ASTRO Gaming returns to PAX Prime as the Official Headset of PAX 2011! You know you love it. While we won’t have our booth gracing the show floor this PAX Prime, rest assured that we will still have our presence known.

Only available at PAX Prime 2011, we are bringing the next A30 Penny Arcade Limited Edition to the PAX Merch Booth for a special show price of $99. This 2011 edition also features magical new artwork from the heroes over at Penny Arcade. Only 400 exist and they won’t last long so you know what you have to do.

In addition to having 400 of our headsets available to try out in the PC Free Play area, our A40s and A30s will also be at the following booths:

- EA – Battlefield 3, Need for Speed: The Run & Mass Effect 3
- Sony PlayStation – Starhawk, Resistance 3, Uncharted 3 and Twisted Metal
- Ubisoft
- Perfect World
- Square Enix
- Capcom
- Wizards of the Coast – Magic: Duals of the Planeswalkers
- Activision

Lastly, looking to score some custom branded ASTRO gear? We’ll have giveaways at:

- EA’s Need for Speed: The Run
- Perfect World’s Rusty Hearts
- OnLive

Have a fun and safe PAX! Be sure to follow our updates on our Twitter and Facebook.

Go unicorns,

- ASTRO stanimal

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Wow. This past MLG Anaheim event was an absolutely surreal experience. With the MLG having a heavy east coast presence, there are many localized teams that aren’t able to make the journey across the country due to a number of reasons when the MLG hosts its singular west coast event. Traditionally this seems to have folks walking away with a generally underwhelming experience from a spectator attendance standpoint. This year’s west coast show was a break in that chain of history with yet again another record setting event for the MLG on multiple levels.

The production value of the live streams that the MLG has spent a huge focus on this year have been met with a resounding success. With 30,000,000+ stream views world-wide and double the spectators of the record setting Columbus event, it’s clear that the MLG has found a rhythm that has been embraced by the community. One of the most difficult things to do is to find a balance that translates to a show that’s entertaining to watch for both an online and live attendees. Picking the right games that translate to both of those very different experiences is something that the MLG has definitely done well this year. The Halo series has been the hallmark of what defined the MLG for years, and has been the building block of their success. The Halo community has been the foundation for the MLG. Much of the MLG’s success definitely goes out to so many of the early adopters from the Halo community that poured their blood, sweat, and tears into a league that they believed in, and that has allowed the MLG to only get better over the years. The CoD community with all of the players and fans who spend countless hours pitting against each other in one of the biggest FPS games being played, and has felt left out of live events from previous years, has also played their part in growing their presence at the live events. This presence has shown the world that they’ve got the drive to move competitive gaming far beyond what it currently is. Then there’s StarCraft…

Being what I will refer to as a PC gamer, I’ve been waiting for the MLG to really embrace PC games. The World of Warcraft PvP part of the league last year was great, but I always felt like there was so much more out there that could be embraced and bring the MLG to the next level. With the addition of Starcraft 2 to the pro-circuit for 2011, and the overwhelming success it has brought to the MLG after just three events, it has become crystal clear that there will be even more of a focus on PC games in the years to come. The global participation of the community for this game is something that has allowed for that sweet spot of entertainment for the spectators both online and at the event, and is definitely taking MLG to that next step as a global leader in competitive gaming. I wouldn’t be surprised to see even more of a push for similar games on the circuit in the near future.

As always, congrats go out to the winners of the event:

Halo Reach: Eon Instinct
CoD Black Ops: Quantic Leverage
SC2: MVP

With Raleigh just a few short weeks away, and the momentum that is charging this season, it will be exciting to see yet another record breaking event. You can also bet there will be a scramble from many of the teams and players to dethrone these champs as quickly as possible.

Want to see some amazing photos capture from the event? Hit up our Facebook page here!

- X

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Another epic San Diego Comic-Con has passed only to once again rock the geeky cores of superfans everywhere. You got your usual fare of epic parties, awesome cosplay, kick-ass merch and insane lines for panels. And of course video games.

The thing is that every year, it doesn’t get old because there’s always something new. New shows and movies are coming out, some comic book series is nailing it or you have an insatiable need to buy the latest Tokidoki bag.

