Fighter Ace Tournament Puts the Winning Team in Real Warbirds

Registration opened today for the Masters of Air Combat tournament in Fighter Ace, Microsoft’s massively multiplayer dogfighter on the MSN Gaming Zone, and the grand prize is not a t-shirt: the winning team gets real air combat over Chicago in Marchetti SF-260s flown with Fighter Pilots USA. The Marchetti is a fully aerobatic plane flown by two dozen national air forces, and it takes hardware ranging from gun pods to rockets. Winning a video game and getting handed an actual warbird is a new one on me.

The format is two-person teams, pilot and wingman, with any aircraft allowed, so you can set up identical-plane or same-country matchups the standard Fighter Ace arenas never produce. Sign-ups for Trial 1 run through June 11 and the trial flies Sunday, June 13, with the top 64 competitors advancing. Trial 2 sign-ups open June 11 for a Sunday, June 20 trial, with another 64 moving on. The combined Final 128 meets June 27 in whirlwind best two-of-three rounds to determine 16 semi-final teams, and those 16 fight it out for the grand prize on July 11.