Challenge Accepted

Not too long ago, I started playing League of Legends again.  This all started with my friend challenging me to a 1v1 because I said he isn’t as good as he tells everyone.  I found that I have the most fun playing 1v1s in League of Legends, so I just started asking friends and colleagues for a match.

Rules:

Only middle lane

Random Champion

Match 1 – Win

Nunu (Me) vs Xerath (Friend #1)

Match 2 – Win

Master Yi (Me) vs Ahri (Colleague #1)

First time playing as Master Yi and I thought I was going to lose.

Match 3 – Win

Teemo (Me) vs Lee Sin (Colleague #1)

Match 4 – Win

Malphite (Me) vs Corki (Colleague #1)

Colleague had a Corki skin, so I was afraid considering I don’t really play Malphite.

Match 5 – Win

Kassadin (Me) vs Ziggs (Colleague #2)

So far I am undefeated!  Johnny was asked to play against me, but he refused.  I’m hoping to find more matches. Who’s up for a challenge?

-Va T.

Product Team

Diablo III Is My Most Anticipated Game of 2012

I have been anxiously waiting for the release of Diablo III for years now. It’s really difficult especially when Blizzard decides to delay the game to fine tune the gameplay experience for us hardcore Diablo fans. When D3 does finally come out, you can count on the fact that I will be playing this day and night. Might even call in sick the next day ;) but let’s keep that as a secret between you and I. Like they say, patience is a virtue and I am confident Diablo III is worth the wait. If you don’t believe me then you can check out this live stream of Diablo III beta gameplay from one of our friends to see what new additions Blizzard has in store for us :)

-Shin

Product Designer

NZXT EXPOSED :O Their gaming habits that is…

It’s blog time again! I figured I could take this time to tell you a little more about the team behind NZXT. I’m sure most people think of NZXT as coporate company and probably believe that we’re not really gamers, but I’m here to tell you that’s complete opposite of what the team is all about!

While I won’t say we all have the same interested and opinions, the majority of us here love Skyrim. Namely Johnny, Cyrus, Irene and me. Cyrus and Irene have this competition going where they come back Monday and see who accomplished more quests, it’s quite fun to hear them go at it :). However, it’s nowhere near as intense as Va, Eugene, Ryan, Daniel, Johnny and Kevin’s ongoing League of Legends discussion. I often wonder if they get any sleep the night before they into come to work, based on their fiery conversations. Tina is the master at all app games. She is always playing a different game on her phone during lunch like Triple Town or Where’s My Water. She also doodles cute drawings on our whiteboard for us and drew the Portal drawings for our giveaway. Yes she really loves Portal, we got her a companion cube for Christmas.

Rob has been on a recent Minecraft obsession. I have a feeling he’s built an entire Metropolis by now, that is if he isn’t too busy working on another pc project. Pretty much, Rob loves building stuff. If you’ve read our previous blog post, you might know that Irene is a HUGE fan of Gears of War. I mean it, she got super excited when I gave her a GoW keychain. I think everything she owns is Gears of War themed. As for me, I’m usually all over the place with games. I’ll play anything from FPS, RTS, RPG or Dance games. My Steam hours are racking up to something pretty ridiculous. I recently got a PS3 so I’ve been really excited to replay some good ol’ Playstation classics and get my fix of Uncharted. I recently brought a replica of Drake’s ring too :). When I have time, I always try to stream or do gameplay videos with friends. I’m hoping I can do one here with the team soon!

Besides that, we all have a lot of other interests other than games. We love movies, new tech gadgets, anime, books, comics and anything relating to geek culture! Cyrus and I have been chatting up about A Song of Fire and Ice, eagerly awaiting the next season we might add!

I hope that gives people a little insight of our team because we care about your opinions as well, believe us we’re right there with you with a lot of things :). It’s time for me to get back to work and time to get scolded by my co-workers for blogging about them.

Thanks for your time guys!

Kitty Mach
Marketing Department

Year of the Dovahkiin

To some of you, yesterday was just another Monday; but to others, it was a festive-filled day in celebration of the Lunar New Year. People were dressed up, streets were filled with little red remnants from lit fire crackers, families surrounded by more relatives and friends, red envelopes were handed to children (or the unmarried), and because this year is the Year of the Dragon – the dragon dance was performed. For me, I visited most of my family – some whom I only see during this holiday. It’s always such a treat! What I look forward to best is seeing the new generation of children and how they grow each year. My older cousins would say that about me growing up, and now I know what they mean.

Lunar New Year is more than just a festival and collecting red envelopes, but a time of celebrating culture. Here at NZXT, we take pride in embracing our geek culture – everything between humor tees to gaming – it’s a lifestyle by choice fueled by passion and commitment. Which is why with each product we design, we design them with gamers in mind; aside from physical aesthetics it’s also about functionality too. Some of us may spend most of our nights in front of the PC or console gaming into the late hours, and still manage to make it to the office the following day. It’s our commitment to NZXT’s culture and gamers alike.

So, 2012 may be the Year of the Dragon, but here at NZXT it’s YEAR OF THE DRAGONBORNS! (dovahkiin)

Signing off,

Tina H.

Meet the Press.

Last week I was incredibly fortunate enough to attend CES with a handful of coworkers to represent NZXT. The idea of this excited me beyond believe. Enjoying technology all of my life, attending CES was always my dream. I could not wait to get there and see what was in store for 2012. However, there was another aspect I had not considered. Being a company representative, I was going to be meeting with the reviewers.

