15:01 (BST), 22/05/2008

Press Release 11/2008

International eSports Conference

Cologne, 27. – 28. May 2008

This year, the „International eSports Conference 2008 (ESCONF)“ brings renowned persons, teams, associations, businesses and the media of eSports together. “There has never been an event with such a high international amount of important and crucial representatives of eSports”, says Frank Sliwka of the host Global Games Media, “the ESCONF has thus established itself as the most important business platform of eSports worldwide.” The ESCONF takes place on May 27th and 28th at Electronic Arts in Cologne and will be supported by companies like Electronic Arts, Gamesmarkt (Entertainment Media Verlag), Fragster.de, GC – Games Convention and Samsung.

Representatives of national eSport associations such as Jelle Ketelbuters (Belgian eSports Federation), Jens Christian Ringdal (eSport Denmark), Frank Pinter (German eSports Association), Mario Stettler (Swiss eSports Federation), Stefan Baloh (Austrian eSports Association) and Noha Park (Korean eSports Federation) will report on their experiences of their respective countries and discuss the future of eSports in several workshops. On May 28th the results will be presented to the participants of the conference in the final panel discussion moderated by David Hiltscher from Turtle Entertainment. South-Korea will be represented by a delegation at the ESCONF to get an overview of the development of eSports in Europe. The delegation will be led by Min-ah Kang (Deputy Director, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Cultural Content Industry Office, Game Industry Division) and will hold background conversations during these two days. Noha Park from the Korean eSports Federation is going to present the potential developments of eSports in Korea and Asia in his keynote.

Besides the national eSport associations, all internationally important and successful teams, such as SK Gaming, Fnatic, Meet Your Makers, Mousesports, n!faculty or Gamevibes will be present to participate in the ESCONF and eSports Connection. Furthermore, Alexander T. Müller, as the representative of the G7, takes part in the final panel discussion to define the positions of the eSport teams. With Turtle Entertainment, AC Entertainment, the World Cyber Games, the Electronic Sports League and the Electronic Sports World Cup, the global players of the hosts of eSport tournaments are present at the ESCONF as well as the european-wide leading eSport portals Readmore.de and Fragster.

de.

The conference program and the registration are to be found on www.esconf.com.

About the International eSports Conference (ESCONF)

In 2008, the „International eSports Conference“ takes place for the fifth time and is the world’s most important business and networking platform for eSports and gaming communities. In lectures, workshops, and discussions, the most important and recent topics of the international eSports industry will be outlined and upcoming trends discussed. The focus of the event aims at current discussions on and of the eSports market. International experts from the industry, the media, science, politics, sport and the community portray several approaches to the discussed topics. The ESCONF is supported by Electronic Arts and Samsung as the main sponsors, as well as by the GC – Games Convention and the city of Cologne as sponsors. The German eSports Association is the responsible body. Games-Markt and Fragster are the media partners.

Global Games Media LTD.

Maulbronner Ufer 16a,

12247 Berlin,

Germany

Tel.: +49 (0)30.766 89 434

Fax: +49 (0)30.766 89 435

Mail: info@globalgamesmedia.com

Web: www.globalgamesmedia.com