2008 Ivy League Championship: Congratulations and Thank You

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Ivy League,

A hearty congratulations to all of you for participating in the 2008 Ivy League Championship, a heartier congratulations to the Penn commanders and players for their hard-fought victory, and the heartiest congratulations of all to Greg Marvin, Penn '11, for winning the GoCrossRidiculousGiveaway -- a plasma TV, surround sound stereo system, and Nintedo Wii! Hurrah!

It has indeed been a pleasure watching the ILC take root as an institution, and an organic one at that. Such a tournament would not been possible without the camaraderie, wit, humor, strategy, diplomacy, pride, loyalty and competitive spirit that you all have shown.

We thank you all for a wonderful game, and as always, we'll look forward to an even bigger and better Ivy League Championship next Fall. Start planning now: the competition will undoubtedly be more intense, the grand strategy more intricate, and the rewards even greater.

And yes, we'll be rocking yet another epic movie trailer and music video for next year's ILC. Would you have expected any less? ;-)

Cheers,
-MOB

GoCrossRidiculousGiveaway

All I have to say is that there is some ridiculous giving-away for the 2008 Ivy League Championship this year.

And by that I mean that we are hosting the first ever GoCrossRidiculousGiveaway, a totally bodacious prize package for one random active player on the winning team in the 2008 Ivy League Championship. One lucky student will get their dorm room totally decked out with a plasma HDTV, surround sound stereo system, Nintedo Wii, and more. All delivered straight to your door! No way! Yes way! Giveaway!

Presenting the 2008 Ivy League Championship...

Oh snap! The 2008 Ivy League Championship kicks off on September 16th! That's... tomorrow! Are you even prepared for that kind of awesomeness???


Join in the fun here: http://ivy.gocrosscampus.com. 'Twill be awesome. (Ooooh, anyone want to lifecast the whole thing?)

In any case, here's the press release we released to campus newspapers, if you'd like to read it:

NEW HAVEN, CT – What is slated to be the single largest competitive event in the history of the Ivy League, GoCrossCampus and the Ivy Council have joined forces to launch the 2008 Ivy League Championship, presented by TicketNetwork. An epic two-month online battle for territorial supremacy, the Championship is open to everyone in the Ivy League. Participants can show off their spirit and dominate their rival schools when the game kicks off on September 16 at http://ivy.gocrosscampus.com.

“Take a world domination game, multiply it by over 50,000 players, inject plenty of social interactivity, and set the whole thing on a map of New England,” explains Matthew O. Brimer (Yale ’09), co-founder of GoCrossCampus. “You control who you attack and where you defend, working together en masse with the rest of your team for total Ivy League domination. The object of the tournament is to conquer the entire map and oust all your rival Ivies.”

Combining elements of social networking, online gaming, and inter-collegiate sports rivalry, GoCrossCampus fosters competitive social interaction combined with high user engagement, online as well as offline. Brimer elaborates, “Whether it’s the nightly team strategy meetings, the networks of spies on other campuses, or the massive recruitment pushes in dorms and dining halls, GXC is just as iconic in the real world as it is online.”

“You can talk strategy via a built-in chat interface, get real-time stats on how the game is progressing and even get elected commander of your school,” describes Sean Mehra (Yale ’08), another GoCrossCampus co-founder. Brimer adds, “Plus, we have all kinds of cool new features this year: a completely revamped user interface, commander dossiers, player and team superlatives, special territories, and real-time movements! And as always, GXC is completely free for all involved.”

“Last year’s Ivy League Championship garnered nearly 11,000 players from all eight Ivies — both students and alumni alike,” says Nick Selz (Yale ’11), Director of the Ivy League Championship. “This year, we plan on smashing that record.” During the game, each day comprises a single turn, with rapid-fire consequences. The tournament is set to end no later than November 16.

