World tour ends in win for Wendel

The World Tour win ends a good year for Mr Wendel

Pro-gamer Jonathan Wendel has won the grand final of the Cyberathlete Professional League World Tour.

Despite losing early games to arch-rival Sander Kaasjager, Mr Wendel emerged triumphant and took the top prize of $150,000 (£87,000).

The prize takes his winnings from the World Tour for the year to $231,000.

The final was disappointing for British pro-gamer David Treacy who failed to maintain the strong performance he had shown in earlier tour stops.

Winning ways

In all 32 players battled for the grand final title but the fight for the top two places became a showdown between Mr Wendel (aka Fatal1ty) and Mr Kaasjager (aka Voo). The pair have dominated the tournament as it hopped around the globe.

The CPL World Tour was played out over ten stops held in nine nations around the world throughout 2005. Top players at the tour stops won places in the grand final. Players took each other on at the Painkiller computer game.

Although he only took second place in the New York final Mr Kaasjager finished the tour winning more cash than Mr Wendel. Much of his total of $232,000 came from the cash won on the World Tour stops. In all the CPL World Tour has handed out $1m in prizes.

The UK's David Treacy (aka Zaccubus) was expected to do well in the grand final and was seeded eighth for the event following good placings in national stops.

However, he could not maintain his form for the big event and ended up in 18th position and took home $800 for his efforts.

Another British gamer, Gareth Marshall (aka Garpy) finished in 13th position and walked away with $3,750.

The World Tour was conceived as way to raise the profile of pro-gaming and has been closely followed by the MTV television channel.

Another World Tour for 2006 is already being planned and this time the game will be Quake 4.