32 Teams Worldwide Convene in Hollywood To Compete Head-to-Head for $1 Million in Prizing and Recognition as the Best Call of Duty® Players in the World 

The Call of Duty Championship, presented by Xbox Will Be Live Streamed Worldwide on Xbox LIVE, Call of Duty® Elite, Facebook, GameSpot, and Twitch 

Tournament Finals Live Stream Takes Place Monday, 8 April at 7:00 a.m. (AU EST) 

Sydney, Australia – 5 April, 2013 – Beginning today through Monday, 8 April, at the Hollywood Palladium Theater, Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard (Nasdaq: ATVI), and their award-winning studio Treyarch, in partnership with Xbox®, are celebrating the amazing skill and dedication of Call of Duty’s best eSports athletes from around the world with the Call of Duty Championship, presented by Xbox.  32 of the most skilled Call of Duty®: Black Ops II multiplayer teams are competing head-to-head on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft for their share of a US$1 million total prize purse, and the opportunity for one team to secure the highly coveted honor of Call of Duty World Champions.  Activision is uniting the Call of Duty community of more than 40 million players by live streaming minute-by-minute coverage of the Call of Duty Championship, presented by Xbox, which can be viewed via the Xbox LIVE® Dashboard in participating regions, on Xbox.com, Call of Duty® Elite and the Call of Duty Facebook page, and via GameSpot and Twitch.tv, among other destinations.  The Call of Duty Championship, presented by Xbox finals live stream begins on Monday, 8 April at 7:00 a.m. (AU EST).

“The Call of Duty Championship, presented by Xbox isn’t just another gaming tournament, it’s a celebration of Call of Duty and a recognition of the franchise’s most dedicated, talented players,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing.   “We’re bringing Call of Duty’s massive player community together with the increasingly popular eSports movement.  This is a great moment for the franchise, but also for eSports as a whole, which is only going to get bigger and better moving forward.”

For months these 32 teams have been engaged in intense training and fierce competition, qualifying via events conducted by Call of Duty®: Black Ops II in-game League Play, as well as through the professional competitive circuits of Major League Gaming (MLG), the Australian Cyber League (ACL), and the Electronic Sports League (ESL).  Teams like InFiDream from Asia, Epsilion.IRL from Ireland and Made in Brazil… from Brazil, will compete against such notable teams from North America as OpTic Gaming and Fariko.Impact.  The competition culminates in a livestreamed final match on Monday, 8 April.

“The Call of Duty Championship, presented by Xbox generated a tidal wave of interest of competitive play in Black Ops 2, and is the continuing realization of the studio’s eSports initiative for Call of Duty,” said Mark Lamia, Studio Head, Treyarch. “Whether it was through qualifying from within the game during our Season 3 of Leagues, or the other organized tournaments held throughout the world, we’ve  seen and qualified the best of the best to compete at the Championship, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to offer a truly international stage for our Call of Duty fans to experience just how thrilling Call of Duty competitive play is.”

The Call of Duty Championship, presented by Xbox begins with round-robin style pool play among eight groups of four teams.  The top two teams from each group will advance to a 16-team double elimination bracket, where the team who places first will take home $400,000 of the $1 million dollar prize pool.  The remaining seven teams will each take home prizes ranging from $200,000 for second place to $25,000 for eighth place.

Further details on the Call of Duty Championship, presented by Xbox, including full rules and regulations, Call of Duty: Black Ops II maps and modes for the tournament, livestream information, prizing distribution, and more are available at http://elite.callofduty.com/esports.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II is rated “MA15+” (Strong Violence and Coarse Language) by the Australian Classification Board.  More information on Call of Duty: Black Ops II can be found at http://www.callofduty.com/blackops2 or on www.facebook.com/codblackops.  Fans can also follow @Treyarch on Twitter.