Countdown Begins to World Cyber Games 2006

SKY TV will be broadcasting daily in Italy

Real-time website broadcasting will be strengthened through NeoTV.com, GGL.com as well as the WCG official website

Seoul, Oct 12, 2006 - The world's largest computer game festival, the World Cyber Games ( www.worldcybergames.com, WCG) 2006 Grand Final in Monza, Italy, kicks off in just six days.

The WCG 2006 is planned to be the largest-scale event in WCG history with 700 gamers from 70 countries participating, including six new countries such as Ireland and Saudi Arabia, which will send representatives to the WCG Grand Final for the first time.

WCG 2006 Grand Final in Monza, Italy, starts on October 18 with the opening ceremony on a main stage erected on the Formula 1 track at 6:00 p.m., local time. The opening announcement will be offered by Jong-Yong Yun, co-chairman of WCG Committee and Vice Chairman and CEO of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., beginning the 5-day long world's largest gaming festival, held in Europe for the first time. The spectacular opening ceremony will feature the march of the national flags of WCG 2006 participating countries, the players' and referees' oath, and a special live concert featuring top local singers like Carmen Consoli, Max Gazzè and Italy's favourite female singer, Gianna Nannini.

The WCG tournament officially kicks off the following day with a StarCraft® : Brood War match by Yoen-Sung Choi of Korea and Ivan Velikov of Bulgaria on the paddock stage, which is the tournament dedicated stage. Approximately 1,360 matches will be played in eight official game titles as well as some special tournaments such as PangYa, a Quake4 Invitational Tournament, and Carom3D. In addition to official sponsors such as Samsung, Microsoft, AMD and ATI displaying their new products, various events such as mini-racing, sumo-wrestling and an international food court will be presented so that general spectators can enjoy the world's best e-Sport festival.

However, the most remarkable characteristic of this year's Grand Final is the efforts organizers have made to make the tournament more fun to watch for those who can't make it to Italy by significantly strengthening the broadcasting access through television channels as well as the Internet. For the first time in gaming history, real-time live broadcasting of 18 stage matches will be offered via satellite to Korea and China. The Korean host broadcaster, OngameNet, will air the major stage matches for Korea in real-time for six hours daily and Chinese TV channels including GTV and SiTV will also broadcast the same contents in Korean so that Korean and Chinese game fans can enjoy WCG 2006 as if they were there.

An additional 109 matches in four cyber spaces dedicated to on-site broadcasting for spectators will also be broadcast on the Internet at NeoTV.com in China ( www.neotv.com.cn), Global Gaming League ( www.ggl.com), and the WCG official website in English, Italian and Chinese.

In addition, satellite broadcaster SKY TV will join as the host broadcaster. It will feature the major events including the highlights of the opening ceremony, interviews with players and stage matches.

Hyoung-seok Kim, CEO of International Cyber Marketing (ICM), the organizer of WCG, said, "As the premier worldwide e-Sport festival for a generation, the WCG has become a pioneer in growing e-Sports as a spectator event over the years." He added, "This year will generate even more momentum for the gaming competition by featuring real-time satellite broadcasting of the tournament as well as multiple Internet broadcasts in English, Italian, Chinese, and Korean."

Samsung Electronics is the worldwide sponsor of World Cyber Games.

Microsoft Xbox 360 and AMD joined as the premier sponsors of WCG 2006 Grand Final. ATI and SyncMaster are official sponsors.

About the World Cyber Games

The World Cyber Games (WCG) is an annual global game culture festival that was founded in 2000 to promote global harmony through e-sports. With the slogan "Beyond the Game," the World Cyber Games has truly developed into a global game phenomenon with arguably the largest prize amount at stake. The World Cyber Games prides itself on leading the "Digital Entertainment Culture." The 2006 WCG Grand Final will be held on October 18-22, 2006 in Monza, Italy. More information at: www.worldcybergames.com.