After being separated at birth, Razer and the CPL are together again. It was too long in coming. Both sides had some issues to overcome from our past relationship. Both sides have matured and developed into viable, well-run, world-class operations. It was time.

We were both pretty green in 1999 when we first grouped. The CPL was in its infancy and Razer was making ball mice. Gaming, as a competitive environment was in its early years, and playing video games was generally an unacceptable way to form ones career. Video games were being linked to violent acts in schools and educators and some politicians were attempting to have them censored or even banned. Horrifically, in some countries they were successful.

It’s now five years later and leagues, events and world tours are offering prestige and prize money never heard of before. Gaming as an eSports is reaching a pinnacle of acceptance that was unforeseen among most of us who have been around the scene since the beginning. One man had that vision from the first day I met him and has stuck doggedly to it to this day. Angel Munoz is the driving force today as he was in 1999, and his vision was as clear then as it is reality today. Hell, when Angel told me about his eSports vision I thought he was smoking the funny stuff. Man, was I wrong!

Razer is no longer a little mouse company looking to pick up on the crumbs of Logitech and Microsoft. We are serious competitors to the big L and make no mistake about it, we are here to stay. There are some inaccurate and unfortunate rumors floating around the forums since the press release announcing the reuniting of Razer and the CPL hit yesterday. Most of it is hogwash and some of it is made up from old tales. The truth is that Razer did run out of money three years ago and left the CPL hanging on a $5,000 CS tournament. The CPL made good, the players were paid and the debt has long been settled between the CPL and Razer. While this was unfortunate it happened and now it is history. We same guys on the forum failed to mention that Razer was the first sponsor to offer (and pay out) $100,000 for a tournament … or that Razer has sponsored amateur leagues, private LANs, individual players and teams for five years. All they can offer is misinformation on the one time we screwed up over a period of time where we have invested over $2MM into gaming events and sponsorships. But hey, if that’s what flips your skirt and you love forum funnies … then power to you.

Razer and Razerguy will be with the CPL in Sweden next month at Dreamhack. We are looking forward to meeting all of our fans and even you forum hacks (I’m smiling, are you). We are particularly looking forward to renewing our association with the CPL and for me my association with my old/best/new/friend Angel. As two old war horses we can sit on the porch and discuss the good old days of gaming. Hand me my slippers.

Blog notes: Sorry to say that when Razerzone went down two weeks ago all the replies to my past Blogs were lost. I apologize to the many of you who were kind enough to reply and if you want to re-submit your comments I will see that they are re-posted.