The IGN Professional League (IPL) has grown to be a premiere live eSports tournament featuring the best StarCraft 2 and League of Legends players. We are proud to announce that we have teamed up with IPL to be the Official Communications Partner of the IPL. Pro Players are always looking for ways to communicate clearly while in competitions and our MixAmps allow for a latency free chat network for teams. MixAmps will be setup at all StarCraft 2 and League of Legends stations along with our A40 Gaming Headset or A*STAR Ear Buds for use by players.

IPL4 will be the second live eSports event from IGN Entertainment — IGN’s first live tournament, IPL 3: Origins, was held last year at Caesars Atlantic City, offering a prize pool of $120,000. IPL 3 Origins drew in more than 12 million online viewers. The championship bracket of 32 players included 8 invited players, 8 players from online qualifiers, and 16 players from the open bracket. Ultimately, Stephano defeated Lucky in the Finals 4-0.

Taking place April 6-8th, 2012, IPL4 will be held at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas. Featuring a total $150,000 prize pool between StarCraft 2 and League of Legends, IGN continues to highlight eSports as not only a profession, but as a mainstream form of viewer entertainment. IGN has teamed up with Twitch.tv to showcase all of their main stage matches with commentary by casters like Doa, PainUser, dAppolo and others. The previous IPL winners IdrA, White-Ra, and Stephano, along with Online Qualifer winners aLive, PuMa, Bomber, and Polt have already secured their spots at IPL4.

Not going to IPL4 in Sin City? IGN’s made it easy for you and will be broadcasting the event at http://www.ign.com/ipl. You can also catch updates on our Facebook and Twitter.

Close...

Our friends over at Epic Games provided us with some codes for the upcoming Gears of War 3 DLC “Forces of Nature.” This is the latest DLC slated to be released this coming Tuesday, March 27th on the Xbox Live network. With this code, you’ll be able to download and play the DLC before the main release for everyone else!

Our giveaway (found below) is LIVE, and will end at 12:01 AM (Eastern) on Sunday, March 24th, 2012. Winners are randomly selected and will be contacted shortly after the end of the contest.

-ASTRO Warblade

(more…)

Close...

The 2012 competitive schedule is already well under way, and MLG is kicking off their live events for spectators this weekend in Columbus, Ohio for the very first MLG Pro Circuit Winter Championship. Over 1,000 gamers will compete in StarCraft 2 and Halo Reach and in three new fighting games to the circuit, Mortal Kombat, Soul Calibur V, and King of Fighters XIII. With a combined $200,000 prize pool, it’s sure to draw out the best competitive gamers in the world.

ASTRO will continue to support the MLG and gamers by providing full MixAmp racks at all Halo team stations and the main stage, as well as at all PC setups for StarCraft 2. Competitors need only to plug their A40 or A30 headset in to our MixAmps for full Dolby 7.1 audio and be able to hear your teammates for crucial team communication.

Eon Instinct is set to defend their title after winning the MLG National Championship last November in Providence, RI. They remain one of just a few teams without any changes to their team or coach since the last competition. They’ve proven that with time, skill, and keeping their roster the same, that it can lead to winning several Halo titles. In the same fashion, Instinct has been an ASTRO supporter and used our gears for many years, and we were happy to partner with them and the rest of Eon for competitions throughout the year.

Be sure to catch all the live streams of the event, as the SD quality streams are free for the whole weekend at http://www.majorleaguegaming.com!

Close...

We’re starting up a new series this week on the ASTRO blog and taking a quick glimpse at what’s going on in eSports.

IPL @ SXSW
http://www.ign.com/ipl/

IGN hosted a taste of their IGN Pro League (IPL) over this last weekend at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival. SXSW combines the audiences of music, film, and technology over the course of a week. Companies showcase products, and new films musical artists are highly promoted in this space.

This year, IGN was the main sponsor for the Screenburn Arcade, and was able to bring the world of eSports to SXSW attendees. Kicking off on Friday night, they partnered with Capcom to showcase their latest game release, Street Fighter X Tekken. Inviting out eight of the top players from around the US, they faced off in a double elimination exhibition match. Ultimately it came down to Justin Wong vs. nycfurby (aka Arturo Sanchez) in the finals with JWonggg taking home the prize.

Watch IPL@SXSW SFxT VODs here.

The next day, IPL hosted two other exhibition matches. The first was with the very popular, free-to-play game League of Legends. The IPL community voted on which players should be invited out, and chose 10 of the best players from the US to duke it out in a West vs East match up. Both EPIK and v8 had major showings, taking up 7 of the 10 spots with their team members.

