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| HALO: Running Riot Invitational Summary | |
| Posted By: emildlux <emil@cobaltnova.com> | Date: 10/22/02 2:39 a.m. |
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To truly experience the HALO: Running Riot Invitational I recommend you turn on your favorite psyche-up music and read on. It was an *INCREDIBLE* event that brought together 16 4-man teams from around the Southwest, with a little Great Lakes flavor from Ohio thrown in for good measure. Before we get into the team-by-team breakdown, the prizes, and unbelievable moments there are some people whose help was indispensable to pulling off 12 hours of non-stop Halo without a snag: PEOPLE
COMPANIES
ORGANIZATIONS
The following, in alphabetical order, is a summary of each team's performance. Vital statistics include: name, final rank, team members, chapter affiliation, hometown, rounds won/lost, games won/lost, Strength of Schedule Double-Elimination, and Strength of Schedule Overall. The strength of schedule statistics takes each team's final rank and examines how difficult a road a particular team had to hoe throughout the day. The Strength of Schedule Double-Elimination counts all those games in which a team was still fighting for the $1,000 prize. The Strength of Schedule Overall counts all the games a team played throughout the day (excluding rounds won by forfeit). A score of 100 means that particular team had to face the strongest teams all day long. A score of 80 means that a particular teams schedule was 80% as difficult as the most difficult. For those of you in New Jersey: the higher the number the harder the schedule. Team Name :THE A-TEAM
We started out with a classic, CTF on Blood Gulch with Warthogs, and it was on this map that The A-Team was involved in the first of several of the day's epic matches. While five of the seven other match-ups ended 3-0, Wally and crew were locked in what would eventually become the only 3-2 CTF game of Round One. Wally did his best to lead his team to victory, scoring 92 kills (2nd highest of all 16 teams) but it was Hack's second flag score that ended the game, and elicited whoops and high-fives from Gaidin's team. Undeterred The A-Team stepped it up a notch winning the next two games, and therefore the round, handily. (The first round definitely belonged to Wally who again was second in kills out of 64 players in Slayer on Prisoner.) Unfortunately the next two rounds did not go as well. First the Dark Matter and then The Village People teams shut them out. Disheartened and out of the running for the first place prize The A-Team threw in the towel for the rest of the day and left the premises. Team Name : DARK MATTER
I knew that the team had a pair of really good players on it because they had recently took 1st and 3rd place in our local Free-for-All championship but I had no idea that the rest of their team could bring it this well. They go down in my book as the surprise team of the tournament as I had predicted at least 4 other local teams finishing ahead of them. One of those teams I though would best them would be The Village People, who they met in the first round. After seeing that DM had lost 3-1 on Blood Gulch CTF I assumed they would lose the round. But it was DM_Texas who resurrected his team in the next two games grabbing the ball for 6:52 minutes (4rd highest time total for the entire tournament Ball or KOTH) and leading in kills in game three. Having proven themselves they went on to sweep the next two rounds and find themselves in the Winner’s Bracket championship against The Specialists. The winner between these two teams would earn a two round bye and guarantee themselves a spot in the $1,000 Championship Round. Unfortunately for them, the hometown boys got swept by the San Diego Specialists. Not only was the round not pretty but the DM team began to turn on each other a bit; some snipping between the team was observed. Furious at their loss they obliterated Team Marathon 3-0 in Round Five. (DM_Pyro almost set the Invitational record but nevertheless had the second highest ball total at 8:06 minutes while Team Marathon could only muster :50 seconds. Sick.). DM next found themselves in the loser’s bracket finals against 272 JDR. The winner would move on to the $1,000 Championship Round while the loser would get third place. DM lost the first game but came back with some real nice play on KOTH on Boarding Action; tied at one both teams headed into Ball on Wizard. Alas, the day had to end for DM at this point, they lost 10 minutes to 6:01. Great run! Team Name : DPAJ
Unbelievable! This team must’ve been crest-fallen after their first two rounds as those two rounds were the closest of the entire tournament and they came out losers both times. After Team Webhouse One beat them like a drum 3-0 in game one, DPAJ returned the favor winning by a full 5 minutes in game two, setting up the crucial last game: Slayer on Prisoner. Thankfully for the audience the teams were up on the projectors surrounded by full stereo-Aiwa sound and so everyone could see the tug of war that led to “the joy of victory” and “the agony of defeat”. As the final moment drew closer it was loud, and yet everything seemed quite: it was 49-49. Even though Halo extraordinaire Andrew led all 64 players with 27 kills in this game it was Paul of Team Webhouse One that scored the 50th kill and sent DPAJ down to the loser’s bracket. It was there that they matched up against the Spartan Hunters in the closest series of games of the tournament. DPAJ won KOTH crazy on Hang ‘em High by only 1:10 in game one. The Spartan Hunters won Slayer on Longest only by 4 kills. Game three was the second closest time based game of the invitational and once again DPAJ came out with the short end of the stick. DPAJ played well the rest of the tournament and ended up playing FRC7 for the top spot of the Consolation Bracket but came up just short and took 10th place. (Quick side note, Andrew took the top spot in kills besting all 64 other players an incredible 5 times.) Not bad at all and at least they won’t soon forget those first two rounds. Ah, what might have been… Team Name : TEAM FRC7
