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Seattle, Washington- I unexpectedly became a teemo at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) in Seattle this past weekend during the League of Legends North American Regional Finals. The details are fuzzy. One moment, I was just a normal GUNNAR ambassador meeting with fans, showing off our sleek new Vinyl style, and checking out all the cool games on the show floor. The next thing you know, I grew elfish ears, dawned a green hat, and was running around with a bunch of professional eSports players, filming the action go down. I’m glad to report that the Vinyls survived. For those of you less familiar with League of Legends lore, a “teemo” is a fictional “yordle” character, a swift scout and a legendary champion inside the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), League of Legends.  But I digress…

From August 30^th to September 2^nd, 2012, the GUNNAR team packed up more than a thousand pairs of GUNNARS and trekked up to the great Northwest for what has to be my favorite video game festival of the year, PAX Prime! The show floor was packed with new games including Halo 4 which seems poised to take the pro circuit by storm at MLG Dallas later this fall! At the GUNNAR Experience (Booth 1214), fans were available to try on, buy, and even see pretty girls in costumes wearing GUNNARS.

Now that the dust has settled, I want to share my experience on the show floor, the GUNNAR booth, Riot Games’ League of Legends NA Regional Finals, Valve’s Dota 2 The International, and downtown Seattle. I brought along my cameras so here’s a glimpse of some of the action taking place in coffee eSports capital of the world:

Genesis of a GUNNAR booth:

During set-up, our events manager, Bryan Masucci, placed a camera at the GUNNAR booth to capture the mayhem. Check out all his hard work in our time-lapse video:

GUNNAR Style Experts:

GUNNAR girls Charlene, Nikki, Jessica, Courtney, and Corrine talking lens tech and representing as our resident style experts at GUNNAR Booth #1214

Courtney Bush deep in thought at the GUNNAR Experience. Photo Courtesy of Astro

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The League of Legends North American Regional Finals

GUNNARS were in the spotlight as the League of Legends North American Regionals got underway as Riot transformed the entire 6th floor of the convention center into an eSports extravaganza.

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Team SoloMid took home the championship defeating Dignitas in two quick matches to take the best of three final series. After the victory, Reginald, founder and team captain, boldly proclaimed that it was “The Easiest Finals of our Lives.” With Team SoloMid, Dignitas, and CLG all qualifying for Riot’s Season 3, it’s daggers like these that are only the start of a fierce rivalry. Watch the historic speech here:

The International Hosted by Valve Corporation

Down the street from the Washington State Convention Center, fans were flocking to The International, a yearly Dota 2 eSports championship tournament hosted by Valve. Speaking of bad ass, check out the venue, Benaroya Hall! With the best 16 teams in the world competing for $2 Million in prize money, the competition was pretty fierce. Invictus Gaming took home 1^st place, winning $1M. Check out all the results over at http://www.dota2.com/international/mainevent/results/champions/.

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Cosplay at PAX

And not to forget the cosplay…

Our long time GUNNAR ambassador, Jessica Monda lead the charge at the GUNNAR Experience, rocking the sleek new Vinyls. Here she is pictured with yours truly and making my Teemo hat look extra silly. Check out all those GUNNARS….

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–n8corn