Fastest Texter wins $100K
By Sumir Singh

LG Electronics is a global leader and technology innovator in consumer electronics, mobile communications and home appliances, employing more than 84,000 people working in 115 operations including 84 subsidiaries around the world. With 2008 global sales of $44.7 billion, LG is comprised of five business units –- Home Entertainment, Mobile Communications, Home Appliance, Air Conditioning and Business Solutions.

LG Electronics MobileComm U.S.A., Inc. (LG Mobile Phones) hosted the first ever LG Mobile World Cup, which concluded on Jan 15 with Young-Ho Bae, age 18, and Mok-Min Ha, age 17, from Korea as the winning team. The duo took home the title of LG Mobile World Cup Champions, and split the $100,000 in prize money, after beating out 24 participants from 12 other countries after an intense five game series.

Morgan Dynda and Kate Moore from the United States placed second splitting $20,000, and Juan Ignacio Aufranc and Agustina Montegna from Argentina placed third splitting $10,000. In addition to the main competition, the players attempted to set a new Guinness World Record for fastest texting, using the LG enV3 handset. A new record was set by Pedro Matias, age 27, from Portugal who typed a 264-character text in just 1 minute 59 seconds, thus shaving 23 seconds off the previous record, set by Finland’s Arttu Harkki on April 27, 2005.

The LG Mobile World Cup took place on January 15th in New York City at the historic Gotham Hall. During the competition, players competed in various texting missions, including break the wall, monster popping, moving pillar, running relay and racing replay. In each mission, contestants were tasked with the challenge of typing in phrases on their LG mobile devices exactly as they appeared on nearby LG plasma screens with no typos or abbreviations while trying to be quicker than their opponents.

Finalists selection for the LG Mobile World Cup began in May 2009 with a series of national texting contests across 13 countries including Canada, Indonesia, Portugal, Brazil, Russia, South Africa, Mexico, Argentina, Korea, Spain, Australia, and New Zealand. After several months, 26 contestants were chosen to compete in teams of two in the hopes of becoming the word’s fastest texter.