Team FRC7 had no problem in the first round against Stinky Fish, in fact they were working on a tournament record 10 minutes to 14-second ball control on Damnation before they lost their focus and only won by 8:47 minutes. Stinky Fish would eventually end up in 16th place and it is only for that reason that Team FRC7’s SoS Double-Elimination score isn’t higher as they ran into a buzz saw the next two rounds: They had to play against what would eventually be the 4th and 2nd place teams in consecutive rounds. While they did put up an early win they were beaten the next five games and dropped out of contention. Making the best of an unfortunate set of coincidences FRC7 went 7-1 (and it was a strong 7-1) for the remainder of the tournament to take the top spot of the Consolation Bracket, and 9th place overall. In fact there’s a strong case to be made that Team FRC7 belonged in the top 5 as their games won/lost records was matched or exceed by only four other teams. While no excuses can be made I believe that their ninth place finish masks their true team talent level. Team Name : GAIDIN
Gaidin’s glory came early in the tournament, in fact it came in the very first game. As mentioned earlier Gaidin was part of the first of several classic games of the Invitational. I wish I could’ve been there to record more of the details but suffice it to say that Hack came through for his team with his second and game winning flag capture on Blood Gulch. Throughout the day when teams won hard fought games or rounds they displayed some emotion, no doubt about that, but Gaidin’s reaction to their victory stands out in my mind, not because it was gratuitous or exaggerated but because you could just see the happiness. I don’t want to be sappy but it was nice, you know? That moment was short-lived as they were pushed around for the next 5 games and had the dubious distinction of being on the receiving end of the second worst time-based drubbing of the invitational, losing by 9:20 minutes. Their next meaningful round was Round Four where they butted heads with the Halo Warriors. Dragon led his team by camping in the hill just enough to nudge into victory by 1:17 minutes. But the next two games went the same way games 2 & 3 of Round One went, badly. They were granted the next 3 wins as the Stinky Fish had forfeited the rest of the tournament at which point the gentlemen from Gaidin thought it would be a good time to get a drink. Cheers guys! Team Name : HALO WARRIORS
BillyAZ2001 went all out for this tournament and brought a brand new television that was fully X*Box compatible! It was so tight that whenever he turned it on you could hear a choir humming saintly notes and this light would shine down and illuminate the team in a nice, neat glowing circle. Weird. Their first game was against Marathon Too and it was incredible as it was the longest game of the tournament. Each round is capped at 90 minutes and their first game alone went at least 75 minutes. It wasn’t close, Marathon Too won 3-0 but the defense they were running up against was just too strong for a quick and easy win. Since each round is stopped at 90 minutes it was imperative that the Halo Warriors quickly win Game Two so as to notch the round at 1-1 and send it to Elimination Slayer on Wizard, the tiebreaker in case of time expiration. But as the seconds ticked closer to the cut off point the teams were relatively even, with no team having a chance at victory. Therefore the Halo Warriors had the ill-fated distinction of being one of two teams to lose a round one game to nothing. After having lost to Killz in Round Two they sat out Round Three and then brought it to the table against Gaidin in Round Four on the projector screens. After loosing game one BillyAZ2001 was ready to destroy something but two games later he was in heaven having won his first round. They went on to win the next game against DPAJ (A28 having turned it on hardcore over the last three games continued his gameplay into this one) but then lost the next two, and the two after that to the Spartan Hunters. Seeing as this was the first time they have ever played together I think they have nothing to be disappointed about. Team Name : KILLZ
