Reliance WebWorld and Intel launched India's biggest multi-player PC gaming tournament on Tuesday, with a total prize kitty of over Rs 10 lakh (Rs 1 million).
Called Gamebox National Championship 2005, the tournament will be held in more than 230 WebWorlds across 104 cities in India between May 28 and June 12.
Some 15,000 gaming enthusiasts are expected to participate in the championship that includes popular games such as Counter Strike: Condition Zero, Need for Speed, Unreal Tournament 2004, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne and FIFA 2004.
Winners from each participating Reliance WebWorld will fight it out at the WebWorld level between May 30 and June 2, at the circle level between June 4 and June 6, and at the zonal levels between June 10 and June 12.
The zonal winners will lock horns at the national finals on June 18 and 19 in Mumbai.
While the national winner will win a TVS Victor motorbike, thanks to TVS who are prize sponsors, circle level winners will pocket a Yepp55 Samsung Digital Audio Players.
Announcing the launch, Sarup Chowdhary, CEO, Reliance WebWorld said, "Gamers across India now have a chance to test their skills at these action-packed, thrilling PC games. Multiplayer online gaming is one of the key broadband applications at WebWorld. Creating an environment of competitiveness among participants in the interactive entertainment space is a business imperative today. The Gamebox National Championship is a great beginning for gaming in India."
In addition to supporting play on the Reliance WebWorld network, special game dedicated servers have been set up at the Reliance Data Centre to allow hordes of gamers to game.
Sunil Buch, Head Marketing WebWorld adds "The Gamebox National Championship is being supported by Radio in the 6 top cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad. There is also a huge online campaign on rediff.com, Yahoo, MSN, and technology / gaming sites like Techtree, Kawabonka. This is the biggest online gaming championship with a total prize kitty of over Rs 10 lakh across all levels."
Reliance WebWorld is a world-class nationwide chain of retail outlets for all Infocomm products and services, digital information, entertainment and communication in Real Broadband. Each store has three modules -- a Customer Convenience Centre, a JAVAGREEN, and a Broadband Centre (BBC).
While JAVAGREEN is a gourmet coffee bar, at the broadband centre one can enjoy video chat and conferencing, multiplayer online gaming, Digital Electronic News Gathering (DENG), digital photo imaging, virtual office and high-speed Internet surfing -- about 100 times faster than a dial-up.
