The E3 show was a big success for Fatal1ty. The Fatal1ty booth featuring Creative, ABIT, and Zalman was packed with show attendees as soon as the show opened on May 18. The booth had everything going on - from shootouts with Johnathan 'Fatal1ty' Wendel to Abit's ACON5 LAN tournament to Creative launching the eagerly awaited X-Fi technology. Mind you, this was not just some technology announcement. This was launching two major breakthroughs in audio technology: Xtreme Fidelity, the new standard in audio, and the Creative X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity audio processor. The combination of both these technologies provide dramatic improvements to the recording and playback of MP3 music, accelerates and improves PC game play, enhances listening experiences for movies, and improves the capabilities, performance and quality of audio creation. Click here for more X-Fi details.
Customers and press alike were awed by the virtualization and high definition quality of this hot new technology. We also showcased our notebook audio solution - PCMCIA Sound Blaster® Audigy® 2 ZS Notebook and the very popular MP3 players at the show. Notebook users are no longer stuck with the poor audio that comes standard with their notebook computers; they can now enjoy Sound Blaster quality, multi-channel audio with their laptops. PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook brings huge improvement over the baseline integrated audio. To top it off, it also supports the defacto audio standard for PC gaming - EAX® ADVANCED HD™. Now users can truly immerse themselves in gaming even when they use a notebook computer! People were amazed at the range of products that Creative manufactures - from awesome MP3 players, to sound cards, speakers and headphones. People were waiting in line for at least 45 minutes to an hour to view all these demonstrations.
A Fatal1ty shootout was set up at the stage twice a day. The shootout attracted large crowds of people eager to play Unreal Tournament 2004 against him. The crowd watched in amazement at his gaming talent. During the 3 days of the shootout, Fatal1ty scored over 1200 kills while the combined total of all the challengers was minus 5. Despite the fact that Johnathan has been playing PainKiller in the last few months, he chose to play UT2004 for the shootout since it is a game title with a larger user base and of course, a more fun game to watch due to its pace and range of maps. Johnathan took on all level of contenders from amatuer to top pro-gamer. The crowd had a real treat when the top UT2004 players - Laurens "lauke" Pluijmaekers, ranked #1 in the world, plus Sean Steele and Burby Harris, two of the top UT2004 players - played Johnathan. Laurens, Sean and Burby are all great UT2004 players. They know the map and the game inside out. The result - they took the US$2500 winning cheque home. Johnathan had a great time playing the top players. He was thrilled that the guys took home a hefty sum.
After all, by setting up the Fatal1ty shootout challenge, Johnathan is providing a way of giving back to the gaming community, which has brought him so much success and licensing deals.
Photos from the event:
