Rovio, Earth Day Network challenge Angry Birds players to fight climate change in Champions for Earth

Espoo, Finland, 21-9-2015 — /EuropaWire/ — Rovio, Earth Day Network and their partners are challenging Angry Birds players of the world to champion the environment and fight climate change in Champions for Earth, a weeklong tournament on Angry Birds Friends. The tournament begins 21 September and coincides with Climate Week in New York City.

The first to sign up as Champions for Earth are Don Cheadle, Ian Somerhalder, Matt Damon, Danny DeVito, Anil Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, and the members of Korean pop group VIXX. In the course of gameplay, the Champions invite Angry Birds players to compete against them on the leaderboard, share facts about climate change and encourage fans to take action.

The Champions for Earth also star in a video, narrated by Christiana Figueres, the UN’s top climate official and head of the UN Climate Convention (UNFCCC), where they show why they’re angry about climate change.

Proceeds from the tournament go toward the Earth Day Network’s Canopy Project, a global effort to plant one billion new trees in the next five years in the communities that need them most.

“We are angry about climate change – not least because of global warming’s impact on habitat for thousands of species including ourselves and of course birds,” says Blanca Juti, Rovio’s Chief Brand Officer. “By getting angry together with our fans and partners around the globe, we have a chance to make our voices heard and spur positive change,” adds Edvard Groundstroem, Executive Producer of Champions for Earth.

“Utilizing such an enormous and compelling gaming platform provides us with a dynamic way to communicate with a broad group of people globally,” says Kathleen Rogers, President of Earth Day Network. “Mobile gaming is an excellent way to engage millennials with a topic they care about deeply.”

“The star studded line up in Champions for Earth — including some super famous feathered and porcine friends — affords a unique and potentially powerful opportunity to build awareness and support among fans for an historic new climate agreement in Paris in December,” says Christiana Figueres, head of the UNFCCC.

During the tournament and game, players will learn about climate change through climate fact cards developed with experts from NASA, NOAA, Yale, USC, The White House, the Smithsonian and others.

Champions for Earth was possible thanks to cooperation with UNFCCC, Connect4Climate (A Global Partnership Program for the World Bank), the documentary series Years of Living Dangerously, the United Nations Environment Programme, Water.org and the Climate Reality Project. Rovio and EDN are grateful for their partners’ invaluable contributions.

For more information contact:

Joseph Knowles, Communications Manager
+358503926317
Rovio Entertainment Ltd.

About Rovio Entertainment Ltd
Rovio Entertainment Ltd. is a global entertainment media company. Headquartered in Finland and with studios across the world, Rovio is the creator of Angry Birds™, the casual mobile game that changed an industry and became an international phenomenon. Today Angry Birds is not only the most downloaded game of all time, it is a renowned entertainment brand that has branched out into animation, books, licensing and more. The Angry Birds Movie is slated for release in 2016. www.rovio.com

About Earth Day Network
The first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, activated 20 million Americans from all walks of life and is widely credited with launching the modern environmental movement. Growing out of the first Earth Day, Earth Day Network works year-round with tens of thousands of partners in 192 countries to broaden, diversify and mobilize the environmental movement. More than 1 billion people now participate in Earth Day activities each year, making it the largest civic observance in the world. For more information, please visit www.earthday.org