MLB 2K13 Perfect Game Challenge's $250K prize awarded

Major League Baseball 2K13's annual Perfect Game Challenge concluded yesterday, with the $250,000 grand prize going to Justin Chavarria of Eugene, Ore., publisher Take-Two Interactive announced today.

He secured the novelty check seen in the photo above with a 3-1 victory playing as the Texas Rangers over Brad Holland of Garland, Texas, who was using the Oakland Athletics. The final showdown took place during the All-Star FanFest in New York yesterday afternoon, prior to the All-Star Game.

Chavarria was one of four finalists vying for the purse in this year's competition, which 2K Sports ran differently from previous challenges. Instead of awarding a single $1 million prize, the publisher split up a prize pool that totaled $1 million: It gave out $25,000 to the best perfect game thrown by a pitcher from each of the 30 MLB teams, and awarded the remaining $250,000 to the winning finalist. The four finalists were the pitchers of the contest's four "best" perfect games, as ranked by an algorithm that measured degree of difficulty.

In all, 2K Sports tallied more than 785,000 attempts at throwing perfect games over the duration of the contest, with more than 2,500 verified perfect games among them.