"Cyberathlete Amateur League."

An online training camp for athletes? A new fantasy football league? How about a massive cyber-network of video-game players, meeting online to play games such as Halo, Doom or Counter-Strike competitively?

To most people, being an athlete involves things such as kicking a soccer ball into a net, turning a somersault or scoring touchdowns. But at the Cyberathlete Amateur League (CAL) and its big brother, the Cyber athlete Professional League, video game players also are considered athletes -- they have to prepare, practice and strategize just like other athletes.

Some local cyberathletes disagree with this comparison.

"It's not really a sport, but it's on the same level as like talent shows or music competitions. I would say that the players demand respect for how much time they spend and all the money they spend to be where they are now," said Travis Moore, 17, a senior at Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School and an amateur league competitor for about two years.

The Cyberathlete Amateur League was created in 2001, primarily as a training ground for the professional league, launched in 1997 by investment banker and technology enthusiast Angel Munoz in Dallas. Funded by sponsors such as Intel, as well as by player fees, spectator admission fees and television contracts, the professional league's tournaments have been in 50 countries, with prize money in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Leading up to the professional league tournaments, which are open only to ranked cyberathletes age 17 and over, are a series of local area network (LAN) competitions in which players compete individually or with teams in the game of their choice. The local competitions are throughout the country, often in hotel meeting rooms that can accommodate scores of gamers and their computers, hooked up to each other in a network. The gamers then register, pay their fee (often $20 to $30) and compete against each other for cash and prizes.

Inside their homes, gamers can participate in the amateur league, which has several levels of competition depending on the game. The open level is for recreational players, while gamers at the intermediate, main, premiere and invite levels are progressively more competitive.

Travis has competed on several amateur league levels, depending on the game, with Charlie Dean, 16, a junior at Bishop Chatard High School. They also have participated in several local area network competitions in Indiana and elsewhere.

Since amateur league competitions are online, most people get involved by word of mouth.

"If you want to get involved, it's pretty easy because CAL is really known," Travis said. "If you're just playing on a random server, you basically hear people talking about CAL because there's certain divisions of CAL, and they kind of define your skill. So you'll hear a lot of people asking, 'What division of CAL are you in?' for like Counter-Strike or whatever."

To compete in the amateur league, gamers must first register a team of five or more players. Charlie and Travis have played competitively for about two years, but neither takes it too seriously.

While these two compete for fun and practice an hour or two at a time, those who are competing for the professional league's big prizes -- which can total up to $200,000 in a championship -- practice many hours every day. "The really good gamers will play like at least five hours a day or something crazy like that, for Counter-Strike, 'cause they're always practicing. They want to win the big wins," Travis said.

From what these guys have seen at various tournaments, there is no such thing as a typical gamer -- the stereotype of a socially inept nerd hunched behind his computer screen obsessed with a fantasy world does not apply to most of players. For one thing, some gamers are women.

"I think they have just as much potential as any male gamers," Travis said. "A lot of female gamers get discouraged when they first start playing, so they give it up because they don't see a point in playing and people aren't nice to them."

But the league does serve a need.

"It just brings together the online gaming community," Travis said. "It's good in the fact that you can meet a lot of people, but at the same time it's bad because some people get really addicted to the game."

ASSISTANT EDITORS: Christine Beyer, 15; Izaak Hayes, 14.

REPORTER: Max Dean, 12.

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