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ASTRO Gaming at PAX Prime 2010
September 2nd, 2010

Taking PAX by storm and then some

Posted by: Stan 'stanimal' Press in Seattle, WA under Events

Attention all ASTRO enthusiasts,

PAX 2010 is opening tomorrow morning to thousands of the most passionate gamers in the world and ASTRO Gaming will be there in full force. Yes, you'll see our sweet lookin' booth staffed with the exhilarating ASTRO stanimal (me!), ASTRO Xariun, our awesome support team and of course the always lovely ASTRO girls.

In addition to being the official headset provider of PAX, we're bringing along a PAX exclusive which we are SO happy to announce. ASTRO Gaming and the Penny Arcade team have brought their brilliant minds together to bring you something special that you will absolutely love...

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Attention all ASTRO enthusiasts,

PAX 2010 is opening tomorrow morning to thousands of the most passionate gamers in the world and ASTRO Gaming will be there in full force. Yes, you'll see our sweet lookin' booth staffed with the exhilarating ASTRO stanimal (me!), ASTRO Xariun, our awesome support team and of course the always lovely ASTRO girls.

In addition to being the official headset provider of PAX, we're bringing along a PAX exclusive which we are SO happy to announce. ASTRO Gaming and the Penny Arcade team have brought their brilliant minds together to bring you something special that you will absolutely love.

Available only this weekend and at the Penny Arcade booth, we brought with us 400 Special Edition ASTRO A30 headsets with speaker tags featuring signature artwork of Penny Arcade’s Gabe and Tycho characters for $99. You can get a sneak peak as to how freakin' cool they look right above.

"Each year we try to create one special item for the attendees, and we're super happy that Astro agreed to do these with us." says the enigmatic Robert Khoo, President of Operations and Business Development of Penny Arcade.

It doesn't stop there. You'll be able to try out ASTRO A30 and A40 headsets at the following booths and games:

Ubisoft: Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, HAWX 2 and Outland
Electronic Arts: Dragon Age 2, Dead Space 2, Darkspore, and Need for Speed Hot Pursuit
HotHead: DeathSpank 2
Wizards of the Coast: Magic the Gathering: Duals of the Planeswalkers
SEGA: Vanquish
Capcom: Okamiden, Ghost Trick
Machinima: Machinima's Tournament Setup
Gunnar Optiks: 2v2 Gaming Setup
Instant Action: Instant Jam

Looking to maybe win some ASTRO Gaming A30 headsets/audio systems? Giveaways will be happening here:

Ubisoft:

- 3x Assassin's Creed A30 Audio Systems in their ACB tournament
- 3x HAWX 2 A30 Audio Systems for their HAWX 2 tournament
- 3x Assassin's Creed A30 Audio Systems for their ACB cosplay contest

Machinima:

- 3x Machinima Respawn A30 Audio Systems in their tournament

Dtoid Live Panel (Saturday, 10:30AM at the Unicorn Theater)

- 3x Dtoid A30 Audio Systems

OnLive

- 3x OnLive A30 Headsets

Wow, long-ass blog post. I'll sum it up quickly. PAX Prime 2010 will be totally amazing and we're gonna make it just a little bit more amazing. Who are we kidding? A lot more.

Oh, and be sure to stop by the booth and say hi to us! We like that stuff. :D

- ASTRO stanimal

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MLG Raleigh Event Recap
5. Did you know Faruq could cook?
6. I don't know why we can't keep him out of our booth though.
8. It is just me, or are these MLG players getting smaller?
9. That's some intense Tekken.
10. We can't keep Herbie out of our booth. So we hired him instead.
14. Gumby says he'll be there too. Ask him to break dance for you if you see him.
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September 1st, 2010

The hardest part of the game: the Final Boss

Posted by: Walter "Xarion" Duccini in Raleigh, NC under Events

It seems these days that each event brings new twists and turns on the circuit as upsets are in no short supply when it comes to Halo 3. Many of the top rated teams were taken aback by amateur teams still clawing at the opportunity to make a name for themselves.

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It seems these days that each event brings new twists and turns on the circuit as upsets are in no short supply when it comes to Halo 3. Many of the top rated teams were taken aback by amateur teams still clawing at the opportunity to make a name for themselves. With Halo 3 winding down and Halo Reach quickly approaching the circuit, there is a new energy radiating from the players, and many are eager to start something new. However, one of the resounding themes I heard as I was talking to different pro players over the weekend is that there needs to be a focus from all of the players on finishing out the season with the same level of passion for Halo 3 that was there two years ago. Final Boss proved over this very special weekend that same level of passion still courses through them as they dominated the circuit, reclaiming the status that goes along with their team name.

