EA Sports, Coke Zero Create Virtual Football Tourney
Electronic Arts and Coke Zero are running a virtual football tournament on college campuses and online, leading to a finals competition at the Rose Bowl.
The EA Sports National Collegiate Athletic Assocation Football Challenge presented by Coke Zero kicked off at the University of Southern California yesterday. The two-day competition, based around EA Sports’ NCAA Football 08 videogame on the Xbox 360 console, will hit 12 major college campuses, including Ohio State, the University of Tennessee and Virginia Tech, before concluding the tour at Rice University on Nov. 17.
A companion tournament will be held online, with four online winners of the online games and 12 winners of the regional college campus competitions competing at a tournament during the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on Jan. 1. The winner of the finals takes home a grand prize of $10,000.
Each finals competitor gets tickets for two to the game, along with airfare and a three-night stay at a hotel in Pasadena. EA Sports and Coke Zero will stage the finals event with signage in an area of the stadium during the Rose Bowl game.
Campus contestants can pre-register and online contestants can register at NCAAFootballChallenge.com. On-site competitors can also register one hour before the event start time on the respective campuses. Dates of the events and other details about the virtual football tourney are also on the web site.
“The excitement and emotion of NCAA Football is what we’re trying to capture when we bring the Challenge to local college campuses,” said Brian Movalson, EA Sports marketing director, in a statement.
