bigvaL

CAL (Cyberathlete Amateur League) www.caleague.com :

CAL is the standard for online gaming leagues. It's basically like the NFL for online gaming where all online multiplayer games come to play tournaments. Games like Call of Duty, Battlefield 2, and of course Counterstrike are main games. CAL has different catergories within itself, these ones apply to Counterstrike Source. It's free and open for any team to sign up and play. You start out in Cal-O which is CAL Open. If you succeed in this division, making it to the second round playoffs, you'll get bumped up to Cal-M which is CAL Main. If you dominate the Cal-M series, you'll be invited to join the Cal-I division, CAL Invite. There's 18 teams in Cal-I and these are the BEST teams around. Some current teams are Powersgaming, Upper and IDemise.

TWL (Team Warfare League) www.teamwarfare.net :

TWL is a lighter version of CAL, not nearly as competitive, smaller, and not as hard. It has a ladder option where you just challenge teams and get challenged. There is also a league with teams ranging from very bad to very good, but not as competitive as CAL. TWL's config is very similar to CAL's. There is also other leagues like OGL that are similar to TWL.

CPL (Cyberathletic Professional League) www.thecpl.com :

CPL is a gaming league dedicated to the top gamers in the world. It's not exactly a league, but they run championships where tons of players compete including the best teams around and they also run many large scale lanparties with corporate sponsors and prizes.

LO3 (Live on 3) Config: and CAL.cfg / TWL.cfg etc.

The configuration on the server at the time of regular gameplay is much different than at the time of a match. During regular gameplay, friendlyfire is usually off, the rounds are like 5 minutes long, you start out with anywhere from 800-16000 dollars. During a match aka scrim, you start out with 800 dollars, friendly fire (FF) is on, and the rounds are 1:45 long. Its setup this way so that the Terrorists dont camp, and the teams are challenged from pistols to smgs to rifles are snipers.. as they get more money. The buy time is increased to 15 seconds to allow time for team discussion. LO3 gets its name from 3 restarts at the beginning of the match, then the game is LIVE after the third.

What is a RINGER?

A Ringer is a player who is not in the team playing, but plays on that team as a ringer aka fill-in. Ringers are used when a full team isnt available, they are asked to step in and play. There are people who do nothing but "ring" just for the expierience and chance to play with some good teams.

I hope this has taught you the basics on competitive online gaming. Comment with any questions you might have.

wowza

more goodies like a "ringer" or explain rcon.. dang i should have done this.

oh and CAL L03 config, the buy time is 15sec too.

Nice FAQ

bigvaL

thanks for the tip, repped...

i didnt add rcon because that really isnt about online gaming but thanks man

PCNerd

Nice FAQ, buddy.

TrAncE XD

lo3 is not a config... its just a saying. Cal config is more like it (lo3) is in cal config

wowza

Oh and TWL, http://www.teamwarfare.net/

not as competive as cal, and has a different config from cal (not that different)

bigvaL

LO3 and CAL config are not even close. Cal config sets the settings for the match (c4timer and stuff) and lo3 restarts the round 3 times and does the LIVE text. They're 2 seperate configs.

|talian $tallion

buytime and freezetime are 2 different things and what you are reffering to is freezetime, however both buytime and freezetime are set to 15 seconds

Tango

You fail to mention that teamwarfare.com hosts ladders for many more games than CAL.
It is definatley not a "lighter version of CAL". Check out the list of games they have ladders for.

http://www.teamwarfare.com/ladderlist.asp

bigvaL

Lighter version as in way easier and not as dedicated to single games.