OCTOBER 16, 2001

SIXTEEN CONQUERORS FROM AROUND THE WORLD COMPETE FOR $50,000 TOURNAMENT PRIZE

Age of Empires II: The Conquerors International Tournament Finals to be Held on November 7, 2001

Microsoft today announced the sixteen finalists for the Age of Empires II: The Conquerors International Tournament. In August and September 2001, sixteen countries/regions held individual tournaments via the MSN Gaming Zone (http://www.zone.com), LAN events, or local partners. Each country/region crowned a champion who will represent their home country or region in the world finals in Redmond, Washington on November 7, 2001. The world finals will be hosted by several members of the Ensemble Studios development team, creators of the Age of Empires series. The value of the total prize pool is over $100,000, with the winner of the competition taking home $50,000.

The sixteen finalists representing their country are:

Jerry Terry (U.S.)
Sunny Sihota (Canada)
Paul Clarke (U.K.)
Thomas Gross (Germany)
Vignon François (France)
Jonas Hasselrot (Sweden)
Magnus Harald Haslebo (Denmark)
Gaspard Gilot (Belgium)
Tim Taminiau (Netherlands)
Norson Shiniti Saho (Brazil)
Byung Geon Kang (South Korea)
Tanya Cowan (Australia)
Alex Wang (Taiwan)  
Marcelo Ikegaki (Argentina)
Hong Delin (Singapore)
Christian Gebhart (Switzerland)

Age of Empires is one of the most successful strategy game franchises in history, having sold over eight and a half million units worldwide. The series, developed by Ensemble Studios, has received numerous awards including AIAS Strategy Game of the Year awards for Age of Empires, Age of Empires II: Age of Kings, and The Conquerors Expansion; as well as the prestigious AIAS PC Game of the Year for Age of Empires II: Age of Kings. Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion challenges gamers to wage war on an epic scale with all-new civilizations, unique units and technologies, and campaigns based on infamous conquerors such as Attila the Hun, El Cid and Montezuma.

More information about the Conquerors Expansion is available on the game's official site at http://www.microsoft.com/games/conquerors/, or on the Ensemble Studios site at http://www.ensemblestudios.com/.

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