Killz, like Halo Warriors was locked in a sustained battle in game one of Round One that lasted 70+ minutes; coincidentally they were playing Marathon. While they lost 3-1, Daddy did stand out among his 64 peers snagging third overall for total kills at 88. Unlike the Halo Warriors, the Killz team had a significant lead in game two with time running out. Suddenly, the objective of the game for Marathon was to delay the game instead of winning it, which was interesting to watch. When the alarm went off Killz was under 2 minutes away from sending the round to the tiebreaker. Moving on to the next round Killz then bounced the Halo Warriors in 3 successive games (with Daddy taking third overall in ball control on Derelict) and met Marathon Too in Round Three. It was at this point that they were eliminated from contention for the big prize in three consecutive losses. Since The A-Team left town earlier Killz earned 3 wins in Round Four and the chance to play for the top spot of the Consolation Bracket, if they could get past Team FRC7. But it wasn’t meant to be as the Boulder, CO team was in the midst of their 7-1 streak to 9th place. After they got bounced they bid us all farewell, forfeited the remainder of their games, and began the long 12-hour trek back home. Now that’s Halo dedication! Better luck next time. Team Name : MARATHON
Everyone knew who Team Marathon was at the end of the tournament; oh, they were a blast! Easily the most animated of our 16 teams they screamed, laughed, yelled, and sung (yes, sung… and often!) their way through the tournament. After slugging their way through a 70+ minute CTF game on Blood Gulch and preventing Killz from scoring the last 2 minutes in Ball on Damnation they went on to play their other half, Marathon Too. Before the match they all huddled together, expressed solidarity, and then went at each other, brother against brother. There were no secrets between the two teams and the first two games were fairly close. Marathon lost the first game by 2:39 minutes, won game two by 9 kills, and then turned it on for game three outpacing their friends by well over 7 minutes. Marathon lost the next round to Dark Matter in three straight though the last two games were relatively close. Losing a round wasn’t pleasant but when they realized that the bracket had directed them into another contest against Marathon Too they really weren’t happy. This time the loser of this match would be permanently out of the running for the $1,000 prize. Two tough matches later Marathon once again emerged victorious. But starting with the final game of that round Marathon began a 6-game skid that would have them losing to Dark Matter (again) and the Ohio Stooges for fourth place. Future teams best not take this team of young misfits lightly as this version of Team Marathon was actually their “mediocre” mix (since the Marathon teams have 8 players in total) and it earned 5th place. They may yet have another gear to kick it up to. Team Name : MARATHON TOO
Marathon Too’s journey through the bracket structure mirrored that of their brother team, Marathon. One particular note of interest was An American’s performance in game one; he scored 124 kills, not only the best of all 64 players in that round but the top kill total of the entire invitational. Understanding the context of his exemplary performance is clarified when you realize that the second highest kill total didn’t even cross the century mark! He repeated his fine performance earning the fourth highest kill total of Round Two where Marathon Too was topped by Marathon. The team then went on to spank Killz 3-0 and then match-up against Marathon again in Round Four. They lost again to their better half but they next found themselves in a position to earn 6th place overall. That would be a pretty good finish considering that Marathon ended up in 5th place overall. Indeed they started out in that direction besting The Village People and having An American again standing out amongst his peers as the top ball-hog of the remaining 52 players on Chiron TL-34. But the next two games saw The Village People doing their “Y – M – C – A” all over Marathon Too taking away their hopes of a top-6 finish. This seemed like a good time to throw in the towel and so they did, acquiescing the last set of games against Team Webhouse One and thus finishing in 8th overall. Team Name : OHIO STOOGES
What a great team! I’m really glad they came all the way down from Ohio to our Invitational as they were a quite a classy set of individuals. As you can see from the SoS scores nobody played a more difficult schedule than the Ohio team. Personally, I thought they were going to win the tournament since if you come all the way from East of the Mississippi you must be a Halo-deity. That’s why I was shocked when they lost the first game, CTF on Blood Gulch in a stunning 11 minutes! (The team they lost to, 272 JDR had a funny quote about their 11-minute win which you’ll have to read about in their respective section.) I remember thinking, “Wow, they stink.” Smarting from their loss they put together a pair of excellent games to come back and win the round (game two saw Da Merchant and Fo shizzle take the two top kill positions out of all 64 players, the only team 1 & 2 finish of the entire tournament). Round Two had the Ohio Stooges down 1-0 again only to see them come back and top Team FRC7. In the rubber match of that round Da Merchant took 2nd overall in kills and dshrock took top honors among all the players for ball control; they obviously raise their level of play when the money is on the line. Round Three saw the Stooges down 1-0 yet again but this time the magic ran out as they matched up against The Specialists who were on a 11-1 streak to the $1,000 Championship Round. They rebounded well and beat Team Webhouse One in three straight to earn a chance at making it to the Loser’s Bracket finals. The team standing in their way? None other than 272 JDR from the first round. Game one was close, however they lost by 1:19 minutes setting themselves up in a familiar 0-1 hole with two must wins coming up. Sigh… Nope, no miracle come back this time as 272 JDR exacted their revenge sending the Ohio Stooges down to meet Marathon and one more round for 4th place honors. Game one of their match against Marathon was a tight 3-2 contest that went in the Stooges’ favor; as did game two by a wider margin. While they didn’t win the invitational I’m sure they had a great time as they matched up against the best all day long, found themselves in several must win games, and came out with an overall excellent top spot. They also leave the tournament knowing that they were the only team to beat our eventual champions in a game. Team Name : THE SPARTAN HUNTERS
