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Introduction
The FiringSquad Editors Challenge sponsored by the Intel® Core™2 Extreme processor has hit an incredible high with Round 2. The entries were so competitive that the top 20 all received votes from our judges, and four of the ones who passed through to the next round didn’t even get votes from at least one judge! That is how close the competition was.
Jakub: Speaking for myself on my choices, I focused on submissions that demonstrated a great deal of work, where the writer showed he was capable of criticism, and for interesting subject matter – in that order. Writing professionally, even as an occasional freelancer, is a great deal more work than most people give it credit for. Thus, in this round and succeeding rounds I expect those exact qualities to shine through in articles. Regardless, it was very difficult picking the finalists and almost all the entries here were of the highest quality. Many professional sites, FiringSquad included, would be proud to have articles as insightful and interesting as these posted professionally. Even if you did not advance to the next round, be proud of yourselves. Thank you to everyone who participated.
JCal: All I have to say is WOW!. Quite frankly when reading the entries in the first two preliminary rounds for this contest I figured it would be very easy to pick the to 10 entries for the second round. I couldn't have been more wrong. Nearly everyone who made it to this second round turned up their writing volume to "11" and in short made the selection process extremely tough. We had some very hard decisions to make but in the end the 10 people who are moving onto the next round in the FiringSquad Editors Challenge wrote some excellent entries and all of them would be great articles for FiringSquad. That means that the next round is going to be even tougher to judge as all of us on the staff combined with the votes by our readers will have to tell some very talented authors that they won't be moving onto the final round. Congrats to all of the 10 authors and good luck going into the next round.
Brandon: Not sure I have anything different to say than what JCal has already said. This was definitely the hardest round to judge because all the submissions were good; for subsequent rounds the entrants will definitely have to pick up their game to make it to the finals. To address one of the main concerns that have been raised, the downvoting, while unfortunate, in the end balances out in my opinion, especially when you factor in the judges scores. Good luck to the final 10, and to those who didn't make it, thank you for participating, hopefully we can continue to do this again in the near future.
Best of luck to everyone in the next round! The competition is remarkably close. Quite honestly I doubt any of us expected things to be so tight this round yet here we are. If you find yourself at the lower end of the bracket be sure in knowing you can jump up with a hit article. Go for the home run!
NVIDIA nForce 780a/ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe Performance Preview
With support for HybridPower, NVIDIA's nForce 780a chipset for the AMD platform is designed to mix SLI performance in games with IGP power draw at idle. But that's not the only feature the new chipset supports. Join us as we go over all the new features introduced in nForce 780a as well as the first board we've received based on the chipset: the ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe!
Spring 2008 PC Build Guide
With the arrival of spring and tax rebate checks in the mail, many of you may be planning on building a new PC soon. In this article, we're highlighting four different PC budgets ranging from $500-$1,500, and one unlimited budget build. If you're wondering which components to consider, you won't want to miss this article!
The Simpsons Game Review
Alex Mebane gives us an in-depth look of The Simpsons Game on the Nintendo Wii in another FiringSquad video review. Check out sweet gameplay footage and plenty of our yellow Springfielders in action.
Cooler Master Cosmos Review
In today's video review, Tom Colarusso gives us the skinny on Cooler Master's new case - Cosmos. Does it mneasure up to the standards we expect from Cooler Master? View the video and see!
3DMark Vantage Overview and Performance
FutureMark has incorporated a number of changes into 3DMark Vantage. The benchmark includes a new suite of tests designed to test 3D performance, GPU-based physics, CPU performance, and CPU/PPU-based physics. Join us as we explore the performance of over two dozen cards ranging from the Radeon 3450 and GeForce 8400 GS all the way up to the GeForce 9800 GX2 and 3870 X2 in CrossFire and SLI configurations. Which card comes out on top in the $50 bracket? $200? $300+? Find out in this article!
Assassin's Creed PC Review
Assassin's Creed finally makes its way to the PC. How does it stack up? Does it meet the Thief legacy? Brett explores this deep philosophical question.
Phenom Goes Triple-Core: AMD's Phenom X3 Processors
AMD is all about choice these days and now it’s giving mainstream users the choice between dual-, triple-, and quad-core processors. Is there room for the odd configuration or are you best served by a more conventional CPU?
Midway Games Press Event Report
JCal writes up his experience with some hands-on games such as TNA, Wheelman and This is Vegas at the Midway Games press event. Check it out along with tons of yummy screenshots.
EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GT Akimbo SC Review
EVGA’s e-GeForce 8800 GT Akimbo takes one part value GPU and one part aftermarket cooling to create a powerful DirectX 10 board that delivers overclocked performance for less than $300 bucks.
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