlier CPL World Tour qualifying events were held in Italy, Sweden and the U.S.

The Tour features two critically acclaimed titles from Sierra Entertainment:
F.E.A.R. ™ (First Encounter Assault Recon), originally released in the fall of 2005, was heralded by PC Gamer as the “Best Action Game of the Year” for its combination of stylized first-person action combat and supernatural suspense. The Finals will feature the Xbox 360™ multiplayer edition introduced last year, giving players the opportunity to compete in paranormal frenetic multiplayer action that has become the signature of the F.E.A.R. franchise.

World in Conflict™, which launched in September, is the next-generation of action strategy games. World in Conflict has received numerous editors’ choice awards from game critics worldwide. The game breaks new ground in multiplayer gameplay by being among the first strategy games to introducing player roles to its intense team-based combat. Showcasing the Windows PC version, the intense World War 3 title has been played all year on the CPL World Tour.

“The CPL held its first international qualifier in the UK almost nine years ago and we are excited to return with the largest ever tournament in the UK,” said Angel Munoz, founder and president, CPL. “We will continue with our commitment to bringing large tournaments to the UK and Europe on a regular basis, and other events will be announced shortly for this region.”

“The culmination of a worldwide gaming tournament in London again demonstrates that the UK is at the heart of the European games scene,” said Dominic Mulroy, Managing Partner of CPL United Kingdom. “This event will be a launch pad for a new series of e-sports tournaments across the UK and Europe from 2008 onwards.”

The tournament will be held both at Gamerbase and at The CC Club, a large and popular bar and club, located next door to Gamerbase and right in the heart of London’s West End. In addition to the competition, a special VIP Party will be held at the night club where Dallas-based rock band Superstring is scheduled to perform live.