World Cyber Games 2005 Announced

Representatives from International Cyber Marketing (ICM), the organizers of the World Cyber Games (WCG), have announced that registration for nationwide online and LAN preliminary tournaments for the WCG 2005 USA Championship will open on April 15th, showcasing an even more diverse range of games for the yearly competition. ICM will select the top-tier U.S. gamers through the WCG 2005 USA Championship event series. The winning finalists will represent their country at the WCG 2005 Grand Final in Singapore in November. Last year, nearly 30,000 gamers competed in the WCG preliminary events in the U.S. This year, more than 40,000 gamers are expected. The WCG 2005 USA Championship will consist of local, regional and online national competitions held throughout the United States in eight of the most popular PC and Xbox game titles on the market, including Counter-Strike 1.6, StarCraft: Brood Wars, WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, FIFA 2005, Need for Speed: Underground 2, Dead or Alive Ultimate and Halo 2. Beginning in May selected iGames member game centers will feature live Counter-Strike, StarCraft, WarCraft III, Warhammer 40,000 and Halo 2 in local competitions where players will qualify to participate in the semi-final regional tournaments taking place in August. Online National Tournaments for Counter-Strike, StarCraft and WarCraft III will begin in May. Online registration for the WCG 2005 USA preliminaries will be available beginning April 15th at the WCG USA's official site. Players will be able to choose the game and the qualifier path in which they want to participate and learn the WCG 2005 official rules and regulations. The WCG is the world's largest computer and video game festival with heats taking part in around 70 countries this year. This year the winners of each national event series will compete for the world championship title and prizes worth more than $400,000. Last year's WCG Grand Final was held in San Francisco, California with more than 700 gamers from 59 countries, attracting major media coverage.