FB definitely had an agenda walking into this event: dethroning Instinct in their attempt to take home their third consecutive championship. Instinct pushed back, and fought a great battle in the finals, but in the end it just wasn’t quite enough. This loss for Instinct will only continue to add fuel to the rivalry, and the next event in DC is sure to be one to watch as these teams both have something to prove.

For the first time since it’s addition to the pro circuit, I kept hearing a consistent and extraordinarily high level of cheering coming from the Tekken stage. Apparently those guys from Atlanta are abundantly proud of their Tekken skills and were fervently cheering each other on throughout the weekend. It created quite the spectacle, and brought many of the event attendees who were there for some of the other games over to check out the action.

I’d say that the celebration for the 50th MLG Event in Raleigh this past weekend was an overwhelming success. Each of the headline games had a great crowd there participating and supporting, highlighting that this 50th event definitely won’t be the last milestone the MLG celebrates. With chart breaking stream views across the board, many of you who couldn’t attend also helped to make this an event to remember. See you all in DC!

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MLG's 50th Event Celebration
August 26th, 2010

Get all the perks of the pros.

Posted by: Walter "Xarion" Duccini in Raleigh, NC under Events

This weekend’s tournament at Raleigh happens to be a very special event for Major League Gaming. They get to check off a pretty big milestone in their history, their 50th event. To help them celebrate the special occasion, we are bringing a plethora of fun stuff to this event for the first time:

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This weekend’s tournament at Raleigh happens to be a very special event for Major League Gaming. They get to check off a pretty big milestone in their history, their 50th event. To help them celebrate the special occasion, we are bringing a plethora of fun stuff to this event for the first time:

Attendees to the MLG Raleigh event this weekend will get the opportunity to check out the new MLG A30 Audio System, as well as the BXR Edition A40 Audio System. Both of which, have never previously been able to be purchased at any live event. You’ll get a chance to try and compare the two different headsets head to head at our 2v2 station featuring Halo 3, Modern Warfare 2, and Transformers: War for Cybertron throughout the weekend.

As many of you know, for each event, we do a limited collectors run of event specific speaker tags. We’ll have the Raleigh event tags on both black and white speaker tags, but we also cooked up another super collectible set to celebrate this milestone. For the 50th event, we did a batch of 50 A40 speaker tag sets featuring the special 50th event logo. Again, we only printed 50 of these commemorative sets, and fully expect them to sell out quickly. Be sure to come swing by the booth early if you’ll be at the show.

Additionally, we brought back the A40 MLG Pro Team Speaker Tag sets from some of the top teams. Show your support for your favorites in style as we’ll have limited quantities of tags from: Str8 Rippin’, Final Boss, Instinct, Carbon, Believe the Hype, and Status Quo.

We somehow also managed to pull the last few MLG Mission Bags from our inventory for this event as well. These are stocked out online, but we’ll have a few available at the ASTRO Booth for those of you that make the journey to the “City of Oaks”. Did you know Raleigh is jam packed with Oak trees? We didn’t until we got here.

Did I mention that we’re also treating every event attendee like a pro player? That’s right… for those of you attending the event(or know someone that is), you’ll also get to score these new headsets at the same discounted prices that the pros get. That’s a rock solid 20% discount from our regular prices.

On a side note, during setup we also had a chance to scope out the Sony booth which will be giving 3D Killzone 3 demos all weekend. In a word: amazing. I’ll bet you wish you would have bought that spectator pass now eh?

-W

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ASTRO stanimal's Comic-Con 2010 Recap
1. WAKKA-WAKKA-WAKKA
2. CAPCOM kids having a blast.
3. Custom Scott Pilgrim A30's at the Ubisoft booth
4. Mike and Jerry from Penny-Arcade lookin' smart
5. Custom Assassin's Creed A30's at the Ubisoft booth
6. ASTRO Studio's Norio makes his own toys
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WAKKA-WAKKA-WAKKA
July 27th, 2010

Comic-Con makes geeky dreams come true

Posted by: Stan 'stanimal' Press in San Diego, CA under Events

Even though this was only my second Comic-Con (SDCC), I leave feeling like a true veteran. A grizzled survivor of one of the most grueling conventions this word has to offer.

You may walk away exhausted, broke, sick, or smelling like that one dude who was in some cosplay outfit he shouldn't have been in.

Doesn't matter. It's worth it every freaking year.

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Even though this was only my second Comic-Con (SDCC), I leave feeling like a true veteran. A grizzled survivor of one of the most grueling conventions this word has to offer.

