The U.S. Army announced today that it has teamed with iGames™, a national organization of Game Centers, to hold an America’s Army: Operations Tournament at Game Centers nationwide. First-round tournament play will take place November 10th and November 30th, with the championship round commencing on December 14th.

The first 500 people to sign up will receive a special America’s Army: Operations Tournament t-shirt. Players can sign up at www.igames.org. 

Players will compete in teams of four. The highest scoring teams from the two separate competitions (November 10th and November 30th) will be invited to compete in the championship round on December 14th.

The championship team will receive a Grand Prize trip for four to the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) trade show in Los Angeles May 14-16, 2003, plus limo service for the day courtesy of eVGA.com, a leading provider of graphics accelerators. eVGA.com, Creative Labs, Altec Lansing and Logitech are providing additional prizes for first, second and third-place teams in the December competition.

America’s Army is a PC game that provides civilians with an inside perspective and a virtual role in today’s premier land force: the U.S. Army. America's Army includes two games: America's Army: Operations, a 3D first-person-perspective action game that allows players to experience Army training and unit operations as virtual Soldiers in light infantry units; and America's Army^SM: Soldiers, the role-playing portion in which players navigate Army life challenges to achieve long-term goals and build lifelong character traits. America’s Army: Operations has shipped as a free CD and is available at local Army Recruiting stations, ROTC Detachments and Army events listed at www.americasarhttp://www.americasarmy.com/my.com.

The CD features missions that were previously available via download from the Internet (from mirrored sites listed at www.americasarmy.com), plus two new exclusive missions featuring the 82nd Airborne Division and 75th Ranger Regiment. America's Army: Operations is also being bundled with eVGA.com’s driver discs. America's Army: Soldiers will be available in 2003.

The Army launched a special RECON version of its America's Army: Operations game online on July 4th, and followed up with additional missions and game enhancements over the summer. Since July 4th, more than 935,771 players have registered to play America's Army: Operations, with 568,582 having completed basic training. With over 25.2 million missions played, at an average of 6-10 minutes per mission, daily gameplay has grown to a level of over 278,000 missions per day.

"iGames is the perfect partner to help us host this nationwide competition," said Lt. Col. Casey Wardynski, project originator and manager of the America’s Army game. "We are looking forward to this competition, and to continuing to work with iGames to build the fan community around the game as it progresses over the coming years."

"Since the launch of the America’s Army: Operations RECON version we have received a slew of requests from both our member centers and their customers for events dedicated to the game," said Mark Nielsen, executive director at iGames. "We are looking forward to working with the Army on their inaugural tournament and are excited to help bring the game to our centers nationwide."

In America’s Army: Operations, the concept has been implemented in a strategic and innovative way as gamers always play in a team and are bound by the laws of land warfare, Army values and realistic Rules Of Engagement. In squad versus squad operations, where up to 32 players can join in the same mission, gamers will always perceive that they are on the U.S. Army team, regardless of which team they join.

If you are not already on an America’s Army: Operations team, contact your local Game Center and they will help you find an appropriate group of players to team with for this tournament. All team members must play at a participating Game Center. Players can sign-up at participating centers by logging onto www.igames.org.

The America’s Army: Operations Tournament will support the Teen ESRB rating of the game. Therefore, all players under the age of 13 need to have a consent form signed by a parents or guardian.

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