MESQUITE, Texas - July 22, 2009 - Ventrilo, the premier group voice communications program used in tournaments and multiplayer games, is ready to blow the doors off of QuakeCon 2009 with the sponsorship of its annual "QuakeCon Ultimate Power Up" Sweepstakes. One extremely lucky attendee will rocket away from QuakeCon 2009 in a brand new supercharged 2010 Ford Shelby Mustang GT500 Couple, valued at approximately $52,000. The 14th annual QuakeCon will be held at the Gaylord Texan in Dallas from August 13 - 16, 2009 and is open to the public and free to all attendees.

"One look under the hood of this 2010 Shelby and you'll start strategizing on how to get your hands on this powerhouse street machine," said Brian Knapp, president, Flagship Industries. "Ford and Shelby are both iconic American names that represent a long history of street legal horsepower, and it's a thrill to be giving one away to the lucky winner of the Ventrilo Ultimate Power Up competition. As always it's an honor to be working with our friends at id Software and giving back to the gaming community."

"This is the most powerful production Mustang ever made and thanks to Ventrilo, someone from QuakeCon will walk away with the keys to this beast of a machine," said Todd Hollenshead, president, id Software. "QuakeCon 2009 will be a can't miss event for LAN fiends, game fans or id Software devotees; and Ventrilo giving away this bad ass muscle car is an example of why everyone needs to make sure that they have August 13 to 16 on their calendar for the world's best video game party."

The 2010 Ford Shelby Mustang GT500 Coupe to be given away will be Kona blue and comes with a six speed transmission mated to a supercharged 5.4 liter V-8 pumping out a brutal 540 horsepower and 510 lb-ft of pavement destroying torque. The car will be on display throughout QuakeCon in the main exhibition area.

A total of 100 tickets for the Shelby Mustang GT500 drawing will be awarded to QuakeCon attendees for everything from performance in the QuakeCon Pro, Open and Quick Draw Tournaments, to participation in other QuakeCon contests, events and random drawings. The winner will be randomly selected at 9 p.m. (Central Standard Time) on Saturday, August 15, as part of the tournament finals event on the QuakeCon Main Stage.

QuakeCon Power Up Rules:
QuakeCon 2009 registered attendees who are 18 years of age and older AND are legal residents of the United States, its territories and possessions and the District of Columbia are eligible to participate. No purchase necessary. A total of 100 raffle tickets will be distributed throughout the QuakeCon event. Additional information about contest rules, eligibility, restrictions and requirements will be available at www.quakecon.org.

About QuakeCon:
Often described as the "Woodstock of Gaming," QuakeCon is a four-day, non-stop celebration of games and the people who play them. Free to all and open to the public, QuakeCon 2009 will feature North America's largest Bring-Your-Own-Computer (BYOC) LAN party for nearly 3,000 people, drawings and contests for over $75,000 in cash and prizes, the $50,000 QUAKE LIVE Duel and Capture the Flag Championship tournaments, exhibits with the latest games and hardware, and non-stop entertainment, parties and events. First created in 1996 by a group of friends on IRC and now going into its fourteenth year, QuakeCon remains true to its original mission as an event created by gamers, for gamers. Sponsored by id Software and other industry-leading software and hardware manufacturers, QuakeCon continues to be run by a dedicated group of volunteers, including an executive team with more than 75 years of combined experience producing the event. 6,000 people attended QuakeCon 2008.

"Seems like practice practice practice doesn't work for everyone. ZeRo4 has been LANing and playing Q3 online EVERYDAY for months then boot camped LAN a few weeks and still didn't qualify. Rapha did not make it out of his group and had the same practice regime with ZeRo4. Maybe they don't have the fatal1ty genes?

If Rapha wants to do well at the Finals he needs to change his regime and possibly ditch the small group of elitists he exclusively plays with. He only played on a password protected ninex server aliased and did not mix it up with other talented players. Only certain people were given the password to that server (around 5-6) and all played roughly the same strats. I was promptly banned from that server for *gasp* beating these people. OMG I MUST CHEAT THO SO NO PRAC VS CHEAETERS!!! He took the game too seriously and it was detrimental to his game. I think he also probably overated himself by basing his skill on how well he did vs a washed up ZeRo4 (a whining accusing lamer who overated himself riding on past glory) He does not need a mentor. He needs to play a range of good players instead of limiting himself playing one set of people and playing them over and over. It is hard to watch someone choke LAN after LAN. Maybe I am just over analyzing it and he just doesn't have what it takes to make it big in Quake. I doubt this and I just hope he sorts his shit out because I expected better. Alot better.

Now on to ZeRo4. I don't care how much you people here rate my demos 0 or bash me when I point out I still beat this guy hard recently with no practice. I was told I was a cheater 100x, told I had no skill. ZeRo4 stalked me and bashed me and told me how good he was and how he would rape the Euros and how I was just a cheater. What a fool. He ate his own shit on this one. Maybe if he took games seriously vs me he would have been in better shape. He couldn't pull his trump card and call av3k a cheater at the Masters, he just had to be beaten and take it like a man. I wonder what he felt like being exposed like a bitch. When I tried to show how bad this guy was recently I was bashed hard. I was told ZeRo4 would blossom on LAN yadda yadda. I don't give a shit what anyone says when I am beating America's pros by 30 points it just shows the American Quake scene is bad, not that I cheat.

This almost makes me want to take what little time I have to get back into Q3-QL and go to Quakecon. I am not saying I would have done better at ESWC, I am just saying that with some proper practice that I could go to Quakecon and do just as well as them at my VERY FIRST comp LAN. Even if I utterly failed I would not look as bad as most of the them looked at ESWC today.

P.S. Props to CZM for staying real even though he did not qualify. He did well considering he had no practice whatsoever. Respect to him. Vo0 also did really well considering. Good job guys."