Shacknews Document

The U.S. Army to Partner with Ultimate Arena for
America's Army Ultimate Arena E3 Tournament

Washington, DC, March 17, 2003 --The U.S. Army announced
today that it has teamed with Ultimate Arena to hold an
America's Army Ultimate Arena E3 Tournament.  The final
match between a team of four civilians and four active duty
U.S. Army Soldiers will take place at the Electronic
Entertainment Expo (E3) trade show in Los Angeles which
runs May 14-16, 2003.  Qualifying tournament matches will
take place from March 17th through April 25th.  The
championship match will occur on May 15th at the America's
Army booth at E3 for a prize of $7,500 in cash and travel
expenses.  Players can sign up for the tournament at
www.ultimatearena.com.  The first 500 people to sign up
will receive a special America's Army Ultimate Arena E3
Tournament t-shirt.

During the qualifying matches, players may compete as
individuals or in teams of any size.  The 16 civilians with
the highest Ultimate Arena America's Army: Operations
rating on April 25th will be named semi-finalists for the
civilian team.  These civilian semi-finalists will arrange
themselves into 4-person teams and play a single
elimination tournament.  The U.S. Army will select the
Soldier finalist team.  The finalist civilian team and
Soldier teams will be determined by April 29th.

The finalist civilian team will receive a Grand Prize trip
for four to the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) trade
show where they will play the U.S. Army Soldier team on May
15th. 

America's Army is a PC game that provides civilians with an
inside perspective and a virtual role in today's premier
land force: the U.S. Army.  The game is designed to provide
an accurate portrayal of Soldier experiences across a
number of occupations. America's Army includes the
Operations game, a 3D action game that portrays small unit
actions, as well as Soldiers, the adventure portion to be
released in 2003, which allows players to go through
training exercises and navigate life's challenges to
achieve life goals in the Army.  America's Army: Operations
has shipped as a free CD and is available at local Army
Recruiting stations, ROTC Detachments and Army events
listed at www.americasarmy.com.

Since its public release on July 4th, 2002, over 1.46
million players have registered to play America's Army. Of
this group, over 925,000 players have completed the virtual
basic training portion of the game. At an average of 6-10
minutes per mission, gamers have now played more than 90
million missions logging over 9 million hours of gameplay.

Ultimate Arena (www.ultimatearena.com) is the leading
platform where multiplayer online gamers can create their
own tournaments for cash prizes. Ultimate Arena creates an
environment of fun and fair play with a robust player
rating system and a sophisticated reputation system based
on user feedback. Ultimate Arena is hosted on a secure
network of state-of-the-art game servers, the majority from
HomeLAN, an official America's Army server provider. The
company has created the Ultimate Rating SystemT that
matches players up with opponents of equal skill.  The
company has also developed the Ultimate Feedback SystemT
which is a reputation system based on user feedback that
helps players determine whom they can trust in the
community.

"Ultimate Arena is a terrific partner to help us host this
exciting tournament involving civilians and Soldiers," said
Col. Casey Wardynski, project originator and manager of the
America's Army game. "We are extremely excited about this
competition and about working with Ultimate Arena to allow
our players to set up their own prize tournaments whenever
they want to."

"Since America's Army is one of most popular games in the
world today, we are very excited to be able to support this
tournament," said Mike Cassidy, CEO of Ultimate Arena. "The
championship match between the civilian team and Soldier
team will be one of the 'must see' events at E3."

In America's Army: Operations, the teamwork concept has
been implemented in a strategic and innovative way as
gamers always play in a team and are bound by the laws of
land warfare, Army values and realistic Rules Of
Engagement. In squad versus squad operations, where up to
32 players can join in the same mission, gamers will always
perceive that they are on the U.S. Army team, regardless of
which team they join.

All entrants for the tournament must be at least 18 years
old.