Regional Champions From Four Corners of the Globe To Be Flown
In For Grand Finals Event With $100,000 Prize Pool
SANTA CLARA, Calif.—March 21, 2013—NVIDIA today announced the first ever GeForce eSports World of Tanks Open Tournament(1), where combatants will compete to win NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 600-series graphics cards and a shot at a $100,000 total prize pool awarded at a spectacular grand finals event. Preregistration is open today with team and player registration open starting March 28th for two weeks.
“World of Tanks really strikes a chord with players looking for that ultimate competitive gaming experience, thanks to its team-based gameplay and strategic action,” said Kevin Van Ness, Head of Community at Wargaming in North America. “We’re looking forward to combining our world-class community with the world-class expertise of NVIDIA for this exciting event.”
World of Tanks is a team-based, massively multiplayer online game dedicated to armored warfare in the mid-20th century. With more than 55 million registered users worldwide,(2) World of Tanks is a fast-paced PC shooter game with in-depth weaponry, economics and robust eSports tools such as spectator mode and replay file support. In January, the game set a new Guinness World Record for the most players online simultaneously when the Russian MMO server reached 190,541 players.
“GeForce users love eSports and World of Tanks is an easy and fun game to learn, yet incredibly deep and graphically exciting,” said James Grunke, manager of the GeForce eSports program at NVIDIA. “This free tournament and all the great video-on-demand and streaming coverage we’ve got planned are our way of providing a really fun and rewarding experience for our best customers.”
There are five regions of eligible participation: China, APAC(3), the Americas, Europe and Russia. The five regional finalists will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to the Grand Finals, at a location and time to be named later.
All tournament matches are seven-person teams playing best of three game matches. There will be at least four weeks of guaranteed group play, with the top players from each group moving on to the double-elimination championship brackets.
In addition, World of Tanks community favorites, David “Nagatron” Williams and James “Relics” Starr, will be shoutcasting the battles in English for VoD and in real time with live broadcasts streamed on Geforce.com and Twitch TV.
“I can’t wait for this tournament to begin,” said Williams. “With this $100K prize pool on the line and the GeForce GTX Cup and GeForce Green Jacket for bragging rights, the top players will be battling it out to win it all. It’s going to be big!”
Localized shoutcasting content will be available on GeForce.com sites around the world. World-class tournament features such as match setting, leader boards and blogging are being provided by tournament management veterans, Cevo.
“I am delighted to cast this tournament for NVIDIA,” said Starr. “World of Tanks is a fantastic experience for competitive gaming, and this GeForce eSports tournament will help establish World of Tanks as a prominent professional platform.”
Official GeForce eSports World of Tanks Open Tournament rules and regulations will be available starting March 28th at https://esports.geforce.com. The tournament is free to enter and international players can register and compete where allowed by law.
