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.

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 ...]

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.

Fast forward to 2012. We are proud to announce our very first sponsorship of Team Eon. The roster of Team Eon hosts some of the best players and teams in the world, including Halo veterans Instinct, Call of Duty’s Team EnVyUs and winners of the CODXP $1 Million tournament, OpTic Gaming. Newcomers to the Eon roster also include an EnVyUs competitive Gears of War 3 team, which made their competitive gaming debut at Hypefestation.

This sponsorship was a natural progression for ASTRO as we’ve had a close relationship with these teams for the last 5 MLG seasons. These teams have been at the top of their game, with placements in the top 3 at MLG tournaments and multiple 1^st place tournament wins.

With Eon’s sponsorship by ASTRO Gaming, we’ll be helping to support their competitive teams by providing travel to tournaments like MLG’s Pro Circuit events and other major tournaments held around the nation. These teams will also be essential in the research and development of the next generation of products from ASTRO Gaming. Video coverage and behind the scenes looks will be provided by Team Eon throughout the year for coverage at tournaments and LAN events throughout the competitive season.

We have always been a supporter of the eSports scene and with the addition of Team Eon to our ASTRO family, we’re thrilled to see what they will be doing to reshape the competitive gaming circuit for years to come. You can keep up with what’s going on with each of the teams below

Team Eon: @Teameon

OpTic Gaming: @OpTicGaming | Facebook | YouTube | H3CZ

Team EnVyUs: @TeamEnVyUs | YouTube | hastr0

Team Instinct: Facebook: Lunchbox | Roy | Pistola | OGRE 2 | Towey

In any case, just be sure you actually remember to do something this year, instead of just playing the night away with your buddies like last year.

ASTRO Chocolate Box
(Right click and save as…)

PC Wallpapers

- 1024×768
- 1280×1024
- 1600×1200
- 1400×900 (Widescreen)
- 1680×1050 (Widescreen)
- 1920×1600 (Widescreen)

iPhone / iPod Touch / iPad

- 640×960 (iPhone)
- 1024×728 (iPad)

Android

- 480×426

ASTRO Valentine’s Pattern
(Right click and save as…)

PC Wallpapers

- 1024×768
- 1280×1024
- 1600×1200
- 1400×900 (Widescreen)
- 1680×1050 ( (Widescreen)
- 1920×1600 (Widescreen)

iPhone / iPod Touch / iPad

- 640×960 (iPhone)
- 1024×728 (iPad)

Android

- 480×426

<3

-ASTRO Warblade

Please note that this not only affects the orders made from our ASTRO Gaming website, but also orders from our Amazon, Buy.com, and eBay sites as well.

If you saved up some cash from Christmas for some A40s or a MixAmp and don’t want to sit out while all the cool kids roll some scrubs, you should put your order in before this Tuesday, 1/3/12 at 11AM Greenwich Mean Time. If there’s no rush, place your order now and it’ll ship on Friday the 6^th.

To recap, any orders placed after 11AM GMT on Tuesday 1/3/12 will start shipping on Friday 1/6/12.

We’re looking forward to what’s in store next year, and the great games that are on the horizon in 2012!

- ASTRO Warblade

As the official Communication Partner, our gear was used in all of the MW3 free-play stations, competitive tournament stations, and on the main stage. The comfort of the ear cups on the A40s and A30s allowed for hours of game play. Our MixAmp Pro was connected at each station and used to provide the best quality voice chat in any tournament environment and the highest quality sound for the true competitive gamer.

As the choice of many Major League Gaming pro-gamers and teams, our gear has been put to the test in the tournament environment. With Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, or any other military shooter, the ability to get clear communication paired with 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound makes for an immersive environment, and clear directional cues to take on the competition.

If you don’t yet own anything ASTRO, we have a little incentive for you to purchase our gear over the Black Friday to Cyber Monday weekend. For each of the four days, if you make a purchase on our site, you will be entered to win a MW3 Xbox 360 console bundle, which comes with the MW3 branded Xbox 360, two MW3 branded controllers, and a copy of the standard edition of MW3. We also have a grand prize for this contest, which we’ll reveal at this month’s MLG Providence Finals. If you’re a fan of competitive gaming, you won’t want to miss out on what it is!

See you out on the battlegrounds!

-ASTRO Warblade

Why are we working with iam8bit? The iam8bit team are the absolute true kings of curating and presenting the best video game inspired art. Working with epically skilled artists that produce only the most astonishing work, they can spot talent like no one else.

It’s really quite simple to join in. Just head on over to our Speaker Tag Design Competition app on our Facebook page and upload your art with the PSD template we’re providing below. The 9 finalists with the most votes will then be curated by the rad folks at iam8bit. From that 9, we’ll pick one to go on an A30 Special Edition and another for an A40 Special Edition.

How can you gain votes? You can share your submission through Facebook, twitter, wherever. Tell your friends, family, whoever about your submission!

What are you waiting for? Time to level up.

How do I enter?

1. Download the ASTRO Tag Competition Template here.
2. Make an awesome design in the template. Save a JPG of it with the Preview layers on and go to ‘Submit an Entry’.
3. Tell all your friends by sharing your submission to get more votes.
4. The top 9 designs with the most votes in each category will make it to the final round.

What’s the prize?

The top 9 finalists will get one free set their designs on custom speaker tags for their A30 or A40 headset.

The winner in the A30 category will have their artwork appear as an official ASTRO A30 Special Edition, plus an A30 Audio System with an ASTRO prize pack (see below).

The winner in the A40 category will have their artwork appear as an official ASTRO A40 Special Edition, plus an A40 Audio System with an ASTRO prize pack (see below).

The ASTRO Prize Pack includes a Scout Backpack, an ASTRO Headset Stand and 3 sets of speaker tags with their winning design.

Click here for the Official Rules.

- ASTRO stanimal