Call of Duty Championship: Xbox 360 VIDEO GAME NEWS – Elite, Black Ops II, DLC & More
Beginning today through to Sunday, 7th April, at the Hollywood Palladium Theatre, Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard (Nasdaq: ATVI), and their award-winning studio Treyarch, in partnership with Xbox®, are celebrating the amazing skill and dedication of Call of Duty’s best eSports athletes from around the world with the Call of Duty Championship, presented by Xbox. 32 of the most skilled Call of Duty®: Black Ops II multiplayer teams are competing head-to-head on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft for their share of a $1 million total prize purse, and the opportunity for one team to secure the highly coveted honour of Call of DutyWorld Champions. Activision is uniting the Call of Duty community of more than 40 million players by live streaming minute-by-minute coverage of theCall of Duty Championship, presented by Xbox, which can be viewed via the Xbox LIVE® Dashboard in participating regions, on Xbox.com, Call of Duty® Elite and the Call of Duty Facebook page, and via GameSpot and Twitch.tv, among other destinations. The Call of Duty Championship, presented by Xbox finals live stream begins on Sunday, 7th April at 11:00 p.m. UK time.
“The Call of Duty Championship, presented by Xbox isn’t just another gaming tournament, it’s a celebration of Call of Duty and a recognition of the franchise’s most dedicated, talented players,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing. “We’re bringing Call of Duty’s massive player community together with the increasingly popular eSports movement. This is a great moment for the franchise, but also for eSports as a whole, which is only going to get bigger and better moving forward.”
For months, these 32 teams have been engaged in intense training and fierce competition, qualifying through events conducted by Call of Duty®: Black Ops II in-game League Play, as well as through the professional competitive circuits of Major League Gaming (MLG), the Australian Cyber League (ACL), and the Electronic Sports League (ESL). Teams like Fariko.Dragons from the UK, InFiDream from Asia, Epsilion.IRL from Ireland and Made in Brazil… from Brazil, will compete against such notable teams from North America as OpTic Gaming and Fariko.Impact. The competition culminates in a livestreamed final match on Sunday, 7th April.
“The Call of Duty Championship, presented by Xbox generated a tidal wave of interest of competitive play in Black Ops 2, and is the continuing realisation of the studio’s eSports initiative for Call of Duty,” said Mark Lamia, Studio Head, Treyarch. “Whether it was through qualifying from within the game during our Season 3 of Leagues, or the other organised tournaments held throughout the world, we’ve seen and qualified the best of the best to compete at the Championship, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to offer a truly international stage for our Call of Duty fans to experience just how thrilling Call of Duty competitive play is.”
The Call of Duty Championship, presented by Xbox begins with round-robin style pool play among eight groups of four teams. The top two teams from each group will advance to a 16-team double elimination bracket, where the team who comes first will take home $400,000 of the $1 million dollar prize pool. The remaining seven teams will each take home prizes ranging from $200,000 for second place to $25,000 for eighth place.
Further details on the Call of Duty Championship, presented by Xbox, including full rules and regulations, Call of Duty: Black Ops II maps and modes for the tournament, livestream information, prizing distribution, and more are available at http://elite.callofduty.com/esports.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II is rated PEGI 18. More information on Call of Duty: Black Ops II can be found at http://www.callofduty.com/blackops2 or on www.facebook.com/codblackops. Fans can also follow @Treyarch on Twitter.
About Major League Gaming
Major League Gaming (MLG) (www.majorleaguegaming.com) is the world’s largest eSports organization with millions of LIVE viewers, fans and competitors around the globe. MLG enables gamers to compete, improve their skills, and socialize via the largest online destination for competitive console and PC gaming featuring more than 8 million registered gamers, and the annual MLG Pro Circuit featuring LIVE, in-person tournaments in cities nationwide. MLG broadcasts competitive play, analysis and more via online streaming to hundreds of thousands of fans in an average of more than 170 countries.
About Electronic Sports League
Electronic Sports League and the company behind, Turtle Entertainment, is the leading gaming company in the field of competitive gaming and electronic sports. Founded in the year 2000 the company is currently offering its services in more than 46 countries including the US and China. Core of Turtle’s services is its online portal called Electronic Sports League (ESL) which became a highly popular destination site for competitive computer gamers around the world. The portal reaches up to ten million visits a month (IVW) generated by more than 4 million registered users. Turtle Entertainment broadcasts ESL events via ESL TV, ESL’s web-TV service, since 2007. The headquarter has more than 115 employees and is located in Cologne, Germany. Turtle Entertainment owns the majority of the Chinese eSports league PGL (Pro Gamer League) since 2007. Turtle Entertainment markets its products worldwide using these specific brands: Electronic Sports League (ESL), ESL Pro Series, Intel Extreme Masters, ESL Major Series, ESL TV, Consoles Sports League. Further information is available at www.turtle-entertainment.com.
About Treyarch
Treyarch is an industry-leading game developer, wholly owned by Activision Publishing, Inc. whose Call of Duty: Black Ops II set worldwide launch day records, and whose previous game Call of Duty®: Black Ops set an entertainment launch opening record upon its release in 2010 and continues to be one of the best-selling games of all time, according to NPD and GfK Chart-Track.
About Activision Publishing, Inc.
Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Publishing, Inc. is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and leisure products.
Activision maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, South Korea, mainland China and the region of Taiwan. More information about Activision and its products can be found on the company’s website, www.activision.com.