Bing Chen (Princeton ’09), President of the Ivy Council, is similarly enthusiastic. “In its year of rebuilding and expansion, Ivy Council seeks to initiate, support, and collaborate with intercollegiate programs like GoCrossCampus. We hope to foster creative outlets for Ivy League students. This is one step towards the propagation of innovative, intercollegiate programs created by and for Ivy League students. The Ivy Council is thrilled to partner with GoCrossCampus for the Ivy League Championship and looks forward to further partnerships in the future.”

To that end, several prominent campus government organizations throughout the Ivies have come onboard in support of the Ivy League Championship. “We’re creating a full-blown online sport for the entire campus to get involved with,” says Selz. “We’ve been extremely pleased with the willingness of top campus organizations to sanction it as such. Plus, it’ll be great fun.”

In addition, GoCrossCampus is hosting the GoCrossRidiculousGiveaway, a prize package for one randomly selected active player on the winning team in the Ivy League Championship. Brimer explains, “This is serious business. One lucky Ivy League student will get their dorm room totally decked out with some major hardware: a plasma HDTV, surround sound stereo system, Nintendo Wii, and more. Talk about free awesome!”

The 2008 Ivy League Championship even has an official presenting sponsorship from TicketNetwork, the largest exchange of sought-after tickets to sold-out concert, sporting, and theater events from ticket brokers all across the country.

Ultimately, GoCrossCampus seeks to create collegiate competitions that absolutely everyone on campus can play. “Unfortunately, varsity and even intramural sports can often be exclusive,” says Mehra. “We’re trying to open up the world of college competitions through tournaments based on highly social gameplay, fueled by team spirit and competitive rivalries.”

"Last year's game was a blast,” proclaims Gerardo Giacoman (Yale '09), commander of the Yale team in last year's Ivy League Championship. "Thousands of Yalies rallied to the cause, and it was awesome coordinating with undergrads, grad students, and even alums in strategizing and recruiting for the team. Though we didn't win last year, this time I'm sure we'll put up a good fight... and crush Harvard once again." After a brief pause, Gerardo adds, "Any teams looking for an alliance?"

Affinities in Social Gaming

Two weeks ago, Kevin touched on an important aspect of GoCrossCampus that makes it different from other social games: the use of affinity-based teams. But how does that really improve the game?

We all identify with countless different affinities. Everything from the clothes we wear to the sports we play to the places we live to the people we hang out with define us in various ways, so it's natural for us to be passionate about them. GXC, as team-based social game, harnesses these loyalties and supercharges them into competitive play. Why conquer the world just for the fun of it, when instead you can show off how just much you like the Backstreet Boys, or your school, or your favorite character in a TV show?

Or maybe taking down your opponents is the best part for you. Schadenfreude isn't the most noble source of happiness, but we'd be lying if we didn't admit that some of the fun in any battle lies in totally crushing your adversaries. In some GXC games we've seen, the smaller teams gang up on the biggest team early on, just to watch the giant fall hard -- before taking out each other of course. In GoCrossPoliticalBash, the Clinton team was happy just to have outlasted Obama's team before being betrayed in their shaky alliance with Romney. And then of course there were the infamously straightforward strategic objectives of Harvard in the Ivy League Championship last fall: "Kill Yale." How gloriously honest, Harvard. :-P

Of course, watching the team you're most loyal to rise to epic success (or seeing your least favorite team crumble to the ground) is a lot better when you know your friends helped you along the way. One of the coolest features on GXC is the ability to recruit friends to stand strong in alliance with you on the field of battle. Granted, recruiting is beneficial just because you get more armies for each new player on the team, but it's also nice to have everyone in your dorm or major or school or office join up and band together in a giant unified force to take out the enemy.

Beyond traditional gaming goals of getting the highest score or the biggest individual accomplishment, GoCrossCampus likes to foster as much collaborative (and competitive!) social interaction as possible. To those ends, we designed GXC to be a vehicle for people who share common bonds to express themselves and come together, as well as those who are bitter rivals to compete against each other en masse. As you can imagine, opportunities for expansion here are huge. If affinities and rivalries are the heart and soul of GXC, then social interaction is the lifeblood of all of our games. And when you bring that all together -- well, let's just say GXC has a life of its own...