Lots of competition news, from ICCA, to The Sing-Off, to video game developers

The A Cappella Blog will return to regular posting in January. The 2010 season will include a number of new features that are currently in the works. In the meantime, we share these bits of news:

-Varsity Vocals has announced a number of dates and locations for this year’s International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella competition. You can check out all the latest here.

-Earlier today, Variety and Zap2It, spread the word that NBC will launch its a cappella competition show, The Sing Off on Monday, December 14 at 8 p.m.. Eight groups will compete, as the show carries onward on December 15 and 16, and wraps up on Monday, December 21. As reported earlier, the winners will land a recording contract with Sony Music's Epic label. The Tufts Beelzebubs are, reportedly, the only collegiate group in the competition.

-With all of this talk of a cappella competition, we would be remiss not to give a nod to video game development company Harmonix which turned heads recently with its company-wide a cappella contest. You can get the story straight from the company here, including a clip of the winners performing Paramore’s “That’s What You Get” (don’t let the barbershop-style intro fool you—these guys can mix it up with the contemporary a cappella crew). Harmonix is best known for launching the Rock Band and Guitar Hero franchises.