So being that this is my third Comic-Con, I’d like to consider myself somewhat of a veteran. Many trials and experiences have taught me how to navigate the 120K people crashing San Diego’s Convention Center. First, I go say hi to all my favorite web-comics. This includes the royal company of Penny Arcade, usually Questionable Content and Cyanide and Happiness. The best thing about the Cyanide and Happiness guys is that they can do live sketches for a price and if you give them a few keywords, they’ll totally make you the coolest comic in under a minute right in front of you. Wanna see what they made with the two subjects of “Call of Duty” and “Valentine’s Day”? (Hint, that whole last sentence was a link.)

Then I go off to see if I have anything cool to buy. Usually I find a t-shirt or two, some cool posters or some plushie/toy thing to add to my little collection on my desk. It’s cool. Don’t judge me.

After all that is done, then I can go check out all the rad games like Mass Effect 3, Starhawk, Rayman Origins and more. One that immediately caught my eye was Rayman Origins with it’s got co-op and stunning good looks. I’m SO getting that. Then you have an obvious favorite of mine, Mass Effect 3. It’s got a kick-ass universe that can actually challenge some of the best science fiction available. And you get sweet guns to mess aliens up with. I’m not going to go into too much detail, I’ll leave that to the pros. I just know I’ll probably pour another 100+ hours into the game.

Call me cheesy but when I overheard someone call Comic-Con the spring break for geeks, I couldn’t disagree more. If you like all things cool, check it out one year. Totally worth it.

And while you’re at it, check out pics from Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3 of San Diego Comic-Con on our Facebook!

- ASTRO stanimal

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We’re heading back to San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) for another crazy five days of geekiness, comics, cosplay, autograph sessions, and more. Hopefully no Twilight fans, nothing personal guys.

Along with all the geeky shenanigans that encompasses SDCC, we’ll be there to support all our video game publishing friends to ensure that all the attendees get to play their games on the finest audio equipment available. Want a chance to test out our gear?

You can find us at the following booths:

- SONY PlayStation
- EA/Bioware
- Ubisoft
- Square Enix
- Capcom
- Konami

Wanna see what awesome speaker tags we made for this event? Follow our updates on our Twitter and Facebook!

Oh, and if you’re going and you see an rad dude with a set of white A30s a cool hat, say hi. That’ll probably be me.

- ASTRO stanimal

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It’s not often we’re asked to participate in a charity event this cool. Let me tell you a bit more why you gotta check this out and participate.

All of your favorite YouTube Call of Duty commentators have come together to bring you what’s called the Call of the Community. A way to bring in everyone for a great cause, to help others, and to show the world that gamers can do more than just play games. For more details, watch this video right here.

The event will be a team based tournament that will be livestreamed entirely starting with the draft tonight, Friday the 15th at 9PM EDT/6PM PDT. Once all the players are put on teams, the full event happens on Sunday the 17th starting at 3PM EDT/12PM PDT.

Want to pitch in and help out? Head over to http://CalloftheCommunity.com and look for the button to ChipIn. Your donations can go a long way to help the following charities:

• - Gamers Outreach – http://GamersOutreach.org
• - Thirst Relief – http://thirstrelief.org
• - Anthony Nolan – http://anthonynolan.org

If you want to donate, you might have a shot at winning the following gear from us:

• - 4x COTC A40 Wireless Systems
• - 4x Scout Backpacks
• - 4x A*STAR In-ear Headsets

Join all of us to show the world that we’re the most generous and thoughtful bunch out there. Who knows, you might catch me on the livestream or playing.

- ASTRO stanimal

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Another E3 has come and gone, and the ASTRO staff team was out in force for this one. We had a foot crew of ten people helping to support the 600 headsets that we had on the show floor being used by some of the biggest and hottest companies in the gaming industry. Not that we’re bragging or anything, but we had the opportunity to work with some of our favorite partners like: Sony, Ubisoft, Capcom, THQ, Square Enix, Sega, Perfect World, Telltale Games, Deep Silver, Activision, EA, and Konami to help them bring their games and products to the next level by allowing event attendees to get an amazing audio experience by using the A30 and A40 Audio Systems in their booths.

