Midtown USA

The CPL have, until now, been best known for their Quake 3 tournaments, with events such as FRAG 4 and the Razer-CPL attracting some of the top players from around the world to battle it out in Dallas for a share of the tens of thousands of dollars of prize money. So it was something of a radical departure for the CPL when they recently announced that they would be holding a massive Midtown Madness 2 tournament, which will be taking place over two weekends in November at over 300 "Gateway Country" stores across America.

The event seems to be an attempt to attract a more casual audience of younger gamers and familes, as opposed to the hardcore teenage and twenty-something players who usually frequent Quake tournaments. There are four age categories for would-be drivers - 6 to 9, 10 to 13, 14 to 18, and over 19s - and the highest scorer in each age group will win $5,000 in cash and a voucher which let them get a free Pentium 4 based PC from Gateway when Intel's new processors are available. With literally hundreds of $50 gift vouchers being given away as well, the total prize value comes to over $300,000. For the full details, read the press release.