Avalon Heroes

Free-to-play online strategy game joins ESL Major Series next month.

News by GamesIndustry International Contributor

Published on March 3, 2010

Cologne, March 3rd, 2010 – Avalon Heroes, the new free-to-play online strategy game, will start in Europe’s premier eSports league, the ESL Major Series, as of April 2010. While the action is already underway in the amateur leagues, April 2010 marks the beginning of top-level competition in Europe’s supreme league. The ESL Major Series is endowed with €5,000 for Avalon Heroes alone. The matches will take place at www.esl.eu, the largest eSports platform for Europe. The acceptance of Avalon Heroes into the ESL Major Series makes it the first free-to-play online strategy game to be part of a premier league.

The ESL Major Series kicks off its sixth season in spring 2010 after a series of qualifiers on national and international level. These qualifiers start in the third week of March. Recent announcements can be found on www.esl.eu/eu/avalonheroes/.

„The eSports community has put Avalon Heroes‘ eSports capabilites to the test since its launch in February 2010 and the professional gamers are probably already working on the best strategies to be ready for the competition. Avalon Heroes is ready for action and with the ESL Major Series the game will have its first real professional league.” says Alexander Albrecht, Director Publisher Relations at Turtle Entertainment, the company behind ESL.

„Avalon Heroes was designed for competition. With support from the WeMade FOX players, we tried to make the game as suitable for eSports as possible and now we look forward to the first matches between professional gamers. We are excited to see which strategies will be used to claim the European crown in the ESL Major series,” says Achim Kaspers, Managing Director at burda:ic in Munich.

The first taste of top-notch eSports action will be on display at CeBIT (March 2nd - 6th, 2010) where burda:ic, the publisher of Avalon Heroes, and Turtle Entertainment present the first live matches. The Intel Gaming Hall (hall 23) will be host to a series of matches between internationally renowned powerhouses such as SK Gaming and mousesports and visitors of the tradeshow. As a highlight of the show ESL and burda:ic are proud to present the battle of two of the most accomplished strategy gamers of all time: Manuel ‘Grubby’ Schenkhuizen (Netherlands) and Jang ‘Moon‘ Jae Ho (South Korea) will face each other for a show match of Avalon Heroes on March 6th, 2010. Members of the press are invited to experience Avalon Heroes on March 5th, 2010 with a general presentation of the game starting at 10 am. It will be followed at 12 am by a match between the famous Korean team of WeMade FOX and an European All-Star Team, showcasing the eSports potential of the Avalon Heroes. Afterwards players and staff members from both ESL and burda:ic will be available for talks and interviews.

All information regarding Avalon Heroes is available at www.avalon.alaplaya.net. The ESL section for Avalon Heroes can be found at www.esl.eu/eu/avalonheroes.

Turtle Entertainment GmbH

Turtle Entertainment was founded in 2000. The company quickly grew to be the European leader in the sector of electronic sports (eSports). The Electronic Sports League (ESL), operated by Turtle Entertainment, is active in 37 different countries worldwide. The league portal www.esl.eu reaches above ten million visits a month generated by more than 2,3 million registered users. Turtle Entertainment broadcasts ESL events via IPTV channel ESL TV since 2007. The headquarter has 174 employees and is located in Cologne, Germany. Turtle Entertainment owns the majority of the Chinese eSports league PGL (Pro Gamer League) since 2007. Important business partners of Turtle Enter tainment are global corporations such as Intel, adidas, Volkswagen, Dell, Nokia, ASUS, BitDefender, Sennheiser, Windows 7, Sidewinder, Razer, Alienware and gamed.de.

Further information is available at www.turtle-entertainment.com.

burda:ic GmbH

burda:ic GmbH is a leading publisher of high-quality, free-to-play PC online games, marketing and running massively multiplayer online games (MMOG) in EMEA as well as North and South America, including Ragnarok Online and Florensia.

For further information, please visit www.burda-ic.com

alaplaya

The free-to-play games portal alaplaya.net offers top-quality online games such as Audition, Fantasy Tennis, S4 League, Florensia, and Avalon Heroes. Another game, Land of Chaos Online, is currently in the making. By the end of 2010, 10 million users will be playing free alaplaya games. The portal is offered in eight languages; the games run in all of Europe including Turkey, some of them even in Russia as well as North and South America, at www.alaplaya.net.

Online resources at a glance:

- This press release as PDF: http://www.turtle-entertainment.de/Dateien/PM_AvalonHeroesEMS_EN.pdf

- Turtle Entertainment (press section): www.turtle-entertainment.com/?press

- Electronic Sports League (ESL): www.esl.eu

- burda:ic: www.burda-ic.com

- alaplaya: www.alaplaya.net

- Company Trailer Turtle Entertainment GmbH (browser flash movie): http://files.turtle-entertainment.de/video/eslpromo.html

Contact:

Turtle Entertainment GmbH

Press Office

Ibrahim Mazari

Siegburger Straße 189