As you can see from the disparity in their SoS scores The Spartan Hunters had the unfortunate fortune of going head-to-head with some of the most talented teams early. Getting wiped out in Round One by The Specialists they came back and beat JDAP in the closest round of the tournament. Game one was a tough 1:10 minute loss and game two was a tense 4-kill win but it was game three where the real excitement was. Trailing for most of (if not all) of the latter half of Ball on Derelict they somehow managed to wrest the skull away from DPAJ when they only needed :33-seconds more! It was Lestat69 who ended up with the ball and ignoring his teammate’s directions to get off the top of the center platform on the second level he brought his team back and led them to victory. They did their best against Team Webhouse One in the next round, splitting the first two games but it just didn’t work out in game three. Round Four saw the Spartan Hunters in their third consecutive nail bitter round. After having won the second-closest time-based game in Round Two they lost the Invitational’s closest time-based game to Team FRC7 in game one. And while they did lose game two by a wide margin and thus the round they came back to win game three by the second closest slayer margin of the day (50-47). Earning the next three wins by forfeit they then matched up against the Halo Warriors for 11th place overall and they dominated winning each game. One funny moment in this game was on KOTH on Boarding Action when one of the Halo Warriors began to move up a ladder only to see a Spartan Hunter waiting for him further up with a pistol. Trying to extricate himself from that position he attempted to start down the ladder only to find another Spartan Hunter going back up. Poor bastard became a Spartan Sandwich. Team Name : THE SPECIALISTS
Booya! Blam! Snap! Bling! Bling! Your HALO: Running Riot Invitational champions! Yeah, baby! What a sick group of Halo specialists. Wow. What can you say? It’s not so much as they had an unstoppable player on their team like Andrew, or An Std, or Wally, or DM_Predator it’s that they were all equally great and took turns leading their team when the opportunity favored them. In fact only once did a Specialist’s player take top statistical honors for a particular game (Fragzor tied with (swa) Thrillhouse with 21 kills each in Round 4, game three). It was a true team effort. Their only loss was to the Ohio Stooges and as you can tell by their SoS score they weren’t playing patsies. How good were they really? After beating Dark Matter in Round 4 and earning a two round bye into the $1,000 Championship Round they played some of the other teams that were also in a bye round. One match-up featured The Specialists against the Stinky Fish for some Oddball. Now, I don’t care how good you are or how bad the other team is there is no way you can win a team game 10 minutes to nothing. Yet that’s what they did! Ten minutes to *nothing*. Sweet Maria! The championship game featured 272 JDR versus The Specialists. Game one was CTF Pro on Sidewinder. After a few fits and starts concerning the proper game settings The Specialists jumped out to an early 1-0 lead. The game was close after that but the it turned decidedly in The Specialists favor after one of the 272 JDR players managed *not* to hit the player with their flag. It was amazing! He ran over every piece of territory in front of The Specialist’s base except for the area where the flag was! Oh it was a close call but The Specialists managed to knock him off his Ghost, do a little “humping dance”, and then score the flag capture and one more after that. Game two was Crazy KOTH on Battle Creek and The Specialists jumped out to the early lead. But 272 JDR battled back and actually took the lead at the 4:40 and 5:40 intervals. But something happened between 5:40 and 5:57 for 272 JDR as they let the eventual champions gain one and a half minutes on them. From that point forward The Specialists drew ever so slightly away from the runners-up and closer to eventual victory. The final score and final screen can be found right http://66.218.33.249/az/pages/DSCN2980.html. Not only did The Specialists win the $1,000 prize but they earned a free entry pass into the The AGP Tournament in Nashville, TN for $5,000 on November 23rd and 24th. We wish http://66.218.33.249/az/pages/DSCN2978.html luck! Team Name : THE STINKY FISH
