Gigabyte Blowout: Winners Announcement – who goes home with the AMD 7970?

Our massive Gigabyte Blowout Competition is now over, and what a competition it was! With nearly 170 entries, including some amazing cakes and illustrations, it was harder than ever before to pick the winners. But winners had to be picked, and so here we present to you the best of the best, including some very wonderful honourable mentions.

Thanks to everybody who entered for helping to make this such an amazing competition! My one regret is that we didn’t have 170 graphics cards to give away.

Winners, please check your forum PM’s very shortly for details on how to claim your prizes!

Drawing Category

WINNER: Nizbort

Honourable Mention: Eggheart

Honourable Mention: spaztik

Honourable Mention: rymick

Special mention also to WhiteRAZOR, whose excellent long-form entry couldn’t quite fit on this page!

Writing Category

WINNER: pportmann

My best ever piece of hardware was exactly that: hardware. A ¾ inch zinc plated hex nut. What does this have to do with gaming? Well, many years ago, FPS games didn’t have the option of auto-run like you whippersnappers have now, so we used to weight the shift key down with a sizeable hex nut so we’d always be running. So many memories playing Doom using the chainsaw to take out the other players across coax cable spread from room to room. Unfortunately, I no longer possess the nut, but even today, we still recall the good old days of how something so simple made a great game better… I guess you could say we all put our nuts on the line back then.

Honourable Mention: meji

My Radeon 9700 Pro, on opening it boomed “SWEAR FEALTY!” I thrust the box to the sky and intoned “Sure!” Nestled into his AGP throne he roared; “MOAR POWA!”, a hungry and savagely beautiful silicon beast.

That Lord of Gaming was nestled back into his box, now at peace, and was safely stored away. There he rests, in death still the Messiah of Gaming.

Honourable Mention: exe3

Failin’ on live, I felt I wasn’t burnin’ rubber.
Everyone’s staring as I cross the line-a last-a.
I need a machine to make me go a whole lot fasta.
Need to go a lot more fasta.
I’m a Logi man.
Not Fanatec their pricings high.
A Logi man.
The Thrustmaster ain’t worth my time.
A Logi man.
Logitech
G-27
You’re all mad cause my wheel is awesome!
Jelly mad. HEY! You’re jelly mad. HEY!
You’re all mad cause my wheel is awesome!
Jelly mad. HEY! You’re jelly mad. HEY!
You can race me but it always ends the same.
OP Racing Wheel
O-O-O-O-OP
Painful I know.
Losing to me I know.
Not long ago it was me in last place I know.
Painful I know.
The tides have turned I know.
Maybe maybe it’s time for my skill to show.
You know what i’m saying?
O-O-O-O-OP
OP Racing Wheel

Honourable Mention: stage

The finest piece of hardware I ever had the pleasure to own was my Logitech MX-1000 Wireless Laser Mouse. This bulky high-tech marvel beautifully fit my oafish oversized hand. It served me well through FPSs and MMOs, enduring millions of clicks; when the left mouse button wore out, I salvaged a replacement switch rather than even consider replacing the mouse, for by this time the MX-1000 was venerable indeed and no longer sold. The comfortable coating was long since worn off, plastic beneath worn smooth from years of service, and the aluminium badge on the rear had been dissolved in half by my sweat before falling off. Sadly, when the middle mouse button was worn out I could not find a replacement, and had to retire my right hand tool of choice. The mouse I use now is technically far superior, yet I can’t help but miss that magnificent mouse.

Baking Category

WINNER: Tyderian

Honourable Mention: Makena

Honourable Mention: WhiteKnight210

Honourable Mention: rbrook

Please join me in giving our winners and all our honourable mentions a big round of applause!