The World's Best Gamers Crowned in Second Annual Gillette - EA SPORTS Champions of Gaming Tournament on Xbox 360

NEW YORK, April 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Gillette [PG], the world's leading grooming brand, and EA SPORTS, a label of Electronic Arts Inc., (Nasdaq: ERTS) crowned four new champions last night at the Gillette - EA SPORTS Champions of Gaming Tournament on Xbox 360® in New York City.  The Tournament's Final also highlighted the new Gillette Fusion ProGlide™ razor that features a redesigned cartridge with thinner, finer blade edges* that glide through hair, reducing tug and pull*.  The razor will be available in stores on June 6.

This year's Gillette - EA SPORTS Champions of Gaming tournament on the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft kicked off on November 18, 2009, and participants competed against other players on the Xbox LIVE® online entertainment network.  In its second year, the global competition attracted more participants than last year with over 350,000 registered -- making it the world's largest online multisport gaming tournament.  The tournament consisted of one (1) nine (9) part qualification round and one (1) knockout round in three regions – the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific.  

Regional champions competed against each other on leading EA SPORTS titles (EA SPORTS™ FIFA 10, Madden NFL 10, NHL® 10 and Fight Night Round 4) for the chance to be crowned a Gillette - EA SPORTS Champion of Gaming and have the chance to earn a one-on-one matchup with some of the biggest names in sports; Gillette Champion Derek Jeter, as well as professional football quarterback Matt Ryan, professional soccer player Landon Donovan and hockey great Wayne Gretzky.  Well-known Xbox LIVE Director of Programming "Major Nelson" served as the Master of Ceremonies and Spike TV was on hand capturing the live event for a special program that will air on May 6, 2010 at 11:35 p.m. ET.

"Through our partnership with EA SPORTS, we've created an annual event that gives gamers around the world a chance to win the experience of a lifetime and go one-on-one with some of the biggest stars in sports," said Steve Fund, Global Marketing Director, Gillette.

"We're excited that for the second year in a row we were able to provide gamers from around the world this unique platform to show off their exceptional gaming skills," said Peter Moore, President, EA SPORTS.  "On behalf of EA SPORTS, we congratulate the Gillette - EA SPORTS Champions of Gaming for their outstanding performances and a terrific competition."

The global finalists (Champions bolded), listed by region, are as follows:

The Americas

• Michael Matz, WiWhiteWarrior, United States (Madden NFL 10)
• Ryan Parker, RJP3030, United States (Fight Night Round 4)
• Mani Jamshidian, Mani_Jam, Canada (EA SPORTS™ FIFA 10)
• Sam Najafi, LSN3, Canada (NHL® 10)

Europe

• Christian Walter, WKW969, Germany (Madden NFL 10)
• David Wright, DERITY, United Kingdom (Fight Night Round 4)
• Matthew Bushell, dig hugharse, United Kingdom (EA SPORTS™ FIFA 10)
• Viktor Ghamari, GHAMARI, Sweden (NHL® 10)

Asia-Pacific

• Steven Leonard, stevennfl, New Zealand (Madden NFL 10)
• Roberto Evangelista, t0yz0r, Australia (Fight Night Round 4)
• Stephen Coorey, scoorey, Australia (EA SPORTS™ FIFA 10)
• Paul Robards, xADAPTORDIEx, Australia (NHL® 10)

For complete details on the tournament or tournament rules, visit www.easports.com/gillette or www.gillette.com/easports2010.

About P&G (NYSE: PG)

Three billion times a day, P&G brands touch the lives of people around the world. The company has one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Pampers®, Tide®, Ariel®, Always®, Whisper®, Pantene®, Mach3®, Bounty®, Dawn®, Pringles®, Folgers®, Charmin®, Downy®, Lenor®, Iams®, Crest®, Oral-B®, Actonel®, Duracell®, Olay®, Head & Shoulders®, Wella®, Gillette®, and Braun®.  The P&G community consists of over 135,000 employees working in over 80 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.com for the latest news and in-depth information about P&G and its brands.

About Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world's leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, cellular handsets and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS(TM), EA(TM), EA SPORTS Freestyle(TM) and POGO(TM).  In fiscal 2009, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $4.2 billion and had 31 titles that sold more than one million copies.  EA's homepage and online game site is www.ea.com.  More information about EA's products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.

About EA SPORTS

EA SPORTS™ is one of the leading sports entertainment brands in the world, with top-selling videogame franchises, award-winning interactive technology, global videogame competitions and breakthrough digital experiences.  EA SPORTS delivers personal access to the emotion of sports through industry-leading sports simulation videogames, including Madden NFL football, FIFA Soccer, NHL® hockey, NBA LIVE basketball, NCAA® Football and NCAA Basketball, Fight Night boxing and Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® golf, and EA SPORTS Active™.

For more information about EA SPORTS, including news, video, blogs, forums and game communities, please visit www.easports.com to connect, share and compete.

EA, EA SPORTS, EA Mobile, POGO, and EA SPORTS Active are trademarks Electronic Arts Inc.  John Madden, NFL, FIFA, NHL, NBA, NCAA, Tiger Woods and PGA TOUR are trademarks of their respective owners and used with permission.  Xbox 360 is a trademark of the Microsoft group of companies.  All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

About NFL PLAYERS

Formed in 1994, NFL PLAYERS is the licensing and marketing subsidiary of the NFL Players Association.  Representing more than 1,800 active and many memorable retired NFL players, NFL PLAYERS "takes the helmets off" the players and markets them as personalities as well as professional athletes.  Through an exclusive sponsorship agreement between the organization and the NFL, players are integrated into NFL sponsor activation programs.  In addition, under an exclusive agreement between NFL PLAYERS and the NFL, NFLPLAYERS.COM, the company's official website, is part of the NFL Internet Network.  Each year NFL PLAYERS negotiates and facilitates more than 4,000 player marketing opportunities for players.  NFL PLAYERS activities include retail licensing, corporate sponsorships and promotions, special events, radio and television projects, publishing and internet.  For more information, please visit NFLPLAYERS.COM.

* leading blades vs. Fusion

SOURCE Gillette