Fortunately out foot crew also had an opportunity to explore the show floor for a bit and get some demos of many of the new upcoming titles. There’s so much to see and do at E3 that it’s nearly impossible to check it all out, but we tried. After exploring the show floor for three days, we thought that we would share the top three anticipated titles from a few of our staff members who were able to get some quality demos in. Here’s what we loved:

Randall “Warblade” Wong: Forum Moderator

Battlefield 3- This game looks and plays great, and I haven’t touched PC gaming in years, but I’m dead set on getting a new PC just to play this game!
Batman: Arkham City – A neat sequel to the last game, bringing Batman out on the streets of Gotham. They made Catwoman as a new playable character, which should make for plenty of new moves and different ways to play.
Fruit Ninja Kinect – While the game has been out on iOS for over a year, this is the first release for a major console. It uses Microsoft’s motion sensor Kinect where “You are the Controller” and your arms are the blades. Two player mode is hilariously fun, I only wish they took photos or videos of the action.

Stan “Stanimal” Press: Community Marketing Manager

Battlefield 3 – Looks beyond amazing, sounds phenomenal, exactly what the FPS scene needs right now. Something to set a new standard for shooters and that’ll BF3.
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet – Low-key indie XBLA game that will definitely win some awards for its fresh take on an arcade game with its original gameplay and gorgeous design. Keep an eye out for this one this summer.
Mass Effect 3 – The best combination of sci-fi, role playing and 3rd-person action. Rarely does such a backstory to a game’s story actually rival the likes of Star Wars and other top sci-fi franchises.

Chris “Cha” Chang: Graphic Designer

Battlefield 3 – I’m ready for a new FPS, and this game is beautiful. Hands down my favorite.
Dead Island – In wait of a RPG zombie game, I’m looking forward to this one.
Star Wars: The Old Republic – Finally, could this be the MMORPG I have been waiting for? One to commit myself to and I believe will fill that void.

Gernard Feril: Gaming Category/Product Manager

PS Vita – OK, I know, this is cheating, it’s not really a title, but the fact that I spend more time away from my home town and on planes, I’m super excited to have a device with that much power that can travel around with me.
Ninja Gaiden 3 – This one just brings me back to my childhood…I was amazed at how fast and fluid the game play was, and I’ll admit, I’ve always wanted to be a ninja…
Battlefield 3 – I was only mildly excited for this title when I first heard about it coming, as FPS’s aren’t my top game of choice, but after seeing the demo, I was converted…it was AMAZING…

Walter “Xariun” Duccini: Event Manager

Battlefield 3 – I mean, seriously, what’s not to love here?
Dead Island – I really enjoyed the realistic sense of ammo conservation and weapon diminishment that happened. I’m also a sucker for the zombie apocalypse.
Prototype 2 – Honestly, I didn’t get a chance to sneak into the media room and see it, but I played the crap out of the first one, loving every minute of it. Pair that with the idea that the main character is now the bad guy that you are hunting after building him all the way up, is just awesome to me.

The one thing that is for sure is that Battlefield 3 will definitely be sneaking its way into the work day at ASTRO Gaming!

Be sure to check out ASTRO Gaming on Facebook for more pictures from the show!

-ASTRO Xarion

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Year after year, it seems that the Columbus event on the MLG Pro Circuit is always about setting records across the board. Maybe it’s because Columbus and it’s centralized location is easy to get to for many of the circuit regulars. Maybe it’s because the date for the event is perfectly timed right as summer break begins for many. Maybe it’s because of the irresistible draw of all those haunters in the expo hall next door who put on an amazing show with all of the Halloween costumes and props. Maybe it’s because everyone is trying to fight for a little respect as the result of their teams not placing quite where they wanted on the season opener. For whatever the reason, this event continued the record breaking streak in 2011, shattering everything from attendance and stream views to sales records.

