AUCKLAND 11 August 2008 – New Zealand's computer gaming team the ‘eblacks' has been named the best in Asia.

The eblacks took out a gold and silver medal at the World Cyber Games Asian Championship in Singapore – which earned them the grand prize, the Asian Championship Trophy for the Overall Winner.

Mason "massi4h" Maddox won gold competing on the Xbox 360 game, Guitar Hero III, beating competitors from countries such as Korea and Japan and winning US$1000 in prize money.   

Lorance "Escobar" Taylor, Jeremy "jerm_nz" Macdonald, Slava "slavOuchka" Sheynin, Nick "Veteran-in-Love" Catley, David "Wytaliba" Ashwell won silver in the Defence of the Ancients - All Stars tournament, winning US$2000 in prize money.

''To be named the best team in the tournament is fantastic – especially as we were competing in Asia where professional gaming leagues have operated for years. The team has done New Zealand proud. This is New Zealand's first gold medal for video gaming, and bodes well for 2009,'' says World Cyber Games New Zealand Strategic Partner, xLAN's Susan Baikie.

The top 140 gamers from 14 countries in Asia Pacific competed at the World Cyber Games (WCG) Asian Championship on video game titles such as Guitar Hero III (Xbox 360) and FIFA 2008 (PC).

The eblacks will go on to compete at the World Cyber Games Grand Final in Cologne, Germany this November for a chance to win NZ$3.5m in prize money.

Susan Baikie says the popularity of gaming increases every year. More than NZ$51.5bn was spent on video games worldwide last year. In New Zealand last year more than NZ$100m was spent, up 20 per cent over the past five years.

For more details: http://www.eblacks.co.nz and http://www.xlan.co.nz