The league's new commissioner, Justin Blanchard, announced today the following game format changes to this winter's $100,000 Counter-Strike tournament sponsored by Hitachi Global Storage Technology.
Regular Matches
. Increase of max rounds from 12 to 15
. Decrease round time from 2:30 to 1:45
. Increase freeze time between rounds from 10 seconds to 15 seconds

Overtime Matches
. Increase start money from $800 to $10,000
. Increase freeze time from 15 seconds to 20 seconds

Justin Blanchard believes that these changes will move the game play to a structure similar to NFL football. Rounds with lots of action followed by a regrouping strategy period, then another play with lots of action. Overtime changes should provide teams an opportunity to utilize their full gamut of strategy instead of just one round determining play for the remainder of overtime.

Justin also released a preliminary version of the Counter-Strike tournament rules, now located at www.thecpl.com/winter/cs_rules.html