You may walk away exhausted, broke, sick, or smelling like that one dude who was in some cosplay outfit he shouldn't have been in.

Doesn't matter. It's worth it every freaking year.

I'll start with all of the amazing gaming stuff that was happening at SDCC. The gaming portion pretty much tripled in size since last year with all the major players where in town. Xbox and Sony both had a presence along with all the major publishers like Ubisoft, CAPCOM, Konami, Activision, EA, and probably a few more that I can't think of right now.

Ubisoft's booth was showing off the multiplayer portion of Assassins Creed Brotherhood (ACB). Naturally, they were using our A30 Audio Systems (with custom ACB speaker tags) all daisy-chained so everyone can talk trash and get absolutely wrecked by one of the Frag Dolls. Not exactly your typical multiplayer, lots of being all tricky and sneaking around. Definitely a stabbingly good time.

Oh, and don't forget to pick up Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Video Game when it comes out later in August. I don't need to tell you why. Anything Scott Pilgrim related is officially awesome by default.

CAPCOM's booth was nothing short of bad-ass. They had a freaking FIGHTING RING converted into a stage for Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and all their live podcasting (where if you're lucky, you'll get to hear my sexy Russian accent). They were also rolling custom A30s for their DS titles Ghost Trick and Okamiden which are chock-full of all that Japanese game-making prowess. Totally psyched for Dead Rising 2, nothing like killing zombies with chainsaws duct-taped to a paddle. amirite?!

What else was there at SDCC? Panels for EVERYTHING. You name it. Your favorite games, TV shows, and movies all had 3 hour lines just to get in. For example, I waited in line for the Dead Space 2 panel only to have it hit max capacity like 20 people in front of me. Props to Visceral Studios for getting their franchise to that level of popularity but boo at you for making me miss the panel. >:( Meh, I'm sure I'll be first in line at the game's midnight release anyhow.

Just a heads up, always get in line very, very early if you ever want to see a panel at Comic-Con.

Now also be sure to bring lots of cash because you'll want to buy just about everything there. Between totally sweet t-shirts from companies like GAMA-GO, and Upper Playground, your favorite webcomics will be selling all sorts of fun stuff too. Even custom sketches! Love those things.

Before I lose you entirely, I want to give a shout out to our magnificent SDCC partners Ubisoft, the Frag Dolls, CAPCOM, and Konami. And more shout outs to our friends at HP, Robert, Jerry, Mike and the rest of the Penny Arcade crew, the guys from Red vs. Blue, Brian O'Malley for making one of the best comics ever I've ever read (Scott Pilgrim), Edgar Wright for turning that comic into one of the best movies I've ever seen (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World), and to all the many friends of mine that I saw.

Awe, wasn't that all cute? Totally was. Now go look at our Facebook photo album of all the pics I took.

- ASTRO stanimal

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Major League Gaming Denver Combine
6. Amish Acorns selling his secrets on the black market.
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July 23rd, 2010

Pro Gaming Rises To A Higher Elevation

Posted by: Walter "Xarion" Duccini in Denver, CO under Events

One of the amazing things about the MLG/Doritos Combine events is the mix of fresh energy and excitement that all of these new players bring when they walk in the doors. For many of the participants, the combine events are their first experience into the world of Major League Gaming.

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One of the amazing things about the MLG/Doritos Combine events is the mix of fresh energy and excitement that all of these new players bring when they walk in the doors. For many of the participants, the combine events are their first experience into the world of Major League Gaming.

It’s easy to forget what your first event feels like a few years into it. The wonder, excitement, and anticipation that overwhelms you when you take that first step into the venue and begin to absorb the experience as you realize exactly where you are: surrounded by people who share your passion. It's refreshing to watch the faces of the "fresh meat" as they quickly adjust to life in the pits, and realize that they aren’t on Xbox Live anymore. Many players crack under the new pressures that being at a live event brings, and it gives the opportunity for some to shine.

The first day was filled with the Free-For-All(FFA) competition. This focuses on the lone wolf style of play, and gives the opportunity for players to show off their raw talent against other players. FFA play can get a bit messy and opportunistic, but it is seriously fun to watch. Much like college sports recruiters, some of the MLG pro players attend the event to watch for impressive new talent. As the scouts observed players doing something skillful throughout the day, they received a notation. Those players who received those notations were given a chance to sit down before the pros and get observed with some 1:1 time. As the night went on, and players dwindled, familiar faces began to emerge victorious such as Adrenaline, Amish Acorns, and Str8 Sick. In the end it was Amish Acorns that walked away the winner once again proving that he's going to continue to be a force to reckoned with at the main events.

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