Staff vs. Community
We promised you a shot at us (well, more than one, otherwise the Slayer games in particular would have been over very quickly...) and even the acute fear of utter and highly publicised embarrassment which preyed upon our minds leading up to this evening wasn't going stop us delivering on that. After running out of people who we even have a chance of beating out there in the big, wide world of Halo communities, we huddled round and decided to just pick on you guys. And you were game as ever, poor fools...
Don't let the rather lopsided teams detailed below fool you, we're not stupid enough to let you gang up on us like that, that's how revolutions start. Instead we spent the evening switching up teams so that as many players as possible got to bask in our coloured glory, 'cause we're nice like that. If you'd like a literary summation of said glory, then do read on, but before we begin I'd like to take a moment to thank those present in the first game for their patience as we underwent the now traditional scramble to amass a Staff team on such short incredibly long notice. We appreciate it.
[l-col]Staff
Black Theorem
HomerSPC
iGotUrPegasi
NlBBLES[/l-col][r-col]Community
daboiboibert
GrenadeGorilla8
iTz CHEEZ3
iTzz Longshot
Leirfos
Nutduster
Rorak Kuroda
Scorch199
SGTRmadillo[/r-col]
Game 1
MLG CTF 5 on Aztec
With the initial gametype choice left up to yours truly, I opted for a map that I'd been itching to try out with a good CTF game, namely Aztec by Blackprinze from over at the MLG Forge forum. This map was unfamiliar to the majority of both teams, and the Community team appeared to be the ones capitalising on this as they pulled our flag almost off the bat and secured an early cap. We managed to get our act together before they were able to repeat and quickly got to grips with the map's layout, immediately becoming more aggressive and matching each of their flag pulls with one of our own.
It's called timing, Hotshy.
Whilst this resulted in more than a few standoffs, as MLG CTF 5 rules require the flag to be at home to score a capture, I was able to take on the role of sneaky beaver and return our flag before our opponents could return the favour. In the confusion of the mid game the Community were able to sneak a quick cap past us, but this spurred us back in to a more coordinated pattern of attack and worked slowly but steadily towards an untainted victory from that point onwards.
Final Score
Staff -5
Community - 2
http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Reach/GameStats.aspx?gameid=608758045&player=iGotUrPegasi
Game 2
Team DMRs on Analogue
Now becoming a solid SNF favourite, the next map in our night's lineup was Analogue by Black Theorem, which appeared in our last showdown against BWO under its then name of Hari Kari. For some obscure reason, I thought the best option open to me off the initial spawn was to rush down low in a foolhardy and unfocused manner. What's even more surprising is that it worked. After somehow using this rush to control Sniper even though it wasn't at all my intention, I then proceeded to put shots on opponents whilst hightailing it away from any situation which left me feeling uneasy (and I have a very weak constitution when it comes to top-control dominated maps, I can tell you), even picking up a few cheeky kills in the process.
My blue glow outranks yours, fear me...
I can only guess that the rest of my team must have found similar success with our bottom heavy (ahem) strat as we pulled away to an early lead. Whilst the Community managed to bring things a little closer as we resorted to an instinctive top control approach and began to slow things down, we quickly reverted to what worked and fell back on our superior ability to out run and out flank our opponents on the lower levels. The Staff proved adept at avoiding situations which would have left us prey to enemies with a height advantage, and generally doing exactly what BWO had done to us last time around. It may sound a little counterintuitive, but it sure as hell worked, and we secured a convincing victory to place us with a 2-0 lead in the overall series.
Final Score
Staff - 50
Community - 35
http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Reach/GameStats.aspx?gameid=608803921&player=iGotUrPegasi
Game 3
Oddball on Club Crater
Offering the map choice up to our Community opponents in an attempt to level the playing field a bit, Frozenlynx (AKA daboiboibert) stepped up to the plate and put on his own creation, Club Crater, for some skull-gripping madness. Described by its creator as a mix between the Halo 3: ODST Firefight map Crater and Midship/Heretic, the layout was easy enough to understand from the start that we were able to secure early Ball control and bring it back to our base.
Whilst my ball-clutching compadre relaxes in his bubble bath, I fight like a man.
