DURHAM, NC – May 19, 2009 –The Escapist, in association with Razer?, today launches the Team Fortress 2 Tournament to usher in the next generation of innovative community events for gamers and by gamers. The multi-day tournament will engage not only The Escapist’s own highly active and vocal online community of more than three million video game enthusiasts, but also the loyal followers of the Razer brand, creating an ideal cross-promotional marketing opportunity for Razer and The Escapist to further penetrate this audience. The Escapist is the leading video gaming destination offering game enthusiasts high-quality, innovative and exclusive content and Razer is the world’s leading manufacturer of high-end gaming and lifestyle consumer electronics.
“Our hugely successful second annual March Mayhem tournament proves this model works. March Mayhem 2009 garnered a 282 percent increase in site traffic over 2008 totals and an increase in registrants of 21 percent over normal monthly totals. Total votes for March Mayhem in 2008 exceeded 9,000 whereas in 2009 total votes rose dramatically by 1,912 percent to 185,753 total votes,” said Thomas Kurz, co-founder of The Escapist. “We found that we can create a high return on our partner investments and help to build their brand profile by generating a high level of entertaining activity that speaks to an audiences sensibilities and drives daily interaction on our site over an extended period of time. After two years of employing this strategy with March Mayhem, we have a benchmark to prove the model is effective.”
“Collaborating with a pop culture icon like The Escapist is an amazing way for Razer to touch base directly with the gaming community. We’re very excited to be working with The Escapist team and we are looking forward to bringing millions of gamers under one roof to compete to be the best of the best at Team Fortress 2. By the way anyone looking for an extra Medic?”said Heathcliff Hatcher, director of marketing for Razer, North America.
“Through cross-promotion of the event on Razer’s site, not only does the Team Fortress 2 Tournament provide tremendous value for the Razer brand but will draw new visitors to our site building and extend our brand profile as well,” continues Kurz. “With the stresses on the media and advertising industry today, to succeed in the online space requires creativity and imagination to build interactive communities that serve brands by building brand equity.”
From May 18 to May 24, The Escapist will hold team sign-ups for the in demand, highly anticipated five on five team tournament on Team Fortress 2. The Escapist will host the tournament for teams that already have the Team Fortress 2 game. Each team will be placed into one of four regions and divided into battles over a given amount of games during the week of May 27 through May 31. Two teams from each region will move on to a bracketed, single elimination tournament. The winning team’s members will be granted a Razer Grand Prize Pack which includes the Razer DeathAdder?, Razer Lycosa?, Razer Carcharias? and Razer Goliathus?. Second place team members will receive a Razer prize pack which includes the DeathAdder, Carcharias and Goliathus while the Third place team members will be receiving a Lycosa and fourth place team members will be receiving the Goliathus. A rundown of these products can be found at www.razerzone.com.
About The Escapist
Founded in 2005, The Escapist (escapistmagazine-com.go-vip.net) is a leading video gaming destination offering video game enthusiasts high-quality, innovative and exclusive content. The mouthpiece of the gaming generation, The Escapist aims to capture and celebrate the contemporary video gaming lifestyle and the diverse video game culture by way of in-depth features and thought provoking articles authored by leading video game authorities, as well as cutting-edge video shorts, engaging forums and robust and innovative social media elements tailored to its audience. Honored with both a Webby Award two years in a row in 2008 and 2009, and Webby People’s Voice Award in 2008, The Escapist is responsible for the web’s most viewed video game review series, Zero Punctuation, in addition to introducing the first-of-its-kind Internet Film Festival for Gamers and the March Mayhem game developer competition. The Escapist is part of Themis Group, Inc.’s online media arm Themis Media, and currently generates over 25 million page views each month.
About Razer
Razer? is the world’s leading manufacturer of high-end precision gaming products and peripherals that are designed “For Gamers. By Gamers?”. Headquartered in Carlsbad, California, Razer’s award-winning lineup of products includes desktop speakers, headsets, keyboards, mice, software, and gaming surfaces. Since 1998, Razer has collaborated with leading professional gamers to develop, manufacture and market cutting-edge gaming peripherals using proprietary technologies that give gamers the competitive edge. Razer products offer the best in precision, sensitivity, usability and distinctive product design and have a reputation for being leaders in gaming peripheral technology.
For more information, please visit www.razerzone.com.
