Microsoft Announces Xbox Live Pac-Man Championship

Representatives of Microsoft and Namco Bandai have announced a new global Xbox Live Pac-Man World Championship contest, with players competing for a chance to travel to New York City and be crowned champion by the game's creator, Toru Iwatani. After wiping current Xbox Live Pac-Man leaderboards clean to give everyone a fresh start, from April 25th to May 9th, players can rank themselves through Live Arcade to assert themselves at the top Pac-Man player. At midnight of May 9th, Microsoft will tally the top nine scores across the globe for Asia, Australia/New Zealand, Canada, Japan and Mexico, as well as two finalists from Europe and the United States. Those winners will be flown to New York City for the June 5th finals, where the winner will be crowned by Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani. A 10th 'wildcard' finalist will also take part in the championships based on a concurrently run 'Pac-Man FANatic' contest, where any member of the public can submit a video that "best illustrates their love for Pac-Man." The finals champion will also receive a number of other prizes, including 26 years of free meals from Quiznos, the championship's sponsor, 100,000 Microsoft Points, and a one-of-a-kind Xbox 360 featuring a special Pac-Man inspired design. Said Toru Iwatani, "Namco Bandai Games and I are proud to partner with Microsoft on the Xbox 360 Pac-Man World Championship, which celebrates how popular Pac-Man remains to this day. The success of Pac-Man stems from its fun gameplay and host of characters that have been enjoyed by families for generations. It will be exciting to see Pac-Man fans from around the world compete on Xbox Live Arcade to become the first-ever Pac-Man World Champion." More details on entering both the main championship, and the Pac-Man FANatic contest can be found via Microsoft's official Xbox Live Tournament site.