Cyberslam

Cyberslam, commonly abbreviated CSlam was a famous collection of eWrestling federations hosted by the popular (but now defunct) "Scoops Central" (later called "the Scoops Wrestling Network") pro-wrestling news site from 1996(?) to 2001. Scoop's Cyberslam subsite featured multiple federations, each of whom amongst the "Majors" would send their top "slammer" (as eWrestlers were reffered to in CSlam) to a special federation at the end of each month to fight for CSlam's "Ultimate Championship." The winner would be named the "Ultimate Champ" and would have his picture on the main page of Cyberslam for the following month.

Due to the resurgance of the popularity of wrestling at the time, and the popularity of the Scoops news site, the CSlam roster quickly expanded to include thousands of characters and, by its end, over 50 "Major" and "Indy" federations, making it the largest collection of connected eFeds in the history of eWrestling. Part of the popularity of the site came from the fact that it was not merely roleplaying-based, but also included a wrestling "engine" that allowed the slammers to actually fight matches. The success or failure of slammers in these wrestling simulations depended on the moves they chose.

The site remained popular, despite common complaints that the game was fading and not as good as it used to be, until the plug was pulled on it in February and March 2001 by its owners in favor of launching a new (but ultimately doomed for failure) site called Cyberbrawls.

Origins
Scoops Wrestling Networks was founded in July 1996 by Remy Arteaga, Al Isaacs and Barbara Bistrowitz, and was comprised of several wrestling properties, including: iWrestling (www.iwrestling.com); Cyberslam (www.cyberslam.com - though actually it redirected to www.scoopscentral.com/cyberslam/); FIREWRESTLING (www.firewrestling.com); and TOP-ROPE (www.top-rope.com). Remy Arteaga was primarily responsible for running Cyberslam, and within the kayfabe of the game became it's CEO under the name "The Slammer." The Slammer remained the ultimate authority over CSlam until it ceased to exist, although day-to-day management of the collective was primarily done by the "President" of Cyberslam (most famously, a slammer known as Funky Nassau).

CSlam began with just a single eFed in the beginning and a few dedicated players, as is standard for most eWrestling sites. Yet as the numbers of people playing rose, new federations were opened. As an influx of new, experienced players came into the game, eventually CSlam switched to a hierarchical system where original federations were elevated to "Major" federations, with "Indy" (short for independant) feds below them for new players.

Popularity and expansion
Near its peak, Scoops Wrestling Networks received 15,000,000 page views per month. As CSlam was attached to the network, it had a built-in advertising structure that allowed new people to find the site every day by happenstance as they were searching for real wrestling news from the WWF, WCW, ECW and other feds. Although not all or even most of the 15 million hits a month that Scoops received equated to people playing CSlam, many did choose to.

A snapshot from the Web Archive's Wayback machine (http://web.archive.org/web/20000821222140/www.scoopscentral.com/cyberslam/pages/Upper_Slammers.html) indicates that at one random point in CSlam's history it had 1519 slammers in its 52 federations and 177 different wrestling stables. This would mean that matematically each fed, on average, had about 30 slammers in them (although in actuality, Indy federations had higher numbers of slammers while Major and, eventually, "Elite" and "Legend" federations, had smaller numbers).

Federations
Although CSlam began with just a few federations, as it expaned over time it came to include 52 different federations. The older federations were more prestigious, and had original names such as the "Cyberslam World Order" (CWO) and "Cyberslam War Zone" (CWZ). As more feds were added and the original feds became Majors, the newer Indy feds were generally named after actual professional wrestling independant feds, with an "i" added before the name to denote that the fed was an indy fed (i.e. the iUKWA stood for 'independant' United Kingdom Wrestling Association, named after a real fed called UKWA), although the first indy. As wrassle contined to expand, feds that were previously independant feds became majors, with new independant feds placed below them, and the "i" part of their name was dropped.

Eventually, some of the better players in the game were asked to join two "elite" federations that were above even the Majors. CSlam was divided into two "chapters" (similar to Major League Baseball's National and American Leagues) known as Titan and Hyperion. Two feds in each chapter, the CWF in Titan and CCW in Hyperion, were redubbed the CWFe and CCWe, to indicate their elite status. The greatest slammers in each chapter were invited to join the elites.

Above the two elite federations there would also be a "Super" federation - the CFL. This fed was for "legends" of Cyberslam, and included only the most famous and talented individuals to play the game.

The full list of federations that CSlam would include were:


 * CSlam - Finals (A fed used only at the end of the month every month, to determine the Monthly Ultimate Champion)


 * CFL - For CSlam Legends


 * Titan Chapter
 * CWF - Elite


 * CEW - Major


 * IRWA


 * IXMW


 * IEPW


 * IQFWC


 * CWZ - Major


 * ICWA


 * IMWA


 * IGWF


 * IDVW


 * CGW - Major


 * IUWA


 * ICOW


 * IBWF


 * IDSWA


 * NDW - Major


 * IWCWA


 * ISSWL


 * ICWL


 * ICAS


 * UIWA - Major


 * ICCW


 * IRCW


 * IEIF


 * IROS


 * Hyperion Chapter


 * CCW - Elite


 * AWO - Major


 * IFEW


 * IUKWA


 * ITFA


 * ICUF


 * CBF - Major


 * ICPF


 * ICTN


 * IHEL


 * IWWW


 * CRF - Major


 * IHSWA


 * IIWF


 * INWA


 * IMGF


 * CWO - Major


 * IAPWF


 * IMAW


 * IPWL


 * IDSLW


 * RWF - Major


 * INCW


 * IIPW


 * IEWF


 * IOSE

Source
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_1999_Dec_21/ai_58327634