1. ASTRO Checks Out PDXLAN 14

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    July 21st, 2009

    The west coast's best LAN party melted my face off

    Posted by: in Portland, OR under Events

    This past weekend, I spent my time blowing $#% up left and right at PDXLAN 14 in Portland, Oregon. PDXLAN is one of the west coast’s best choices for hardcore PC gamers. Since 2002, PDXLAN has built Portland’s LAN gaming community, always making the LAN experience as fun as possible.

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    This past weekend, I spent my time blowing $#% up left and right at PDXLAN 14 in Portland, Oregon. PDXLAN is one of the west coast’s best choices for hardcore PC gamers. Since 2002, PDXLAN has built Portland’s LAN gaming community, always making the LAN experience as fun as possible.

    What I love about PDXLAN:

    The People: With only 500 seats, PDXLAN sells out faster than most concerts several months in advance leaving people begging for tickets on the forums.

    The attendees rock. Everyone there is chill and just wants to have good time playing their favorite games. If you need help with something, players are more than happy to take the time and get you up and running.

    The Contests: Need a break from gaming? Every day, there are little contests for you to enjoy and win prizes. They range from late-night Peggle tournaments, case-mod contests, Michael Jackson Thriller dance contests, water balloon fights, dodgeball, musical chairs, and more. I mean, how can you say no to dodgeball?

    The Prizes: PDXLAN gives away thousands of dollars in prizes with each event. You could walk away with fully tricked out systems or new RAM. Pro tip: stay for the final raffle on Monday afternoon. Lots of attendees go home with something awesome (other than a pantload of new t-shirts).

    The Food: I dare you to tell me a free BAWLS root bear ice cream float isn’t awesome. Tastes great and will get you super twitchy/caffeinated! Tons of delivery options if you want pizza, wings, whatever. If you want something nicer, go to D-Dish (www.d-dish.com), a website that you can order anything from a full service restaurant and it gets delivered right to the event hall. Oh, and midnight doughnut runs at Voodoo Doughnuts kick ass. Best doughnuts ever.

    The Gaming: Everyone’s playing something at all times. Team Fortress 2 seems to still be king of LAN gaming, but classics like Counter-strike, Battlefield 2, and Starcraft still rock the party. One of my personal favorites, Trackmania took over after midnight every night.

    The Network: A smoking fast network makes for a successful LAN and the PDX guys know exactly how to set one up. They even rocked full internet access so we could check Facebook in between TF2 rounds. File servers were everywhere and chock-full of drivers and utilities (and other… stuff) in case you have to format your PC at a LAN. Again.

    What I Didn’t Like: It’s not in the Bay Area/San Francisco.

    To learn more about PDXLAN and sign-up for an awesome gaming event, check out their website at http://www.pdxlan.com/

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  2. Major League Gaming Pro Circuit Update from Columbus, OH

    1. Amateur MLG squad at Columbus, OH
    2. Farouk stokes the MLG crowd as only he can.
    3. The VIP lounge was a great place to catch rivaries in action
    4. Break time between games in Columbus, OH
    5. This outfit had to be hot and stinky -- good thing he's wearing a gas mask
    6. Opening ceremony controller hoist -- it's a tradition!
    7. Amateur team rockin' the 'Stros.
    8. Walshy makes a moment for a fan
    9. Adam and the laydays.
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    June 9th, 2009

    Str8 Rippin' back to number one -- with a bullet

    Posted by: in Columbus, OH under Events

    T-Squared and his ’08 National Champion Str8 Rippin squad have not only
    retaken the top of the MLG Pro Circuit hill, but they’ve done so with so
    much authority that they will have the entire league going back to the
    drawing board.

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    T-Squared and his ’08 National Champion Str8 Rippin squad have not only
    retaken the top of the MLG Pro Circuit hill, but they’ve done so with so
    much authority that they will have the entire league going back to the
    drawing board. By dropping a mere single game to Triggers Down (in what was
    arguably TD’s specialty: CTF on Narrows), Str8 looks poised to take the
    mantle of MLG’s perennial favorite, Final Boss, during their virtually
    unbeatable Halo 1 and 2 seasons in year’s past. Did someone say ‘Dynasty’?

    Despite what a lopsided 6-1 final may indicate, there are arguably more
    individually skilled players in the other top five seeded Championship
    Bracket teams, and each match-up offers nail-biting game play–but Str8′s
    teamwork is second to none. Their level of coordination and team awareness
    just wouldn’t be possible without the top-notch communication technology
    brought by the A40 Audio System.

    With zero lag and crystal clear audio, the A40 Audio System stands head and
    shoulders above the competition and defines professional grade. If you
    haven’t yet tried a set of A40′s at a friend’s house or at an MLG event, be
    sure to take advantage of the ASTRO Gaming 15 day no-questions-asked money
    back guarantee and hear for yourself why the A40 Audio System is the
    professionals’ choice.

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  3. GDC 2009 Afterparty

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    April 6th, 2009

    Astro Gaming’s first annual GDC afterparty

    Posted by: in San Francisco, CA under Events

    Astro Gaming decided to celebrate by hosting the first annual GDC
    afterparty at Astro Studios. To set things off correctly, we had local hero
    DJ Mike Relm (and one of our favoriteAstro fans) on tap to lay down a
    gob-smacking audio/video show.

