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Cyberathlete Professional League Announces Sierra Entertainment Sponsorship of 2007 World Tour

The Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL), the pioneer and leader in professional video gaming competitions, today announced a partnership with video game publisher Sierra Entertainment as the title sponsor of the 2007 CPL World Tour, which will debut in Verona, Italy on May 11-13, 2007.

The eight-month 2007 CPL Sierra Entertainment World Tour, boasting a total competitive purse of $500,000, includes stops in Italy, Sweden, the United States, Australia and Brazil, and will culminate with a $300,000 Grand Prize Final event currently planned for New York City.

The tour will feature two critically acclaimed titles from Sierra Entertainment for the largely amateur and grassroots competitions, shining a spotlight on the next generation of professional video games sports stars.

The multi-million unit seller, F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon) franchise, originally released in the fall of 2005, was heralded by PC Gamer as the "Best Action Game of the Year" for its combination of stylized first person action combat and supernatural suspense. The tour will feature the Xbox 360 multiplayer edition introduced last year, giving players the opportunity to compete in paranormal frenetic multiplayer action that has become the signature of F.E.A.R.

World in Conflict, which launches later this year, is the next- generation of action strategy games, with completely destructible 3D battlefields, intense team-based multiplayer action and a focus on fast, hard- hitting battles. Showcasing the Windows PC version, the unbelievably authentic Cold War title can only be played at the CPL World Tour.

"The CPL is proud once again to break new ground in e-sports by partnering with Sierra Entertainment and selecting both F.E.A.R. and World in Conflict as our featured games for this year's four-continent $500,000 World Tour," said Angel Munoz, founder and president, CPL. "We are making a long-term commitment to these exciting and highly competitive new games and are working closely with Sierra to continue to raise the profile of professional video gaming and to enable increasing numbers of gamers to enter the professional ranks."

"Through the CPL World Tour, gamers from around the world will push their skills to the extreme, taking competitive gaming to a whole new level," said Ami Blaire, vice president, integrated marketing, Vivendi Games. "We approach our business with the same level of enthusiasm and focus as the CPL's professional gamers, as we continually push the innovation of our games to offer the best entertainment and value possible. F.E.A.R. and our new original property World in Conflict exemplify this commitment. We're excited to be able to give CPL competitors the exclusive opportunity to see and play World in Conflict before it goes to market."

Additional dates and locations for 2007 CPL Sierra Entertainment World Tour events will be announced in early May.