Popular series of side competition leagues begins February 23

Auckland, New Zealand–February 21, 2013–Grinding Gear Games announced the first season of race events in the popular action RPG Path of Exile. Race events are short-term leagues separate from the main game with separate characters and varying goals that test the players’ skill and luck. Season One commences on Saturday, February 23 and runs for six weeks until April 7 (New Zealand time).

Unlike the self-contained individual races held during Closed Beta, race events are now structured by seasons. There are prizes for the top-place finishers in each race, prizes achieving good results for a set of events in a season, and prizes for placing at the top of the realm overall in a given season. New custom prizes have been created for the events.

“The race events were extremely popular in Closed Beta,” said Chris Wilson, producer for Grinding Gear Games. “The leagues generally reward players who can level up quickly and place in the top ranks of their character class, but there are also rewards for meeting objectives like finishing side quests or full-clearing areas first. By structuring the races into seasons, players are motivated to participate in multiple events and it gives them something meaningful to work toward over the course of several weeks.”

For additional details and the schedule of events, please visit

http://www.pathofexile.com/seasons

Currently in Open Beta, Path of Exile is a PC online action role-playing game set in a dark fantasy world. Featuring ethical microtransactions, the game is free-to-play, but not pay-to-win. Playing as one of six character classes, players find themselves banished for their past misdeeds to the dark fantasy world of Wraeclast. There, they will encounter hundreds of species of opponents laden with loot and mysterious artifacts as they explore the abandoned continent.

Key features of Path of Exile:

• A dark and deep action RPG
• Build unlimited unique characters on a gigantic skill tree
• Combine over 110 skill gems to create unique combat strategies
• Explore a dark and gritty world rendered from a fixed 3D perspective
• Download and play for free, but never ‘pay-to-win’
• Explore randomly generated levels for extreme replayability
• Craft weapons, magic items and even end-game maps to become more powerful
• Cooperate or compete with thousands of other exiles in a persistent online world
• Ascend online ladders in every game mode
• Battle in PVP tournaments for worldwide recognition

View gameplay footage at www.youtube.com/grindinggear, or HD trailers are available from www.pathofexile.com/video

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