Exhilarated at my initial selfless and objective-oriented approach, I convinced myself I was going to play the team game this time and be there for my buddies in red. However, I promptly abandoned that idea and instead proceeded to run around killing everyone I could find. As for how the actual gametype went, we learned two very key lessons: 1) you need more respawn points than just the initial spawns, and 2) Drop Shield should never, ever, ever be allowed in an Oddball gametype. There were definitely shaky moments, and the Community managed to get the Ball back to their base and mimic our setup for a good while until I brought down the hammer. However, a steely resolve and quick thinking from us kept the ball in our court, both figuratively and literally, for enough of the game to secure another solid win.
Final Score
Staff - 289
Forge Hub - 115
http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Reach/GameStats.aspx?gameid=608830267&player=iGotUrPegasi
Game 4
Team Slayer on Ouroboros
This was originally going to be a three game series, but since we were having such a good time (or rather we were on a roll and wanted to milk it for all it was worth), we decided to extend it to 5 games and keep the challengers coming. Continuing the theme of maps forged by our Community opponents, we loaded up Ourboros by our newly acquired foe, Nutduster. This was the only game of the night that didn't feature DMR starts, not something I'd normally be too fond of, but even I couldn't complain at how this one played out.
It was never going to end well for Blue Team, but even Nostradamus couldn't have seen this one coming.
I learned the DMR spawns quickly and they encouraged a satisfying amount of flow and certain aspects of map control to obtain. Pistol battles, where necessary, were also engaging and entertaining. The Staff used the side ramps for timely and sneaky pounce attacks or, more often, quick getaways, and also I persisted in Strongsiding it around the small pits below the main DMR spawns to great effect. Not only did we finally secure our steak dinner, but BT closed out the game with a truly epic stick, netting him a triple kill and sending our final score to an unexpected 52.
Final Score
Staff - 52
Community - 23
http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Reach/GameStats.aspx?gameid=608851178&player=iGotUrPegasi
Game 5
Team DMRs on Gallium
Feeling pretty confident in our ability to trounce the Community players even on their own finely crafted creations, we decided to make it a hat trick and asked alreadyRogue (AKA SGTRmadillo) to load up his latest creation, Gallium. However, our cocky attitude did not serve us well, and as the maps 3v3 recommendation stripped us of our lucky charm in Noobles, we were in for a rough ride. We fought tooth and nail to try and keep the game even from the very start, but the Community pulled ahead just short of the 10 kill mark and stayed there for the majority of the game. After the pleasure cruise that we'd been experiencing up until this point in the evening, being on the back foot really knocked our confidence and we were having to work really hard to even stay in the game. Map control and teamwork just weren't coming naturally to us, and we found ourselves being pinched from along our spawn corridor and top mid, with our own poor control of these areas really showing.
The Three Musketeers never got trapped in their spawn like this, I can tell you that much.
This rendered us less than happy campers, in that even our attempts at slow play were met with strong and decisive attacks from our opponents, who kept us pushed in the pit below our spawn for much of the game. It took all that we had just to keep it close, but as we pulled in front near the end we realised that victory was still a possibility. Once we'd built up from this glint of confidence and secured the lead we just played smart and safe, sticking together and ensuring that any death resulted in a cleaned up kill for us as well. It just about pulled us through, and we managed to take the game to time and maintain our unbeaten record with a 5-0 sweep.
Final Score
Staff - 48
Community - 41
http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Reach/GameStats.aspx?gameid=608869462&player=iGotUrPegasi
It's at this point that I should probably mention something which may or may not have some bearing on the rather skewed results which you have just seen detailed: I had host every game. That's right. Every. Single. Game. If you want to know what that's like, ask Rorak, Reflex or Ladnil about it, or just play me in a 1v1 and experience it for yourself. How much this helped towards my stellar performances is something I'll leave for each of you to judge, but I'm sticking firmly with 'not in the slightest.' Despite none of them outplaying us enough to nab a custom title (or maybe precisely because of that), we'd like to thank every one of the community members who came out to play us last week. We certainly had a great time, and we'd hope you enjoyed the evening a suitable amount less, but still enough so that we don't have to feel bad about it.
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