Watch IPL@SXSW League of Legends VOD here.

The last showmatche brought the two latest champions of IPL2 and IPL3 together for Starcraft 2. White-Ra’s Protoss army vs Stefano’s Zerg with a prize pool of $5,000 on the line. An intense match-up with a best of 9 series shown before a first-time audience in Austin, TX. Both players gave quite a show and even displayed some new strategies tried out in these games. In the end Stefano defeated White-Ra 5 wins to 1 win.

Watch IPL@SXSW Starcraft 2 VOD here.

The Iron Squid
http://www.ironsquid.tv/

Under the name Iron Squid hides a brand new tournament that should entertain every StarCraft II fan. In the Iron Squid, 20 world class players from all around the globe will battle for a juicy prize pool of $25,000.

Games have already been underway the last couple of weeks with VODs of the first two weeks already up on their site. This week, Shows #4 and #5 showcased matches between Groups A & B. The first having SlayerS BoxeR vs. EG PuMa; the second having Liquid Ret vs. Prime MarineKing; and the last match with SlayerS BoxeR vs. Prime MarineKing. The matches concluded jumping into Group B with IM Mvp vs. mouz ThorZaIN.

Red Bull Gaming LAN
http://www.redbullgaming.com/

The crew from Red Bull put together a LAN event this last weekend hosted by Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida. They invited out top talent StarCraft 2 players and Halo teams Instinct, Status Quo, and Dynasty. Also on hand as commentators were StarCraft experts Sean “Day[9]” Plott and Marcus “djWHEAT” Wheat hosting 3 StarCraft streams and recent retiree David “Walshy” Walsh for the Halo stream.

With some very big names in the StarCraft 2 competitive world (Ret, SaSe, Sheth, JYP, NaNiWa, PuMa, and more), it provided some great match ups throughout the 3 day tournament.

Watch Red Bull LAN StarCraft 2 matches here.

The Halo matches went back and forth each day. StatusQuo’s new teammates Royal 2 and Snakebite proved to be great additions to their roster of Flamesword and eNable and put them on par with the current MLG National Champions, eon Instinct. All three teams should have benefited by participating in this LAN just a week before the MLG Winter Championship.

Watch Red Bull LAN Halo matches here.

-ASTRO Warblade

Close...

At the Red Bull LAN event in Orlando this last weekend, Red Bull gave a very special gift to David “Walshy” Walsh, one of the greatest Halo players in MLG history. Walshy recently announced his retirement from competition and has taken up the job of commentating at major tournaments. This latest Red Bull LAN event hosted at Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida was the first event that Walshy stepped up to commentate the Halo invitational by Red Bull Gaming.

As with most retirement gifts, there needed to be some gold involved. Red Bull contacted ASTRO for some schematics on our headsets, as Walshy has chosen to use our A40 headsets during competition (and previously has been using some custom painted Red Bull A40s). What they presented to Walshy towards the end of the first night was a piece of art.

Speaker tags branded with the Red Bull logo, the headband emblazoned with Walshy’s gamertag, and light accents on the mic all plated in 24 karat solid gold. Something tells me this could be something every future pro gaming retiree wishes and dreams for…

Close...

Our own CEO and Founder, Brett Lovelady, was interviewed by Fast Company to pick his brain regarding creating a performance brand in the gaming space where branding was non-existent. Check out the full article here.

Brett Lovelady started Astro Studios in 1994 with the objective to bring more of a consumer product perspective to technology. But after stints at Frog and Lunar, Lovelady wanted to make “anything that wasn’t technology”–toys, soft goods, sporting goods. They began royalty relationships, translating the value of design into real equity.

Their breakthrough came when they designed Nike’s Triax 250 sportswatches, earning $300 million over five years. The studio got involved with Nike’s concept team, designing the company’s first line of golf clubs and eye wear, then began applying those skills to video games with a redesign of Alienware and the Xbox 360, which remains one of their most visible products.

In 2006, Lovelady spun off Astro Gaming to make actual products. In short order, it has become the Rolls Royce of professional gaming gear. The A40 Headphones, which also make up the A40 wireless system, is where professional-grade gaming meets professional-grade design applied to the marketplace—with headphones that mix voice and game sounds in 7.1 surround simulation and connected with a MixAmp digital decoder. [more ...]

Close...

The staff over at ASTRO Gaming not only creates some of the best video game equipment around, but we also live by the philosophy of “Work Hard, Play Hard.”

