Yesterday it was announced that the Ministry of Culture (which is responsible for overseeing all video games sold in China) banned Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Painkiller and has ordered MMORPG developer Object Software to remove its Player vs Player system which rewards players for killing other players.

At the time we launched the World Tour, Painkiller was the best choice. Even the players themselves have stated that while the game lacks in several areas, it is fun to watch in a live environment and the competitions can be intense to the last minute.

The games we select for next year will be the ones that the community of gamers want to play, our sponsors want to sponsor and CPL wants to support. We just have to do a better job in selecting countries that embrace computer gaming for its positive aspects and support our competitions.

The CPL has always had the strictest standards when it comes to M-rated games and we feel that making these tournaments available only to participants that are 17 or above and is a great way to curb the general concerns about violence and gaming.

You can catch the feedback from the CPL here, and you can read Angel Munozs interview about it, here.

Qubism.net ( www.qubism.net ) has announced they are to hold a PK 1v1 Cup. The cup will include 16 players, and will be single elimination with all matches being the best of three games.

The map pool is:

DM_Absinthe
DM_Sacred
DM_Psycho
DM_Meatless

You can find the rules here, and registration form here. The cup will start soon, and you can contact players and admins on irc in #qubism.

Inpainkiller ( www.inpainkiller.de ) has published a rare PCF interview with its CEO, Adrian Chmielarz.

Adrian Chmielarz:
Yes, we are still tweaking on it (PKTV) and it is being tested by several side teams through Dreamcatcher. I would say we are 80% done. It was much harder than we anticipated, actually – easily the hardest thing we ever did for the multiplayer.

You can find the interview, here.

Over on the CPLs website ( www.thecpl.com ), it has been announced that CPL Germany has been cancelled.

The Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) announced today that after careful consideration and extended discussions with its strategic partners and sponsors it has canceled the German World Tour stop.
The CPL partners encountered critical logistical challenges with the proposed venue, and with the use of Painkiller (a Mature-rated game) in Germany.

The CPL is in negotiations for a new stop in Europe that would take place after the United Kingdom stop, and before the end of the year.

Competitors that had confirmed air travel for Germany and need special assistance should contact Scott Valencia immediately via email. More information about the new World Tour stop will be available at a later date.

The CPL World Tour, the largest, first-ever, year-long competitive tour spotlighting the growing new sport of video game competitions, is primarily sponsored by Intel. Another leading sponsor of the World Tour is NVIDIA.

You can find the news post here: http://www.thecpl.com/league/?s=news&p=newsitem_844

Tonight saw Fatal1ty winning the CPL WT USA stop after beating Vo0 twice on Sacred (12-11;26-16). Although Vo0 had a strong start on Sacred, the first game was very close with both players having the lead at various times, resulting in a one frag win for Fatal1ty. On the second map, Fatal1ty went on to push ahead 22-0 at one time, with Vo0 making a partial comeback.

Fatal1ty is only the second player to beat Vo0 and win a CPL event; SteLam having previously won at CPL Spain.

Here are the final results from CPL World Tour USA:

01. border: 1px solid #c7c7c7 alt= src=http://www.team-vip.se/images/flags/us.gif /> Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel – $15,000
02. border: 1px solid #c7c7c7 alt= src=http://www.team-vip.se/images/flags/nl.gif /> Sander “Vo0” Kaasjager – $10,000
03. border: 1px solid #c7c7c7 alt= src=http://www.team-vip.se/images/flags/se.gif /> Alex “Ztrider” Ingarv – $7,000
04. border: 1px solid #c7c7c7 alt= src=http://www.team-vip.se/images/flags/de.gif /> Benjamin “zyz” Bohrmann – $5,000
05. border: 1px solid #c7c7c7 alt= src=http://www.team-vip.se/images/flags/it.gif /> Alessandro “Stermy” Avallone – $3,500
06. border: 1px solid #c7c7c7 alt= src=http://www.team-vip.se/images/flags/us.gif /> Mark “Wombat” Larsen – $2,500
07. border: 1px solid #c7c7c7 alt= src=http://www.team-vip.se/images/flags/ca.gif /> Andrew “gellehsak” Ryder – $1,750
08. border: 1px solid #c7c7c7 alt= src=http://www.team-vip.se/images/flags/uk.gif /> David “Zaccubus” Treacy – $1,250

Kudos to TsN who provided excellent coverage of the event.