It was a wild, wild bunch during the Midnight Launch in COG TOWN event last night!  Gears of War 3 fans put sleep on hold for a night to come out to the Best Buy in Dallas for an “epic” celebration and launch.  They were lined up outside to feed their competitive juices in the Gears of War 2 Horde Challenge and to ultimately usher in one of the most anticipated titles this year.

The event kicked off promptly at 10PM with a live broadcast of the Horde Mode challenge in Gears of War 2.  Wave after wave of fans put their best Lancer forward and tried to get the most points in one round of Horde.  They were battling it out for some incredible prizes courtesy of Best Buy and a special gift from Plantronics.  Plantronics provided the X40 headsets to provide some kick ass audio sound for the tournament.  Yes I’m a fan of their headsets!

The battle went down to the final buzzer and a winner was crowned.  He walked away with a copy of the game, a Gears of War 3 controller and a surprising pair of X40 headsets.  And that wasn’t all because the runner-up got the same surprise with a copy of the game and a pair of headsets too.  Hosting events sucks when you’re not on the prize list! (kidding)

During the tournament, I was catering to a hysterical crowd who had their eyes on the bags of swag I was carrying around.  Who doesn’t love free prizes eh?  Thanks to the awesomeness of the Xbox 360 community, I had tons of things to give away for lucky Gears of War 3 fans.  There was a riot nearly I must admit but a very awesome one.  Did I mention the secret Gamertag that was in play?  If you found the secret Gamertag and sent a message to it, then you could win the official Gears of War 3 countdown clock!

Here’s a little footage from the event that I posted so check it out.  There’s an HD version of the video if you’re interested so just click to adjust the resolution.

I also ended up with the Limited Edition of Gears of War 3 so stay tuned for an Edition Examiner feature on it this week.  There are photos of the event for your viewing pleasure right here .. yes click here.  If you want an unedited look at the tournament courtesy of the live broadcast, head over to the Live Channel.

I wanted to give a special thanks to Marie Domingo and the team at Plantronics for supplying the audio for the event with the X40 headsets.   A big shout out to DMZilla and PJ from Team Microsoft in Redmond who both went above and beyond to help make the event swagtastic.  And also to the local Xbox rep in Dallas for bringing some awesome prizes to the event (and a pretty face on top of that).  And last but not least a big shout to the Best Buy 1033 crew and everyone who came out to help launch in Gears of War 3!

I hope you come down and tune in for the next midnight launch event!