Editor's Note: The following is a press release sent to Rampancy by AEG. Click the "read more" link at the bottom of this summary to read the entire article, including a list of finalists.

Microsoft Game Studios today announced that 19 gamers representing nine nations will be duking it out on February 17 at the Halo® for Windows® Worldwide Championship in Los Angeles, California. The Halo for Windows Worldwide Championship is a truly global event; spanning more than 275 iGames centers and worldwide partners gaming centers across five continents, including locations in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, Australia and the United Kingdom. The exciting championship and semifinal rounds will showcase some of the world's greatest Halo talent. Halo fans are invited to stop by and catch all the action, which starts at 1 p.m. PST on February 17. >From 6-10 p.m. PST, all fans are invited to come play Halo for free in a LAN frag-fest on 60 PCs.

Prizes for the worldwide finalists include RADEON™ 9800 PRO graphics cards by ATI® . The top three finalists will walk away with an Alienware® Aurora™ Gaming PC from Alienware and AMD. And of course, the top winner will be crowned Halo Worldwide Champion with all bragging rights included.

The Halo® for Windows® Worldwide Championship will take place in the Los Angeles area, at:

Internet PC Cafe, Nuritech
1452 W. Artesia Blvd #3
Gardena, CA 90248 USA
Phone: 310-324-5525

The finalists and the countries they represent include:

India: Nickunj Bansal
Holland/Netherlands: Stefan Dammers
France: Sam Cheikh-Saad
UK: Jonathan Finglass
Austria: Helmuth Melcher
Australia: Josh Hall
Japan: Teppei Terabe
USA: Noah Evans
Brazil: Henrique Santos Pinto de Souza
Finland: Juho Vainio
Denmark: Jacob Grubbe Rasmussen
Sweden: Anders Rudolfsson
Norway: Dag Erik Jorgensen
Singapore: Sunny Oke Ching Siang
Ireland: Rick Sundberg
Mexico: Ricardo Pedroza Herrera
Chile: Nicolas Friedli Leon
Korea: Ju Yong Shin
Taiwan: Hong-Chi, Jang

Bungie was founded in 1991 with two goals: to develop games that combine brilliant technology, beautiful art, intelligent stories and deep gameplay, and then sell enough of those games to achieve the real goal of total world domination. Over the last 10 years it produced games like the Marathon Trilogy and the first two Myth games, hailed as classics by critics and gamers around the world. "Halo: Combat Evolved," its latest game, has achieved phenomenal success on the Microsoft Xbox video game system. More information on Bungie can be found at http://www.Bungie.net/.

Gearbox Software was founded in January of 1999 by a group of experienced 3d game artists, designers and engineers in Dallas, Texas. The developers at Gearbox Software have contributed to many of the most acclaimed franchises in interactive entertainment - including "Civilization," "Duke Nukem 3d," "Quake", "Half-Life", "James Bond 007", "Counter-Strike", "Doom", "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater" and now "Halo: Combat Evolved." More information about Gearbox Software can be found at http://www.gearboxsoftware.com .

Microsoft Game Studios is a leading worldwide publisher and developer of games for Windows®, Xbox video game system and online platforms. Comprising a network of top developers, Microsoft Game Studios is committed to creating innovative and diverse games for Windows (http://www.microsoft.com/games/), including such franchises as Age of Empires®, Flight Simulator and Zoo Tycoon®; Xbox (http://www.xbox.com/), including such franchises as Halo®, Project Gotham Racing® and NFL Fever; and Zone.com (http://www.zone.com/), the official games channel for the MSN® network and home to such hits as Bejeweled and OutSmart™.