Forge Hub vs NeoGAF
Just shy of a week ago, a handful of Forge Hub staff members locked horns with some of the more Halo minded members over at NeoGAF. Now if you haven't heard of NeoGAF then seriously, where have you been? They're one of the most prominent and long-standing gaming communities out there, known for strong developer presences in their userbase and an even stronger community focus on maturity and conduct. If you want to see how the games played out for yourself, then check out these videos courtesy of BladedExpert: Game One pt. I, Game One pt. II, Game Two and Game Three.
Team Forge Hub
chrstphrbrnnn
iGotUrPegasi
Insane54
Roche178
Team NeoGAF
BladedExpert
bobs99
Hydranockz
vhfive
Game 1: vh flag on vh Pit
We kicked off with NeoGAF's choice of map and gametype, their own take on Pit CTF which takes the MLG and standard variants, meeting them somewhere in the middle. Pretty much from the off, Team NeoGAF were sat on our training sniping anything that spawned, we were totally trapped on our side of the map as they pretty much had their way with us. Soon they saw fit to pull the flag and ran it round training side, something we would have been more surprised by in normal circumstances, but clearly sword side was where the NeoGAF guys felt more at home. Somehow we managed to finally fight off our spawn enough to pull their flag, distracting their attention and allowing us to retake some control of our side. It looked like we might even turn this random pull in to a cap, but somehow they had managed to plant a sniper on our tower and he put a stop to our efforts. Though we did manage to keep the momentum going and eventually secured a cap of our own, pulling us level. But, rather poetically, this only acted as a red flag to the bull of Team NeoGAF and they retorted with another firm cap. We threw attack after attack at their base but they managed to hold strong until the timer ended it for us, sending the guys from the GAF one up in the series.
Final Score:
Forge Hub: 1
Team NeoGAF: 2
The story of this game...
Game 2: MLG TS 7 on MLG Quarantine
For our choice of map we deferred to Insane, who, in a stroke of genius, decided to put on iTs_NeXn's latest, Quarantine. Part of the MLG H3FF Map Pack 2, Quarantine is a beautiful piece of forging and no mistake, but it is also a map with which none of us were really familiar. This looked not to matter too much, as we got off to an early though small lead and things looked ok. But they quickly got more to grips with the map than us, and ensured that they were in position of sniper after sniper. Team Forge Hub was punished whenever we entered the long open areas of the map, and even when we retreated to the enclosed central area they used the long lines of sight to pick us off steadily. Our slaying wasn't too far wrong and a step up from game one, but our efforts were largely unguided and somewhat uncoordinated, whereas they played it smart and ran as twos or threes when it counted. Even when we ran in to a lone enemy we generally found ourselves promptly no scoped and finished off. Eventually they pulled away further and further towards a comfortable win, sending them two up in the series and relegating the final game, as is so often the case with our SNFs, to a somewhat token gesture.
Final Score:
Forge Hub: 39
Team NeoGAF: 50
Don't let this screen fool you, it didn't turn out well
Game 3: Team BRs on Ber Ber Creek
Game 3 was played on a very solid remake of the Halo classic Beaver (or Battle) Creek, and Team Forge Hub again managed to secure an early lead, pulling away to 10-4 with a T2 -esque sniper/rocket double from yours truly. True to form, Team NeoGAF quickly caught up and pulled ahead by a hair's breadth, and a fight for control ensued with the score ebbing ever upwards but never pulling more than two points in either team's favour. Around the mid 20's, however, NeoGAF's lead kept started to increase slowly, and we swiftly realised that they were almost 10 kills ahead with only 8 to go. Before we knew it, they had shortened this final stretch to being 2 kills away from a 3-0 sweep on a thoroughly embarrassed Team Forge Hub, and we were still tagging behind with a measly 40 kills. We chose this moment to go utterly pro, pulling from 40 to 47 kills without giving up a death, at which point they snagged their 49th kill making things even more tense, but we whored blue base just enough to pull level. It was one kill either way and we quickly took advantage of their newly found passive attitude, as we pushed out and I charged headstrong to the front caught BladedExpert on his own, taking the 50th kill for one of the most epic yet ultimately pointless comebacks ever. Final result: Team NeoGAF wins two games to one.
Final Score:
Forge Hub: 50
Team NeoGAF: 49
Do a Tsquared!
We'd like to thank the NeoGAF guys for turning out, and thank them slightly less sincerely for pretty much dominating us. Props also go out to Dani from NeoGAF, who liased with our own Roche178 to make last week's match happen but was unable to attend himself, along with vhfive who also helped organise the match and lead the NeoGAF team, we had a great night.
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