1st Annual WG FIFA 08 Challenge crowns a $5000 winner

World Gaming hosted its first big FIFA 08 Challenge last weekend through our live online BETA community. With 128 gamers all competing for the $5000 first place prize, it was Dennis “The Original Dirty” Sanchez who walked away with the big check. Playing as Real Madrid, Sanchez defeated Anthony McLouth who played as Germany.

Since we’re in the midst of the UEFA Euro 2008 championships, World Gaming wanted to let gamers play the most popular sport in the world to see who had the supreme virtual skills on the pitch. We had gamers from 5 different countries and drew 128 random gamers via the email signup available on our homepage (www.worldgaming.com). The gamers were seeded randomly in two separate brackets of 64 for the chance to walk away with $5000 and the distinction of being crowned the first ever World Gaming BETA tournament champion.

“I feel like I’m helping shape the future of this whole movement by being a part of the beta,” said Charles Hillenbrand of London, England.

Last week we allowed the gamers in our live BETA community to browse the site and get a feel for how things will work when we launch. They all were able to register accounts, customize their own personal profiles and enter our tournament lobby to join the tournament. Saturday was filled with non-stop action, as we cut the field down to 32 total participants and it was nothing short of electric. There were 8 shut outs, 5 games decided in extra time and 11 games came down to penalty kicks.

A lot of people seemed to give us the same reaction when talking about their experience on site including 19 year old Greg Thompson, “I only made it out of the first round but it was pretty fucking cool. I live in the middle of Nebraska so it’s hard to find tournaments but being able to just log onto a site a jump in a tournament for money within a few minutes is awesome.”

Day 2 was even better as we were able to track all the games and found all the results to be exhilarating. The tournament came down to two guys from opposite ends of the world. On one side of the final bracket, you had Dennis “The Original Dirty” Sanchez playing in San Diego, California against Anthony “Mighty Man” McLouth who was making his moves from Hamburg, Germany.

In the end, Sanchez was too much for McLouth and won easily by a score of 4-1.

When I asked Dennis about his overall experience on the site and he said “I’m playing my favorite game in an online tournament and winning money. Plus I don’t even have to leave my house, do I need to say anything else?” said Sanchez.

If this first WG tourney is any indication, the next Madden Match-Up in August should be off the charts! Be sure to sign up on the homepage for a chance to get into it and win $3,500.