The EA Sports Challenge Series is back with a $1,000,000 tournament. What’s amazing about this announcement is the overwhelming amount of corporate branding on it. It hurts my eyes just a little bit, and I can feel the tears of the graphic designer who had to make the site. I’m sure they were told to make all of the logos “pop,” causing the designer to go home, pour themselves a shot of whiskey, and reassess their career choice. Not only is this an EA Sports Madden NFL 13, NHL 13, and FIFA Soccer 13 event, but it’s also “powered by Virgin Mobile” and will be exclusively on the Playstation 3. Also, Gamestop is involved somehow as well. I don’t really get what Virgin Mobile has to do with gaming, other than the obvious joke about the current lives of the stereotypical gamer, but I’m above that, so I won’t go there. There’s a quote on their site about how “real players play on PS3” which I am certain will not upset any other console owners. The Playstation 3 did win the console wars, after all. I mean, who’s even hear of a Wii?
The EA Sports Challenge will begin on September 11th, and entry into the tournament is free for anyone who purchases Madden NFL 13, NHL 13, or FIFA Soccer 13 at Gamestop. To compete, players have to register on VirginGaming.com. I’m glad to see they were able to lock down that domain name. The final, live portion of the EA Sports Challenge tournament will take place in Las Vegas, where I assume players will have to put down their controllers and actually fight to the death in an arena. They sure make these people work for their million bucks.
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