Tuesday through Thursday I met with almost a hundred reviewers. We discussed the past, present, and future of technology, gaming, and design. They were all very astute and opinionated which sparked great discussion and debate, to the point that I lost my voice on the first day and did not regret it a bit.

In addition to the rewarding off topic discussions I had the pleasure of revealing the Switch 810 to many of the reviewers that came to our suite, the response was incredible. Knowing what we are doing here at NZXT was being noticed and enjoyed, down to every last detail, really validates our work and our effort to make innovative products.

This was my first visit to both CES and Las Vegas and spending time with reviewers was second only to meeting Penn Jillette (my last name is Teller :P). Thank you to everyone who took the time to visit us and thank you for reviewing our products.

-Rob Teller

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Gearsmas

I hope everyone got what they wanted for Christmas this year – because I certainly did :) I never received so many Gears of War gifts before but I totally love each and everyone of them. After all, the top of my Christmas tree is the COG flag (not a bright shining star like typical trees). Besides that, I’m also relieved that I reached level cap and earned my wings the same week ^^ Now it’s time for me to hit lvl 50 in Skyrim on my High Elf destro mage. I’m 46 atm, but will be 50 by the weekend at latest. Here is a glimpse of the awesome gifts I received that were gaming related. Check it out! And Happy New Year guys. Anyone fancy a Gearsmas ;) [didn't even mention how big of a Mass Effect fan I am - but Paragon Commander Shepard is the ONLY way to go :)]

Gears of War Set-Up built for a true Veteran:

The scarf is Mass Effect themed btw – can you guys tell?

Simply put – there is something very satisfying about charging opponents with your retro lancer bayonet and popping heads off with a gnasher that makes this game seriously addicting. I can’t wait to unlock the Seriously 3.0 achievement!

‘It’s go time, baby!’

- Irene Phung

Merry Christmas and Happy Gaming!

Merry Christmas fans and friends of NZXT! Without a doubt 2011 has been an exciting year for NZXT and we’re looking forward to delivering more breathtaking products in 2012. I’m so proud of what we’ve accomplish and cannot wait to see what we’ll be able to do next year. I’m thankful to have such a talented team fighting for our dream!

By the way, Thank you for the gift team, I have to admit I nearly teared when I saw it. It means a lot to me, I’ll be sure to make the most of it! Now I’ll be completed glued to my computer during Christmas break. Mini SWTOR review to follow in a week or two. You guys are awesome, we’ve got a long road ahead of us and regardless of the difficulty and competition I know you guys will be able to overcome it. Merry Christmas Fans and the NZXT Team, enjoy your time with your family and happy hunting!

- Johnny Hou, Founder

Call me The Doctor

I’m pretty sure everyone has their favorite TV series. Doctor Who is my favorite thanks to a friend’s referral (THANK YOU Tina, you’re the best! :) ). It took me a month or so to watch season 1 to 6. For those of you who do not know this series, it is a science fiction about “The Doctor” traveling through space and time solving unnatural catastrophes.

At first, I didn’t expect anything mind blowing from the series, but was I wrong. As I continually watched episode after episode, gradually I became more and more interested. The events and story around The Doctor keeps you in suspense. What really intrigues me are the events that involve Earth history and legends. And what keeps me watching are the little hints they place in some episodes that have you wondering who, what, or why; it’s genius.

I would like to write more about Doctor Who, but that would be called “spoilers”. If you enjoy science fiction and have not seen this series, I would highly recommend it. For those of you who have a Netflix account, they have season 1 to 5!

Fans of “The Doctor”, I don’t need to tell you guys how awesome it is. It’d be cool if you guys can comment on who your favorite Doctor is. Mine would be the 10th.

I’ll end this blog with a question about Doctor Who. On the first encounter with a warmongering species, the Doctor repeats a line, referenced from a previous episode, after putting on a “mask”. What is that line? Answer this question by commenting on the Facebook post of this blog entry.

P.S. First person to answer correctly wins a NZXT Sentry Mix because I’m cool like that.

 

- Va T.

Dance Central 2, My Guilty Pleasure

Two weeks ago, I was at Frys Electronics and saw a herd of people surrounding a 50 year old lady dancing in front of a LCD TV. She was performing the  ”Rude Boy” on Dance Central 2 and she was pro. After I went home, I bought the Xbox 360 and the DC2. I have to admit the Dance Central 2 is probably the most interactive and calorie burning dance game I have ever played. This game is so damn fun – only if you get over the embarrassment of how goofy you look trying to imitate the moves on the screen. My best advice is to not play around friends who will record you :)

But anyways, as I was saying, I’m really blown away by how great Dance Central mastered the use of Kinect’s motion sensors. In fact, 80% of the reason I purchased the Xbox 360 was so that I could play this game.  This will keep me entertained until Diablo III comes out. Perhaps this video review might convince you to hold a dance battle in your own living room with your friends!

-Shin F.

Vote for the Phantom for the Hardware.Info Awards 2011!

Do you love the Phantom? Support us for the Hardware.info Awards 2011!

Here’s how you can support us:

Firstly, you will need to register at Hardware.Info here. We realized most of you probably don’t read Dutch so just hit Google translate and it should convert it all into English!

The registration form should look like this:

A confirmation notice should pop up saying this:

This will let you know that you have finished registration and will be getting an email to activate your account. Sign into your email and activate your account and you should be good to go! Start the survery here.

Now you can begin the survey! Vote for your favorite products and be sure to support us in the Best Housing 2011

If you do support us for the survey, we would love to know! We truly appreciate our fans and wouldn’t be here without you.

-Kitty M.