As a tradition, we interview some of our staff to find out what we’ve been playing lately. If you want to play with us, send over a message online and we can maybe get some games going.

Stan – ASTRO stanimal – Partnership Marketing Manager

Not much really has changed since I’ve last updated, been rocking out WAY too much Battlefield 3 on PC and League of Legends. Kinda going back to my PC gaming roots right now, ya know? BF3 on PC is just something that I can’t kick. Either is rockin’ Ezreal in LoL. Might actually pick up a new champion to wreck with but SKILLSHOTS ARE WAY TOO MUCH FUN.

XBL GT: ASTRO stanimal

Andreas – ASTRO Nexy – Content Coordinator
Today was a very sad day for me. As I write this, I’m burning old photographs and shoveling Haagan Dazs Rocky Road ice cream into my face. This morning I telephoned Enrique and broke it off, for good.

Enrique is, or was, my Starcraft 2 partner. We had the best of times climbing the 2v2 ladder. Like any healthy relationship, we had our differences but always found a way to work through them. He played Protoss. I played Zerg. Our wacky play-styles melded into a lovely bond of destruction and bromance. Though, I had to end it. I’ll miss you Enrique, always and forever.

For today marks a new chapter in my life. Capcom’s Street Fighter x Tekken launched at midnight last night and I was 3rd in line at my local Game Stop. My phone buzzed endlessly with desperate texts from Enrique. I’m sure he pondered my absence for our late night Starcraft rendezvous. His imagination must’ve assumed the worst.

I rushed home, popped my new infatuation into the Xbox and with my trusty fight sticks in-lap, I began training. Yes, I feel guilty betraying my Protoss companion but there is no time for love when on a quest to be the greatest Street Fighter in all the land.

Enrique, if you reading this… I’m sorry.

XBL: The MLG Nexy

Randall – ASTRO Warblade – Community Manager
With the recent announcement of a new SimCity game by Maxis at last week’s GDC, it sparked an interest for me to break out the last game, SimCity 4. I grew up as a fan of the series, playing most of their simulation games (my favorite being SimAnt, where you control a colony of ants taking over a backyard). Maxis created some real life regions, so I’m trying to recreate the Bay Area, and started with Sunnvyvale and Santa Clara, two more suburban cities with high-tech industrial life. My goal is to work in the huge city of San Jose, then start to populate San Francisco, the crown jewel of the Bay Area. These games have always lacked the multiplayer component, but it’s been a good time killer while I ride my train to work.

On the Xbox, I’ve been delving into the story of Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, the last chapter of Ezio’s story. Ubisoft recently announced the upcoming title, Assassin’s Creed 3, where the setting changes completely to a American Revolution time period. It will be a breath of fresh air, though I hope they can keep all of the same rich history and iconic landmarks of the era that was shown in Rome and Istanbul.

XBL GT: Warblade

Interested in a Community Gaming Night with the ASTRO Crew? We may be hosting some soon! Follow @ASTROGaming on Twitter or Like us on Facebook and let us know you’re interested!

Close...

Our friends over at Gamer Media Television have produced an inspiring video showing the personality and story behind an amateur Halo player. While this individual isn’t well-known and hasn’t played on a Top 8 team, this video shows his passion, talent, and dedication to gaming.

Dan Kruger is like many of us who have aspirations of playing video games on the professional level and want to prove to ourselves, our friends, or our families that we can do it.

ASTRO was happy to support Gamer Media Television’s efforts to tell Dan’s story. He’s a genuine guy who lives to compete and practices for hours using ASTRO and GUNNAR gear. Dan came out to MLG Anaheim last season to compete one last time before he moved to South Africa.  Returning to play at a MLG tournament was journey that took nearly 4 years, but he mentions that the moment he walked into the arena, he felt like he was home. This video showcases his journey.

What’s also cool about this video is it was originally produced and mixed in Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound using ASTRO A40 headsets. This was critical to capturing the feel of gaming, not only in the segments where Dan was playing in the BIC Free-For-All tournament, but also throughout the video. It’s unfortunate that YouTube doesn’t support Dolby 5.1 audio, but if you are using an ASTRO MixAmp when watching this video, the Dolby Pro Logic IIx output delivers a 4 channel surround sound mix that sounds amazing. We love that our gear is being used not just for gaming, but to improve the way we experience all forms of audio.

With another year of events and leagues starting in March, this will be the 6th season ASTRO’s been supporting eSports athletes and Pro Gaming events. Look for more posts in the coming weeks about our upcoming event schedule – we’re looking forward to seeing the many “Dans” out there, fighting for their chance to compete.

Close...