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Level 3 to Provide Live Streaming of the WCG 2007 Grand Finals

The World Cyber Games (WCG), has announced that Level 3 Communications will be the exclusive provider of live streaming services in the U.S. and Europe for the WCG 2007 Grand Final in Seattle, Washington, October 4 - 7. Level 3 will also be the exclusive provider of Internet connectivity for the event.

This year's WCG Grand Final will feature more than 700 gamers from 74 countries converging in Seattle, Washington USA. Using Level 3's services, WCG will enable viewers around the world to login to access the event as the finals unfold. Viewers will be able to watch live event coverage of the main stage as it occurs to see finalists and their coaches in the heat of action, complete with play-by-play commentary and real-time in-game footage.

WCG continues to see tremendous growth in the demand for viewing access to its events. Last year more than 24 million people tuned in to watch the World Cyber Games Grand Final in Monza, Italy. This year and each year moving forward that number is expected to increase significantly.

"Last year's World Cyber Games Grand Final broke new ground in the e-Sports community with over 24 million people tuning in to watch the tournament unfold live," said Hyoung-Seok Kim, CEO of International Cyber Marketing, organizer of WCG. "We needed a business partner who could deliver dependable, high-quality streaming services of all the gaming action at the tournament. We expect this to be our largest online audience yet, and we believe Level 3 is the only provider who could handle the kind of demand we expect to see."

Level 3 will deliver an online broadcast of the event. The company's fully scaleable, dedicated CDN Service is designed to be able to cope with large online audiences with maximum up-time. In addition, Level 3 will be the exclusive provider of Internet connectivity at the game. As one of the most advanced IP networks in the world, Level 3 is uniquely positioned to deliver Internet connectivity for the finals.

"We are pleased to be powering the 2007 World Cyber Games Grand Final," said Brady Rafuse, president of Level 3's Content Markets Group. "Level 3's network serves as a foundation to connect people and information via the Internet, and we are pleased to extend our relationship with the gaming community by providing the underlying network connectivity for the entire event. Level 3's network was specifically designed for the tremendous amount of bandwidth required to deliver high-quality images with the ability to interact with users around the globe in real time. We believe that online gaming will continue to drive bandwidth demand on the Internet. Additionally, we are proud to be providing live streaming of the World Cyber Games Grand Final in North America and Europe with our content delivery services."

As part of its support of the WCG 2007 Grand Finals, Level 3 also will present the Red Couch at The WCG 2007 Grand finals. On the Red Couch, participants will have an opportunity to be interviewed about important issues and strategies driving the Internet today, and into the future. Selected interviews and videos will be available at www.Level3.com/redcouch after the event.