For my third year attending the Columbus stop on the MLG Pro Circuit, I knew what to expect going in. I knew it was going to be jam-packed with people, lots of long days, things running a bit behind, and everyone out to have a ton of fun in and out of the venue. I tried to relay this expectation to the rest of the Astro Team for this event, many of which, have never attended an MLG event before. But even I was caught a little off guard at how quickly the lines stacked up as the event filled to the brim in what appeared to be the biggest floor space the MLG circuit had planned for to date. There were literally people everywhere, and in an instant the venue was bursting with passion, energy, and anticipation for the matches to begin. As the live stream pushed out content, an unprecedented number of viewers tuned in to watch the action from their computers all over the world. The live stream throughout the weekend boasted 22.5 million streams. Pair that with the 16 thousand fans checking things out, and the Columbus event this year blew out all of the old attendance records out of the water.

With the new pool play, there are consistently upsets, and the winning match can end up being almost anyone these days. We watched a lot of hard fought battles throughout the weekend, and saw the fallout when each team won or lost and secured their placement for the event.

Congrats, as always, go out to the winners of the event:

Halo Reach: Instinct
CoD Black Ops: Optic Gaming
Starcraft II: SlayerSMMA

We would simply like to say thank you to all of you out there who make the effort and put the passion behind these events by supporting the league, the sponsors, and the top pro teams. Without all of you, none of us would be where we are.

See you all in Anaheim!

- ASTRO Xarion

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Every year, the world’s eyes turn to E3 to see all the raddest gaming news and announcements. Now as you can imagine, there’s going to be a ton of games shown off. Stuff that you know about, stuff that you don’t know about but want to know about, etc. That kind of stuff.

The fact is that when all those fancy PR people need to demo their games, gaming audio is critical to the experience. How better to provide that experience than ASTRO Gaming’s A30 and A40 Audio Systems?

That’s why you’ll be able to demo our gear on the best upcoming games in the following booths:

- Sony
- Ubisoft
- THQ
- EA
- Capcom
- Perfect World
- Activision
- Sega
- Deep Silver
- Square Enix
- Telltale Games
- Konami

The world’s top publishers and developers know what the deal is. If you want the best audio for your gaming, you go with ASTRO. Stay tuned to our Facebook and Twitter for E3 updates as we go.

- ASTRO stanimal

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It’s hard to believe that the 2011 season for Major League Gaming is already underway. It seems like only yesterday that we were watching the final matches of Halo 3, World of Warcraft, Super Street Fighter, Call of Duty, and Tekken at the finals last November. With the pages closed on the first event of the season, let’s take a moment to highlight some of the big changes that have happened between seasons, share some opinions of the first event, and glimpse at some of the exciting things to look forward to for the remainder of 2011.

As many of you know, in previous years at the live tournaments, there was one main stage area with limited stadium style bleacher seating that hosted the hottest matches and focused primarily on the Halo franchise, MLG’s cornerstone game that they focused their effort on for years. There was a smaller sub stage that typically hosted the next biggest game’s premier matches, this secondary stage had hosted Gears of War, Call of Duty, and Tekken primarily in the past few years. Then there was an alternate arena that had been used for the World of Warcraft PvP tournament, and was clearly shifting to Starcraft II as the crowds that were watching these matches kept growing after SCII was introduced to the circuit. Sundance DiGiovanni, MLG’s CEO, has been talking about equal exposure for the games that they were looking to focus on for 2011(Halo Reach, CoD Black Ops, and Starcraft II). This goal was expressed multiple times and through multiple channels towards the end of the 2010 season, and leading up to the season opener in Dallas. In preparation for this new season, the MLG team made some significant changes in the layout for their live events this year. What we saw when we walked in hit that target right on the mark.

As you walked into the season opener, you couldn’t help but notice that the event size had grown significantly. MLG added nearly double the gaming stations for bracket play which left a much larger footprint than previous years. There was increased room between rows of stations for spectators to watch the matches, and the stadium style main stage was removed completely. The removal of that main stage left a clear visible view to the now three main stages that were listed side by side from nearly anywhere inside the venue. One thing that we couldn’t find at first glance was the live broadcast area which had previously been poised at the top of the main stage structure that was now completely removed, with much of the tech gear running alongside the single main stage. We found an entirely new, sports center-esque series of broadcast booths and what can only be described as an insane amount of broadcast gear in the back of the production area. Look forward to some high quality production value broadcasts from the events as the year progresses and everyone gets settled into the new layout.

