The Cyberathletes
December 28, 2002 - Saturday

By TERESA GUBBINS / The Dallas Morning News / Texas Living

Person by person, corporation by corporation, Angel Munoz is persuading the world that playing video games is a real sport ("The gamers' guru," Aug. 31). Since August, he's seen mega-corporations such as CompUSA sign on as sponsors of the Cyberathlete Professional League, the organization he founded in 1997. Corporate support helps earn the players big prizes. At the last tournament in July, the CPL gave out $ 100,000. At the winter tournament, which took place earlier this month at the Dallas Hyatt Regency, that figure climbed to $ 140,000.

Payouts that big rival the kind of money paid to tennis players, Mr. Munoz points out, which helps to earn the video-game world respect - and new players. Attendees at the tournament came to Dallas from more than 25 countries. He takes it as a personal victory; he can't help it. "For me, it's not about ego." he says. "It's a validation of my original concept. In 1997, I was knocking on doors of corporations and getting polite laughs. It was like a kite you really wanted to fly and never could... but finally did."

Copyright 2002 The Dallas Morning News