UPPER DECK ENTERTAINMENT UNLEASHES NEW MANTIS SOFTWARE DESIGNED TO HELP TOURNAMENT ORGANIZERS AROUND THE WORLD

New MANTIS Software To Launch In More Than 60 Countries

That Support Upper Deck Entertainment Tournaments & Vs. System

CARLSBAD, CA. (March 15, 2004) - Upper Deck Entertainment announced the initial launch of its new tournament software, codenamed MANTIS. MANTIS, an acronym for Mobile Advanced Networkable Tournament Interface System, launches worldwide March 15. The software will be used in more than 60 countries supporting Upper Deck Entertainment trading card game tournaments. Additionally, MANTIS will allow Upper Deck Entertainment and Tournament Organizers to build off of the 100,000 sanctioned events that were held last year, benefiting all TCG players.

The initial software launch will support six languages, with more languages being introduced in the coming weeks. The software will be used for all levels of tournaments, from local tournaments run in hobby stores worldwide to the Upper Deck Pro Circuit. The Upper Deck Pro Circuit awards over $1,000,000 annually to players of Upper Deck trading card games. 

"We believe in supporting our products both internationally and domestically. We want to provide the best customer service possible, regardless of where you live in the world. If you're a customer, you deserve support," said Jeff Donais, Director of the Game Development Group for Upper Deck Entertainment.

Although the initial launch includes all the "must-have" features, Upper Deck Entertainment plans quarterly updates through 2006 and annual updates each year afterward to add new features. "We have very special features planned over the next several years that tournament organizers will appreciate," said Donais.

Lead software developer on the MANTIS project is Eric Bess, an expert tournament organizer and certified judge for trading card games. Bess used the past 10 years of accumulated tournament knowledge to create the first tournament support package that takes advantage of the most modern software systems available. "It's nice to be able to create a piece of software that I would like to use myself."

MANTIS software is built from scratch using the newest technology available for the Microsoft.NET framework. Microsoft.NET is a system that allows for easy translation of statistics into any language. MANTIS sets the new gold standard for tournament software.

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