"You just knew this was going to be something special.." said Frazer Nash, PR Manager for Games at Vivendi Universal Publishing "..when rule number 6 stated no fighting between teams"!!
In a session that lasted over 3 hours on six new maps specially created for the event, the atmosphere soon became fraught with panic as team leaders shouted support for their players. They had a five minute rest period between each bout and this time was by no means wasted - tactics were discussed and fingers were pointed at players who messed up, although some would stand alone drawing on yet another cigarette trying to look cool and unattached by the whole thing……
All previous matches were played on the net so this was the first time that the teams were brought together as one team in a face-off against another team. These teams never normally get the chance to sit in the same room together, as they usually link up over the net. The winning team had players who travelled from as far as Scotland, Bristol and Finland (the two Finish players were from the development house Remedy - the creators of Max Payne).
Finally this event would not have been possible without the support of the following companies:
VU Interactive Publishing Intl is the structure that covers every stage of the international marketing and a series of administrative tasks (distribution, press relations, trade marketing, catalogue, promotion of brands, sales, localisation) for the Games and Education divisions of VU Publishing. Located in Meudon-la-Forêt, France, it is headed by Christophe Ramboz.
Vivendi Universal Publishing is one of the five core businesses of Vivendi Universal, the world's second-largest communications group. It brings together publishing activities spanning all media vectors in five main markets - games, education, literature, health and information - and holds strong positions in each. The group is in particular n°2 worldwide in games on PC & Mac.