Internet professional sports

Abstract

A method providing an online virtual sport tournament system includes assigning virtual players to one skill level out of two or more skill levels based on the virtual player's performance in a qualifying event; obtaining confirmation that a virtual player is eligible to participate in the online virtual sport tournament system; hosting a plurality of online virtual sport tournaments, each associated with one of the two or more player skill levels; and awarding high stakes prizes to top performing players.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S) [0001] The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 594,529 filed on Apr. 15, 2005, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to virtual sports, and more particularly to an online virtual professional sport system capable of hosting a plurality of individual professional players. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] In online gaming settings, players are able to participate online in virtual sports with each other. Players of Internet sports are required to exhibit a degree of skill associated with the Internet sport. Players may be required to: 1) perform multiple hand tasks requiring operation of buttons, levers, steering wheels, clutches, brakes and shifters to perform smooth and accurate operations at high rates of speed and agility in order to perform Internet tasks associated with an Internet sport; 2) demonstrate above average h...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007] One complexity addressed by certain embodiments of the present invention is online gaming for a profit where winnings are won through luck and chance. Certain embodiments address this complexity by configuring a virtual professional sport league where individual players from the general public are evaluated for their skill in the virtual sport, which may qualify them as a professional sportsman. Qualified sportsmen are matched against other sportsmen that demonstrate the same or a similar degree of skill, thus enabling fair play in sporting events. When similarly matched professionals compete against each other, the winning individual or top ranking individuals are those who display the highest level of skill out of the competition pool. This removes aspects of luck and chance, thereby providing a system in which monetary awards of varying stakes can be fairly awarded to accomplished sportsmen that achieve victory or high ranking.

[0008] In additional embodiments, a professional Internet athlete is evaluated for their skill after each competition, and matched against other Internet athletes having the same degree of skill in subsequent competitions. This ensures that participants of equal or similar skill are continuously matched against each other so as to enable fair play and to reduce factors such as chance or luck

[0010] To ensure that virtual sport competitions are games of skill, software may be designed to resemble real life situations, be consistent in degree of difficulty throughout the game, and to treat all players alike. Software may also be configured to depict how players play in the sport, but not to provide hints on how to play the game. However, game information that is given to the player by the programs' caddies, pit crews or coaches may be provided, but limited to the types of information that is accepted practice from caddies, pit crews or coaches. The game environment may also be configured to be consistent with serious play; i.e., sound effects may not be over bearing and may mirror sounds the player would hear from announcers, the crowd and nature at any like sporting event. In addition, measures may be taken to weed out so called “grief players” (those who play just to irritate and cause grief to other players) and to protect against security breaches.

[0024] In addition, the present embodiment may also include ranking each golfer based on their scores for each golf tournament completed. Player rank may be used in assigning player skill level to enable periodic evaluation of a player's skill level. This allows individual golfers to participate in tournaments corresponding to their current skill level.

Problems solved by technology

However, even if one player desires fair play, other players matched against him may choose to participate in games that are below their skill level, thereby removing the possibility of fair play for others.

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