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    San Francisco, California’s annual Game Developer Conference brings together
    the world’s best and brightest makers of what we love most – games!

    So Astro Gaming decided to celebrate by hosting the first annual GDC
    afterparty at Astro Studios. To set things off correctly, we had local hero
    DJ Mike Relm (and one of our favoriteAstro fans) on tap to lay down a
    gob-smacking audio/video show. Mike has recently returned from a two-year
    world tour with the Blue Man Group.

    Besides great music, it wouldn’t be an Astro Gaming party without games, a
    couple of adult beverages, and a great crowd of our favorite industry
    friends — check out the pictures on the
    http://www.astrogaming.co.uk/uk/blog/category/events/ page to see shots of the party
    with our friends from Intel, ATi, Penny Arcade, and GamesRadar.

    See you next year (that is, if you make the list)!

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  4. MLG Pro Circuit Update from Meadowlands, NJ

    1. The new feature stages at the MLG were a big draw at the Meadowlands event.
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    April 6th, 2009

    Triggers Down Takes Title in All ASTRO Final

    Posted by: in Secaucus, NJ under Events

    Triggers Down bounced back from the losers bracket and snatched two straight series wins from Instinct to hoist the Championship Bracket trophy at MLG Meadowlands.

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    In case you haven’t heard, we’ll cut to the chase: Triggers Down bounced back from the losers bracket and snatched two straight series wins from Instinct to hoist the Championship Bracket trophy at MLG Meadowlands.

    A number of high-seeded hopefuls threw a wrench into the bracketologists’ predictions, namely Believe the Hype and Heaven and Earth. 11th seeded Believe the Hype had a nearly impossible run: knocking Triggers Down, Classic and Str8 Rippin into the losers bracket in consecutive matches.

    Tournament favorites Str8 Rippin had a hard time — landing in 4th place, as did Classic, bouncing all the way down to 13th.

    The Gears of War 2 bracket was shaken up as well, with 6th seeded LeGaCy taking home the grand prize over the top-seeded MbN: The Business, and 3rd place finisher The NSAN3Z.

    Although practice time, game strategy, and luck may have separated these top finishing Championship bracket teams, one common thread tied them all together: every team mentioned in this story used the A40 Audio System to reach the top of their brackets. Every single one.

    Ready to play like a pro yet?

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  5. Blizzcon 2008

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    October 11th, 2008

    WoW pros rock A40's at Blizzcon

    Posted by: in Anaheim, CA under Events

    The rabid fans at the all-things-Blizzard conference called Blizzcon got more than an eyeful at the Anaheim Convention Center this past weekend. ASTRO Gaming was there, of course — Blizzard used an all-ASTRO lineup for their internationally star-studded field of PvP World or Warcraft Arena contestants.

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    Congrats to Europe’s Nihilum Plasma for taking out the fan-favorite Selective Queuers from the ‘States. Hey, at least they were using our premium California-designed A40 Audio Systems!

    See you next year!

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  6. MLG Toronto 2008

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    August 24th, 2008

    Swiffer-tastic: ASTRO sweeps the competition

    Posted by: in Toronto, ON under Events

    For the second straight Pro Circuit event, the Astro A40’s swept the competition, once again winning ALL THREE events – Halo 3, Gears of War and Rainbow Six: Vegas.

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    First we saw The INSAN3Z taking down the Gears of War title, then vVv ReWriTTeN repeating as Rainbow Six champs and then, in the prime time slot, Str8 Rippin emphatically taking down their second Halo3 title of the year. Congrats everyone – and yeah, we know that our headsets aren’t actually *winning* these events, but can’t you hear the ghost of Mars Blackman out there… “is it the Astros? Huh? Is it? Is it?? It’s GOTTA be the Astros!”

    Six straight championships from teams wearing our headphones and counting…

    Outside of the competition, things were a little strange. This tour stop for the MLG was held in conjunction with Fan Expo – a 20,000-person festival of all things sci-fi, horror, anime and comic book related. You could hardly take a step without bumping into a Storm Trooper, or a Dark Knight or witnessing a phenomenon called LARPing. If you don’t know what LARPing is, don’t ask. Just suffice it to say that it stands for Live Action Role Playing.

    Congrats again to The INSAN3Z, vVv ReWriTTeN, and Str8 Rippin. Great tournament, all around.

    See y’all in the Big D October 3rd-5th!

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ASTRO Gaming's mission is to produce the world's finest gaming equipment. Our first product was the professional-grade ASTRO A40 Audio System. Major League Gaming quickly named the Astro Gaming A40 Audio System the official headset of the MLG Pro Circuit. The A40 Audio System is critically-acclaimed with over 70 reviews which have given the A40 top ratings. It is time to get rid of that old pair of headphones and upgrade to the Astro A40 Audio System which includes the A40 Headset and A40 MixAmp. ASTRO Gaming is a premium accessory manufacturer with a risk-free trial for all of our products, and unparalleled customer service.