GUNNAR Optiks – gaming never looked so clear.

The past month has been painted orange and black as FnaticMSI has taken the world by storm along with GUNNAR Optiks.  FnaticMSI.Halo Reach ran through the competition in Providence Rhode Island at the MLG National Championships.  Defeating the two best teams from Europe, and long-time rivals, Status Quo – FnaticMSI.Halo were making a name for themselves.  In the end, the boys finished the season at 4th place, claiming $28,000.  Cory ‘Str8 Sick’ Sloss also claimed himself another $4,000 on top of that as he battled his way to the top of the BIC Flex4 FFA Challenge, crowning himself as the undisputed Halo Reach FFA Champion of the world.

Rain had an impressive run earlier at MLG Anaheim

Over in Europe the Counter-Strike 1.6 team was busy practicing for MSI BEAT IT Kiev when GUNNAR came aboard and the boys followed up with their first top placing in some months.  Following Kiev, the team flew to Sweden in order to play in the DreamHack MSI BEAT IT Grand Finals.  The team followed up their performance in Kiev with a stunning display, tearing through the competition winning their last major event of the year, taking home $14,000 and five MSI GT780 Laptops.

FnaticMSI.CS 1.6 First Place at DreamHack MSI BEAT IT

The Counter-Strike team wasn’t the only team winning at DreamHack.  The FnaticMSI two time undefeated Heroes of Newerth team took their third straight DreamHack event in glorious fashion, proving to the world why they are the undisputed champions of the world.

FnaticMSI.HoN First Place at DreamHack MSI BEAT IT

Needless to say, GUNNAR Optiks and FnaticMSI came together at the perfect time, and with the new glasses the guys can practice for hours on end without the usual strain on their eyes causing them problems.  We caught up with Patrik ‘cArn’ Sättermon and Kyle ‘Chig’ Lawson before they headed out for the weekend to compete in their tournaments.

We wanted to know what their initial impressions of the glasses were when they first heard about them,

“I was a bit sceptical initially as I thought this was just another gadget that could not give you any benefits in gaming.” – cArn
“I was just kind of skeptical about how a lens could help so much with a person's eyes, wasn't for sure how it could work.” – Chig

It is no secret in the gaming industry – especially when it comes to gear that promise results instantly, that professional gamers approach with caution.  After having tried the glasses himself and played a few matches with them, Chig had this to say,

“I could tell a huge difference about 30 minutes into my gaming session. My eyes usually got really dry and I would start to lose focus because of it. But that didn't happen at all.” – Chig

Chig being interviewed by MLG at the National Championships

We also wanted to find out if the specially engineered iONIK lens tint works and whether it made any difference or if the yellow tint bothered the players,

“No not at all. It's not a very big difference at all. Just the white coloring in the game is a little bit "yellow-er", but yeah, its not that big of a change really.” – Chig
“Not at all, it´s not more annoying than switching between different monitors time to time as every model has it´s own presets in terms of brightness and contrast. In fact, I find it very pleasant on my eyes as we have to play so many hours every day to stay on the highest level.” – cArn

The iONIK tint is also supposed to allow for endless hours of gameplay – helping your eyes recover more quickly to harsh lighting conditions.  Chig said noticed a huge difference when it came to the longevity of his gaming sessions,

“Yeah I definitely notice a difference in the length of our practices and when I play online. Like I said, my eyes used to get really dry and used to burn, but ever since I started using them, I've been able to game for a lot longer without having to take any breaks.” – Chig

Another big issue that most gamers seemed to be wary of was the fact that when you are wearing headphones, it pushes your glasses into the side of your head, making it very uncomfortable.  We asked cArn whether this was the case, and if when he spends hours during practice with his headphones on overtop of the glasses, whether it wears on him,

“They are pretty comfortable when I wear them with my SteelSeries Siberia v2 headphones. After a little while though, without any breaks, they do tend to hurt the tops of my ears and my head around my ears. It could be because I don't have a lot of hair, but after taking a little break it's right back to being pretty comfortable” – Chig
“Even that I´m using the Gunnar Anime, which is a very casual eye-wear with thicker frame, I don´t get any discomfort from using them together with my SteelSeries 7H headsets.” – cArn

cArn earlier this year at IEM NYC helping promote GUNNAR Optiks

Finally when asked if they would recommend the glasses to anyone to use regularly, they responded,

“I would recommend it to the hardcore gamers that cares about their vision.” – cArn
“Yeah I recommend them to anyone that games or uses computers for long periods of time! My cousin just asked about them because he started gaming and he's seen me saying how awesome they are, and my mom works as an accountant, so she's on computers all day and they are both really interested in getting them. I couldn't imagine gaming or working every day for 8 hour shifts on a computer without wearing Gunnar Optiks to help your eyes.” – Chig

Looking to follow up their amazing success at DreamHack MSI BEAT IT, FnaticMSI’s Heroes of Newerth team will be taking part in the North American Star League in Ontario California this weekend.  Already earning themselves a top four position – they will battle it out against other top European and American teams to see who takes home the grand prize of $20,000!

Why do you need GUNNARS?

Stay tuned to Fnatic.com and make sure to find us on Facebook and Twitter as we bring you updates LIVE from the event all weekend long with GUNNAR Optiks!