Wow! Top-notch response to set things right, GIGABYTE! I hope many overclockers respond to this news post expressing their appreciation towards GIGABYTE for this high-class act.

Go OC 2010 is well on its way and the China, Pan Asia & Africa, Latin America and Euro regional finals have all been completed. In each event the CPUs used were B1 stepping Core i7 980x engineering samples (ES). We also had some B0 stepping CPUs that were used at each event for live demos. Now, those of you who have been following the 980x CPU overclocking scene will know that the B1 stepping ES samples are better overclockers than the B1 stepping samples – hence the choice of B1 for the competition.

This year, for the first time, GIGABYTE included Latin America in Go OC and as is often the case with first time events, there was a mix-up with the CPUs and three B0 steppings were mistakenly handed out together with five B1 stepping chips. As is the rule with all Go OC events, the winner, Sebastian from Columbia, was allowed to change his B0 CPU (he requested to change) and went on to win the event. However, Ronaldo and Lalo didn’t realise that they were the only ones using B0 CPUs until after the event, so didn’t feel the need to change their CPUs. Ronaldo brought this to our attention, and so with a red face we want to officially apologize to Ronaldo and Lalo for our mistake and invite them to compete at the North American Go OC regional finals on August 7th.

Rita and her team in LA have graciously agreed to set up two more overclocking stations for the Latin Americans who will compete under the same rules as the other participants. If Ronaldo or Lalo achieve the same or higher score as the first and second place winners, they will qualify for a ticket to Taiwan to compete in the Go OC 2010 global final.

I’d like to wish Ronaldo and Lalo the very best of luck, and look forward to (hopefully) meeting them in Taiwan at the end of September.