Event Coverage

MSI Beat It 2013 Grand Finals - Battle of the Titans

By Joy Hou - 2 Dec 2013

MSI Beat It 2013 & Official Gaming Gear

MSI Takes CS:GO Competitions to New Heights

To date, the MSI Beat It 2013 Grand Finals is the largest-scale CS:GO tournament.

Most gamers and cybersports aficionados will know that fnatic, an insanely popular professional esports organization, had acquired MSI as one of their sponsors, back in 2008. Since then, fnatic has been working closely with MSI to incorporate ever-evolving technology in developing gaming notebooks and hardware peripherals to satisfy the growing demands of a typical mainstream gamer. So far, we think the collaboration has been working swell as we've high regards for some of MSI's gaming grade hardware like the Z77 and Z87 gaming motherboards, MSI R9 280X Gaming 3G graphics card, and even their gaming notebooks like the MSI GE40 2OC Dragon Eyes and their top of the line MSI GT70 series gaming notebook that has even topped our prestigious HWZ+HWM Tech Awards: Editor's Choice selection in the Gaming Notebooks category for 2013. Will they continue their winning streak in 2014? We'll find out in a few months.

To boost MSI's profile in the gaming industry, MSI has been hosting gaming events annually since 2010. However, this is the first time Patrik "cArn" Sättermon, Chief Gaming Officer of fnatic, is partnering the former to roll out the MSI Beat It 2013 tournament on an international level, in a bid to generate more awareness for CS:GO (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive), an online first-person shooter which many cyberathletes (including the fnatic CS team) had transited to after CS 1.6 gradually antiquated.

The zone where all stage matches was held and audience seated.

Held at Shijingshan Stadium, Beijing, from the 22nd to 24th November, 17 top CS:GO teams (that’s 85 players) from their respective countries contended for the top honor. Open to the public, the MSI Beat It 2013 Grand Finals consisted of two legs: the SEA finals (22nd Nov) and the Global finals (23rd-24th Nov). In addition to fnatic, another MSI sponsored team, NearlyGod (representing Thailand) participated in this gaming event.

An overview of the gaming arena.

Competitors plugging in equipment, configuring settings, doing dry runs, etc, before the competition officially commenced.

Ex  fnatic in-game strat caller and one of the most critically acclaimed former CS 1.6 players, Patrik "cArn" Sättermon, giving an opening speech. Since 2012, he has been serving as Chief Gaming Officer of fnatic.


Official Gaming Gear

All players competed on the MSI GT70 20C gaming notebooks; each powered on an Intel Haswell Core i7 processor with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M 4GB GDDR5 graphics engine. This unit is basically a platform updated version of the the MSI GT70 0NE that clinched our vote as the Best Gaming Notebook in this year's Tech Awards.

Theodore of Flash e-Sports (Singapore team) doing a dummy run. The GT70 is hooked up to the Eizo FORIS FS2333 gaming monitor.

MSI GT70 20C at a glance:-

  • Windows 8.1 platform
  • 4th gen Intel Core i7 processor
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M discrete graphics engine
  • Exclusive Super RAID 2 with Triple SSD RAID (read speeds of over 1500Mbps)
  • Exclusive Cooler Boost 2 technology (improves 15% cooling performance with lower fan noise)
  • Exclusive NOS design (enhances 10% GPU performance)
  • Matrix display (max. 4 displays for extreme gaming or multi-tasking)
  • Killer DoubleShot (combines high performance Ethernet and Wi-Fi for superior speed and lower latency of online gaming and streaming)
  • Keyboard by SteelSeries (full color LED backlighting, supports simultaneous key pressing)

You can read more about this from our review of the older GT70 model.

The GT70 was also plugged into the Eizo (a Japanese manufacturer of monitors) FORIS FS2333. The 23-inch LCD display packs Eizo’s Smart Insight technology which enhances visuals. This is beneficial for FPS gamers, especially those playing CS:GO, as its game maps feature many dark corners.

Eizo Foris FS2333 at a glance:-

  • Super-Resolution technology
  • IPS panel
  • LED backlight
  • Almost zero input lag
  • 2 x HDMI, 24-pin DVI-D, 15-pin D-Sub
  • Audio in, Audio out
  • Remote control

At the gaming venue, MSI also showcased its gaming notebooks, motherboards, graphics cards, and All-in-One PCs, where the visitors could have a hands-on.

Models posing with MSI's gaming products.

MSI gaming motherboards and graphics cards.

MSI gaming notebooks.

A desktop featuring the MSI Z87-GD65 gaming motherboard and MSI GeForce GTX 780 gaming graphics card.

Another 23.5-inch gaming monitor from Eizo, the Foris FG2421, was also on display.

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