Pi Sigma Epsilon fraternity is giving students with a flair for intellectual competition the chance to flaunt their expertise by competing in an online clue-quest against others for a chance to win $1 million and an appearance on television.

Urban Challenge, the fraternity-advertised online game, is open to anyone 13 years of age or older. Individuals across the world are invited to form groups consisting of one or two people, with whom they will enter a world-wide online race to be the first to complete a set of problems and puzzles. On April 10, registered teams can sign online and begin sorting through their clues.

Matthew Price, a Pi Sigma Epsilon member in charge of getting fliers about the event out to the public, says the idea to promote the event was supplied to them by their headquarters.

“Our fraternity did not create the game,” Price said. “It’s a fundraising program, and we get money for each student that signs up using the fraternity’s register code.”

In addition to helping generate funds for an NIU organization, registering to become part of the Urban Challenge also brings with it a slew of benefits.

“The first 10 teams to hunt down all the clues online get the chance to go to New York and compete for the chance to win $1 million on a televised production of the Urban Challenge game,” Price said.

As well as the all-expense-paid trip to New York that the first 10 teams will receive, there are also gift certificates, T-shirts and other money incentives that the runners-up will have the chance to win, Price said.

Urban Challenge is predicted to be the biggest game in history, due to the fact that it is online and accessible to virtually anyone.

“This game will be the biggest because there will be so many teams signed up,” Price said. “The New York Times has run articles promoting it, and people across the country are signing up.”

Chandra Williams, the Pi Sigma Epsilon member overseeing the promotion of the event, sees the game as being a potentially engaging experience for those who play.

“The sample questions that the online site lists are really challenging,” Williams said. “So this game will be great for competitors.”

Jessica Bahn, president of Pi Sigma Epsilon, said she has already registered to play.

“It will be fun,” Bahn said. “You can compete with people that you know or play against people halfway across the world. Team partners do not even have to use the same computer, so you can be on a team with a friend you might have in another state.”

NIU students looking to register for the game and support Pi Sigma Epsilon should go to the Web site at urbanchallenge.com and register using the fraternity’s referral code: NIU.