This morning on techPowerUp forums, a discussion was going on about the newest Thermaltake eSports mouse: the Black Element Cyclone Edition. It seems that it created a lot of polarizing opinions about its aesthetic (it has a detachable external fan), but one comment really stood out:
That’s a comment from XNine, an NZXT rep, calling the new mouse “More esports garbage … What a joke.”
NZXT PR must be going crazy right about now
The comment was redacted but the internet never forgets. The post was quoted for posterity. The user XNine apologized a bit later, with the standard ‘The post was my personal opinion, not NZXT’s‘ boilerplate response.
Thermaltake’s Ramsom Koay didn’t like the comment one bit. Not one bit. He posted on Facebook a very clear statement showing exactly how he felt:
As you can see, Ramsom takes no prisoners. On his Facebook post, he writes
“Seriously NZXT, is business that bad? or not enough designs to show off? or just trolling. Yeah, I heard you just trolled Thermaltake hard. I take it as a compliment of your company inability to think and lack of capability to stand up. I bet NZXT have change their policy to destroy and bad mouthing other to gain success.”
This message is approved by Ramsom.
The small world of tech PR
The world of enthusiast and tech PR is really small. At trade shows like CES, Computex, and E3 you see the same faces over and over again. I know reps from both of these companies quite well. In fact, when I was on my NZXT suite tour at CES 2012, Ramsom came up to hang out with the CEO of NZXT. These guys are all friends.
And that’s exactly why I witnessed this whole exchange with a grin on my face. When you read the forum posts and responses, keep in mind that these people drink and party together.
I won’t go so far as to say this was a well crafted troll to bring attention to both companies, but at the end of the day, company reps from both sides will be laughing about this at a bar.
Hey NZXT and Thermaltake: We don’t want to see you guys mad at each other. Now kiss and make up!
Update:
See? They made up already. Tuan Nguyen from NZXT posted this on the techPowerUp thread:
“Hi guys –
Tuan here from NZXT. The entire company apologizes for what went down here. It was totally uncalled for, and not representative of us on any level — community, or corporate. I actually called Ramsom Koay, the director of marketing for Thermaltake and had a talk with him. Thankfully, he and I are close!
And this is the way it should be. It’s a close knit community — there’s no reason to degenerate down to the level of flaming or bashing.
NZXT would like to ask for your forgiveness! Honestly.
Also, please forgive XNine — he has a case of pinkeye.For the record, ThermalTake and NZXT have agreed to take a picture together and post to our Facebook to show that we’re actually bed buddies — lol.”