IGN Announces Sponsors Line-Up for Pro League Tournament at Caesars Atlantic City

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- IGN Entertainment, the world's leading video games media company, today announced its sponsor line up for IPL 3: Origins, the IGN Pro League video gaming tournament being held at Caesars Atlantic City October 6-9. Consumer, technology, gaming and media brands have signed on to sponsor IGN's first physical pro video game competition, underscoring the growing popularity of eSports in the North American market.

"eSports has a passionate and growing fan base, and brands want in on the action," said David Ting, General Manager of eSports and Vice President of Research & Development at IGN Entertainment. "Since we launched the IGN Pro League in April 2011 our live streams have brought in fans and eyeballs by the millions. We are delighted to welcome such an awesome slate of brand partners to help make this first-ever event a fully-integrated experience."

Premier sponsors for IPL 3: Origins include:

• AMD
• Astro Gaming
• Korea Daily
• Mountain Dew (AMP'd)
• Razer
• Riot Games
• Samsung
• Square Enix
• Team Liquid

Enabling a high-quality gameplay experience, technology equipment will be provided by Razer and premium audio equipment will be provided by Astro Gaming.  Fans will also be able to battle it out on AMD desktop gaming rigs with AMD Radeon™ HD 6000 Series Graphics cards and see over the top overclocking demonstrations on the upcoming, record-setting AMD FX 8-Core CPUs –  all while experiencing their games on Samsung's stunning new 950 Series active 3D monitors. Samsung is celebrating its IPL 3 Platinum sponsorship by giving away one 950 series 1080p 3D monitor daily, October 6-9, to whomever tweets what they're doing during IPL 3 with hashtags #Samsung950series #IPL3 and gets the most retweets daily.

Various sponsors will be hosting special events at the tournament, including head-to-head StarCraft II matches featuring NBA pro Gordon Hayward, who has signed on as spokesman for the IGN Pro League.

In addition, Riot Games popular multiplayer online battle arena game League of Legends – which has over 15 million registered players – will be featured in the tournament line up, and social networking commerce site Playhem.com will support the event by providing back-end betting technology that enables gamers of any level to play against others in head-to-head matches and tournaments for cash and prizes.

Competitive video gaming – commonly known as "eSports" – has gained a huge following in countries like Korea, where fans fill stadiums to watch the world's top players compete in StarCraft II video game tournaments. With the IGN Pro League franchise, IGN's goal is to help make eSports a mainstream form of entertainment that can produce the next genre of celebrity in sports.

For more information or to purchase tickets to attend IPL 3: Origins, visit http://tickets.ign.com.

About IGN Entertainment

IGN Entertainment is the leading Internet media and services provider focused on the video game and entertainment enthusiast markets. Collectively, IGN's properties reach more than 70 million unique users worldwide, and IGN's network of video game-related properties (IGN.com, 1UP.com, GameSpy, FilePlanet, TeamXbox and others) is the Web's #1 video game information destination. IGN also owns the world's largest men's lifestyle website, AskMen.com, and men's entertainment site UGO.com. It also provides technology for online game play in video games. IGN is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, with offices across North America, Europe and Australia.

SOURCE IGN Entertainment