This message today just confirmed that Raleigh was a successful event for Gears of War.  I’ll keep the name of the individual anonymous, as always, but I absolutely love that they are interested in getting into competitive Gears!

Hey Arctic. I was at Raleigh this weekend having never touched a GoW game before, and watching the match live at the event hooked me instantly. I tried to find you all weekend just to meet you, and tell you how great your channel is, but I didn’t catch you.

I went out Saturday and bought the Gears triple pack, and immediately went to work on Gears 2 campaign to get the hang of controls and all that. My question for you is, I am a competitive gamer, and I really want to jump into GoW competitively but am not sure where to start.  Are there good resources for learning the ropes as far as strategy, loadouts etc?

This video is of @QuinnDelhoyo expressing his thoughts on the Gears of War 3 Exhibition match.  I had a great time commentating the match alongside Quinn, Puckett, and Nathan (during the second match).The second video, located below, is of me and DJ going over the game with Chris Puckett.  I’m looking forward to staying in touch with Quinn and doing quite a few more projects with him down the road.

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You can leave your questions down below or tweet them to me @arCtyC.  The full Press Release can be found after the break.

MLG and Epic Games are incredibly excited to announce that we will be streaming a Gears of War 3 Exhibition match live from the venue at MLG Raleigh.  Gears of War 1 and 2 both had highly successful runs on the Pro Circuit, and we can’t wait to see how the third installment plays out. The match, which will use multiplayer maps that have received significant updates and changes since the beta, will be an exclusive, in-depth look at competitive GoW 3. We’re pulling out all the stops; we’ll be featuring the best team ever to play GoW on the Pro Circuit, and we’ll have the best commentators on hand to call the action.

The match will be aired live on the Halo: Reach stream at 8:15pm ET on Friday, August 26.

The game releases worldwide on Sept. 20, 2011, but you don’t have to wait until then to see it in action. In addition to the match, we’ll be streaming trailers, exclusive gameplay footage, and more.Come to Raleigh or tune in to the broadcast and you will be among the very first to find out exactly what Gears 3 has in store for the world of competitive gaming!

Admist the frenzy of news about Gears of War 3 at MLG Raleigh, I publicly tweeted my previously undisclosed, self-imposed, mission earlier today.

Don’t get me wrong here, I love my Call of Duty brethren, but I want to challenge the Gears community to step up their video production capabilities.  I’m tired of the thousands of videos of some person calling in a chopper gunner, dogs, nuke or whatever and going 70-0.  I’m tired of hearing the hundreds of commentaries accompanied by some young chap sending me messages asking to check out their new Call of Duty vid.  I’m tired of some of the best video editors contributing their skills exclusively to Call of Duty montages.  Most of all, and this one really gets to me, I’m tired of so many talented people putting forth their time and efforts into making so many CoD videos when they could easily use those talents on other games.

Gears of War is coming back in a major way!  I think the game’s replay value will far exceed either of its two predecessors and let’s be honest here — dedicated servers are how every multiplayer game should be played. It’s about time for YouTube’s poster child to step aside and make way for the new kids on the block.  I’m calling on each of you to post more Gears of War 3 videos than you’ve ever posted, create more compelling content than you’ve ever created.  My team is wholeheartedly committed to creating Gears of War content that we think will really push the boundaries and hopefully inspire more of you out there to give it a shot.  It’s time for a Gears of War 3 takeover!

P.S. — I’m totally pulling an EA.

My First Look video of the SteelSeries Spectrum 7XB Wireless Headset.  This is SteelSeries’ first wireless headset for consoles and clocks in a cool price of $179.99.  The 7XB takes a number of features from the Spectrum 5XB and cuts down on the number of cables running between you and your Xbox 360.  I listed a few features down below which I will cover more in depth in my review:

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Yesterday I asked Twitter this question and people responded in droves!  I can honestly say, I was expecting a lot of people to go with Anya and/or more female characters on the COG side.  At a first glance, it would appear that there isn’t going to be much of a fan favorite; it seems as if we’ll see a wide variety of characters with people opting for altered outfits of their traditional choices.   On the COG side, I plan on alternating between Dom (my main choice) and Thrashball Cole, but I don’t plan on changing up my Locust character, Grenadier.

Take a look at some of the responses I’ve received:

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I may be a few days late, but my gameplay from last weekend’s #GearsWeekend was posted on the @AmazYnMLG YouTube channel earlier this week.  Last weekend I was able to include some games with fellow teammate @Skyzyn, so I made sure to include some Execution gameplay.  I’m hoping to get additional gameplay with the rest of my teammates, @PhoboszYn and @Calinorth, as we start getting into our practice schedule routine.

I also want to note that the #GearsWeekend gameplay is being captured using the Roxio Game Capture, not the HD PVR.  I’m prepping for a review so bare with me on the quality, I know it is not what you may have become accustom to watching.

The Razer Tiamat definitely caught my attention after it’s unveiling at Gamescon earlier today.  The images from the headset look pretty awesome, but concrete details are a little scarce. I received a number of questions about the headset which I hope to have answers for relatively soon.  A few of those questions included:

I am not sure if the audio control unit is a mixamp or not, but it certainly looks like it.  I’m also not sure if it’s PC exclusive, however the Tiamat 2.2 does mention having “PC with built-in 3.5mm audio jacks,” as a requirement.  The Tiamat 7.1 doesn’t mention any system.  The full press release can be found after the break:

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