The 23-year-old student from Meadville, Penn., bested the tournament's eight finalists, playing live in Hermosa Beach, Calif., over Verizon's ultra-fast, all-fiber FiOS Internet service. His $100,000 prize is one of the largest ever awarded for an online video game tournament.
"We congratulate Micah on his impressive win," said Brian Angiolet, director of Marketing for Verizon. "It was exciting to see him and the other finalists compete live against each other, using a 30 Megabit-per-second FiOS Internet connection delivered over our new, all-fiber network. It's clear that FiOS Internet is breaking the barriers to fun on the Internet and is creating new levels of interaction for everyone who uses it."
Ernst says he plans to use his FiOS Grand Tournament winnings to pay off college loans, buy a large-screen TV and possibly take a trip to New Zealand.
The Verizon FiOS Grand Tournament was one of the largest online video game tournaments ever held, with more than 6,000 registrants. Players from across the country competed to secure a coveted spot as one of the top eight players and the chance to win $100,000 during the Verizon FiOS Grand Tournament weekend on July 28-29.
The final eight leaderboard ended as such:
- Micah Ernst, Meadville, PA $100,000
- Scott Rogoff, Trumbull, CT Alienware Prize Systems & Monitor
- Zachariah Kendall, Colville, WA Alienware Prize Systems & Monitor
- Kenny Wells, Towson, MD ATI Radeon(R) X1900 XT Series Video Card
- Brian Kihneman, Austin, TX ATI Radeon(R) X1900 XT Series Video Card
- Dominic Anderson, Portland, OR ATI Radeon(R) X1900 XT Series Video Card
- Richard Oliver, Virginia Beach, VA Saitek Gamers Keyboard
- Stefan Hock, Trumbull, CT Saitek Gamers Keyboard
Verizon offers FiOS high-speed broadband service in parts of 16 states, bringing the benefits of fiber all the way to the home. With maximum download connections of up to 50 megabits per second (Mbps) in certain states and upload connections of up to 5 Mbps, FiOS provides gamers with the speed they need to compete.*
More information about the tournament can be found online at www.fiosgrand.com.