Are you ready for the challenge?

BANGALORE: India is all set to witness the first of its kind PC gaming championship. With a prize purse of Rs two lakh and an open and free entry for all, it is touted to be the biggest digital gaming competition ever. Making this possible are Reliance Infocomm and Microsoft.

The retail arm of India's biggest business conglomerate, Reliance Web World will be hosting the games in their 600 outlets spread across 500 cities. The game is the PC version of Microsoft's popular digital game, Halo, which was initially launched in its gaming console Xbox.

The competition will be held in seven cities of the country including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Calcutta and Bangalore. Registrations for the competition will begin from November 15^th 2003 and participants can practice for a set time period at Web Worlds followed by the city prelims and semi-finals from December 19-December 21. The finals will be held at Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City in Mumbai on December 28^th between the eight finalists. The first prize carries a cash reward of Rs one lakh with another Rs one lakh being divided in varying sums among the runners up and good performers across the seven cities.

Only 16 participants will be qualified for each zone and four out of that will move up to the National level competition. The winner of all India competition will be sent on an all expense paid trip to Los Angeles, representing India to participate in the Halo World Championships.

"Our objective is to pull the gaming enthusiast. India's gaming market is a very fragmented and disorganised sector. We are here to make it more organized and benefit from the huge potential of the market," said regional sales director of home & entertainment division for APAC region of Microsoft, Yolanda Chan.

(CNS)