One other major change that was implemented for the first event was the new pool system for team elimination. We heard two very distinct opinions talking to players around the venue and through feedback from our twitter feed. Either the players loved it or they hated it. The biggest reason that we heard from people that loved it was that it gave players outside of the “top” teams a better chance at proving what they’ve got and making it into the later rounds of the tournament. This lead to a crazy amount of upsets of some of the existing top teams, and put a lot more stress on the players to perform at their best each and every game. So if you’re looking to make an appearance at one or more of the events this year and missed the season opener, be warned, you will be put to the test.

Congrats go out to all the winners, especially the guys from Status Quo, who took home their first event win. Ya’ll keep an eye on them as a newly Red Bull sponsored team. They’re likely a force to be reckoned with this season.

We also had the opportunity to see many familiar faces: from players, sponsors, and staff to attendees. We also got to meet some new folks around the venue as well, and look forward to seeing everyone again in Columbus!

Be sure to check out the rest of our event pictures on the Astro Gaming Facebook page.

-X

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When we were given the opportunity to pair up with the Houston Astros All-Star outfielder and avid gamer Hunter Pence, we knew right away that this was an obvious moment of greatness waiting to happen. After hearing that he was a big Call of Duty fan, we couldn’t think of a better professional CoD gamer than Hastr0 to come out and give him some pro tips on CoD. I mean, Astro Gaming + The Houston Astros + Hastr0… come on now… that’s a gently underhand thrown softball right over the middle of the plate. What we unraveled was a story that wove together professional gaming and sports even more than we imagined.

We initially met the MLG CoD Pro Mike ‘Hastr0’ Rufail a few years ago, but really got a chance to get to know him at the Gamers for Giving charity event in Michigan in May of 2010. That night, we found out that Mike originally grew up in Texas and was a HUGE Houston Astros fan in his youth. When he started to play online and it came time to pick a gamertag, his choice revolved around a sport that he loved, and a team that he had embraced. With that, ‘Hastr0’ was born. Knowing that he was a huge Astros fan, when we learned that Hunter Pence was a Call of Duty player, we knew these two would be a perfect match to share some pro tips about each other’s respective sport. We arranged to fly Hastr0 down for a day to meet Hunter, and went down to capture the shenanigans as they happened.

We picked up Hastr0 from the airport and headed out to meet up with Hunter. We ended up at the Hunter Pence Baseball Academy where Hunter, his brother Howie, and a number of other professional athletes host a variety of baseball academies in hopes of sharing their skills and stories to create other elite athletes in the Houston area. It was here that we first met Hunter and he got to give Hastr0 some batting advice and see what kind of Gamer/Athlete Hastr0 really was. After a few warm up swings on the batting tee , Hastr0 moved on to the pitching machine before stepping in against Howie Pence(who throws some serious major league heat). After Hastr0 got a few big swings in, it was time to head over to Hunter’s house so that he could show us his gaming setup we were about to gear up and have Hastr0 return the pro to pro teaching session.

When we arrived at Hunter’s house, it was clear from his setups that he absolutely loved gaming. He had dual flat screen televisions paired with Xbox 360’s in front of theater style leather recliners. He also had both a high end gaming desktop and laptop on his dining room table which we found out he uses for World of Warcraft PvP. Hunter told us that he gets approached all the time to join pro WoW PvP teams. Each time, chuckling and having to tell them that he’s not sure that it would be a good career move. We got to watch him make quick work of a couple of people, but were eager to see how he held up against and with Hastr0 in CoD.

Hastr0 got to hop in with his team and get a couple of competition matches in to get warmed up and share some insight from his professional level in gaming with Hunter. After a few rounds, they were ready to jump in and get some games going. During those games, Hunter also got to teach Hastr0 about “Schlobstering”. I was sworn to secrecy, but you can ask Hunter via twitter what it means!

Thanks to Hunter, the Houston Astros, Hastr0, Team EnvyUs, and the crew at Tritton(for being cool with us stealing Hastr0 for day). We had a blast pairing up this Athlete/Gamer and Gamer/Athlete. If you want to check out the quick video recap of the day, you can find it on our YouTube channel, or more pictures on our facebook page.

-X

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