NVIDIA Announces Global "World of Tanks" Open Tournament

SANTA CLARA, CA--(Marketwire - Mar 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 28^th 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 28^th at http://esports.geforce.com. The tournament is free to enter and international players can register and compete where allowed by law.

About GeForce eSports
GeForce eSports, operated by NVIDIA, is the premier Pro/Am PC gaming program dedicated to celebrating and growing the eSports community. From StarCraft 2, Call of Duty Black Ops II and now including the epic World of Tanks, GeForce eSports hosts the biggest titles in PC gaming. Preferred by top professional gamers globally, GeForce GTX GPU-based graphics cards turn the PC into the world's most powerful gaming platform.

About World of Tanks
World of Tanks is the first and only team-based, massively multiplayer online action game dedicated to armored warfare. Throw yourself into the epic tank battles of World War II with other steel cowboys all over the world. Your arsenal includes more than 300 armored vehicles from United States, Germany, the Soviet Union, France, Great Britain and China, carefully detailed with historical accuracy. To join World of Tanks, please visit:

• http://wot.kongzhong.com/quickreg/zhuce.html (China)
• http://worldoftanks.eu/registration/ (Europe)
• http://worldoftanks.kr (Korea)
• http://worldoftanks.com/registration/ (North America)
• https://worldoftanks.ru/registration/ru/ (Russia)
• http://worldoftanks-sea.com/ (Southeast Asia)
  
  

About NVIDIA
Since 1993, NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) has pioneered the art and science of visual computing. The company's technologies are transforming a world of displays into a world of interactive discovery -- for everyone from gamers to scientists, and consumers to enterprise customers. More information at http://nvidianews.nvidia.com and http://blogs.nvidia.com.

(1) The GeForce eSports World of Tanks tournament is not affiliated with the Wargaming World of Tanks Championship Series and is a separate event.
(2) According to World of Tanks publisher, Wargaming.net.
(3) APAC includes the following territories: Taiwan, Korea, Australia and Singapore.

Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to, statements as to: the effects of the company's patents on modern computing are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to be materially different than expectations. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include: global economic conditions; our reliance on third parties to manufacture, assemble, package and test our products; the impact of technological development and competition; development of new products and technologies or enhancements to our existing product and technologies; market acceptance of our products or our partners' products; design, manufacturing or software defects; changes in consumer preferences or demands; changes in industry standards and interfaces; unexpected loss of performance of our products or technologies when integrated into systems; as well as other factors detailed from time to time in the reports NVIDIA files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, including its Form 10-Q for the fiscal period ended October 28, 2012. Copies of reports filed with the SEC are posted on the company's website and are available from NVIDIA without charge. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and speak only as of the date hereof, and, except as required by law, NVIDIA disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.

© 2013 NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved. NVIDIA, the NVIDIA logo and GeForce are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. Features, pricing, availability and specifications are subject to change without notice.