Well, someone had to take last place and that awkward honor fell to The Stinky Fish. If you take a gander at their SoS Double-Elimination score you will see that they have nothing to be ashamed of in their first two losses where they matched up against Team FRC7 and 272 JDR. But after their 3-0 defeat to JDAP they threw in the towel. That’s too bad really because they played much better against JDAP and actually were only 10 kills shy of winning game three of that particular round. What’s more is that their next opponent was Gaidin, a team of equal skill and a round that would’ve been fun for both teams. But The Stinky Fish left before their Gaidin fight and so we will never know if they could’ve managed at least one victory. In their defense it must be said that they are firemen and have much more important things to be doing. Funny that they didn’t call the Fire Marshall on us when they saw how many electrical appliances we had plugged into, like 5 outlets. Team Name : THE VILLAGE PEOPLE
The Village People are quite a good team that almost earned themselves in a more prestigious finish but came up just short against another pair of talent teams. Led by Halo-genius, An Std (who was the top killer in an Invitational record 6 games!), they waged a tough war against Dark Matter in the first round. They were beaten down in the last two games of that round but beat Gaidin and The A-Team silly in the next rounds during which: An Std was tops in kills 4 times, they had the second-most lopsided Oddball win of the Invitational, won a CTF game in a record 7 minutes, scored 8 killtaculars in one game, and had Disco led all players with crazy KOTH hill time. Then came that “what if…” round against 272 JDR. Game one, Crazy KOTH on Blood Gulch with all vehicles, didn’t go very well for them. Game three, Slayer on Damnation went extremely well for the team. Oddball on Prisoner, game two of the round, was dominated early by 272 JDR but then The Village People snatched the ball from them and began to camp out in one of the perches on the fourth floor. The communication, covering lines of fire, and strategy was so well played that they came all the way back. Well, actually they came almost all the way back. I don’t know how they did it but 272 JDR managed to get a grenade up into the perch and blow the ball back out into the open court. They broke through the impenetrable defense that The Village People had put up and from that point forward it was pretty much an even give-and-take game. When time ran out The Village People were eliminated from the $1,000 grand prize by a 10 to 8:43 minutes score. At this point the best they could hope for was a 6th place finish. Two teams stood in their way: Marathon Too and Team Webhouse One. After they dispatched Marathon Too 2-1 they went into a 3 game barnburner. I wish I had watched this round more closely but we can imagine the excitement of game three when it ended with Team Webhouse One winning 10 to 9:24 minutes. Overall it was a nice showing by The Village People but I foresee better things from them in the future. Team Name : TEAM WEBHOUSE ONE
Team Webhouse One was involved in the most maddeningly close game of the Invitational right off the bat. Game three, of Round One saw a 49-49 deadlock broken by Paul on Prisoner. Although I thought I saw SammyU shoot the last bullet true, he claimed that Paul was the hero. Well, either way it was SammyU who laid claim to the CTF crown as he was the only person of the tournament to score 2 and then all 3 flag capture of a particular game. After squeaking by the DPAJ team in Round One, they got schooled by The Specialists in Round Two. Then they met up with The Spartan Hunters who themselves had just come off a tight win. SammyU pulled his team through against the Hunters with two clutch performances: scoring all 3 captures and the top kill count of all players in game one and tying for 4th in kill count in game three (both games wins for Webhouse). Round Four was the end of their championship hopes as the Ohio Stooges won all three games handily. Team Webhouse One then secured their top-6 finish in a 2-1 Round Six thriller against The Village People. One of my regrets of this tournament is that I missed this round! And of course we have to thank them profusely for their gracious projector loan that allowed several teams the experience of gaming on a wide-screen. Thanks! Team Name : 272 JDR
What a shock it was when 272 JDR motioned me over a mere 11 minutes into game one of Round One to tell me that they had trounced the Ohio Stooges 3-0 in CTF. When asked about their quick victory they replied, “We were dicking around.” Ha, ha. Funny line but the next two games were anything but funny for 272 JDR as the Stooges came back and poked them in eye, slapped them around, and made lots of funny clown noises on their way to victory. The 272 JDR team responded to this and went on an Invitational record 8-0 streak beating some formidable teams along the way. During that run they turned in the most incredible individual performance by The Jackal who was in the hill for a stunning 8:30 seconds; and an equally dumbfounding feat by Sheppard who led all players with 24 kills on CTF Boarding Action with *no* deaths. Their next three rounds were against uncommonly strong teams all which resulted in victories: 7th place The Village People, 4th place Ohio Stooges, and 3rd place Dark Matter. The Dark Matter match was a lengthy and exhausting one even though the last game was won with ease. It seemed that the critical match was the first one, CTF Invasion on Battle Creek, which was won by 272 JDR 3-2. The championship match was a tough one to watch if you were rooting for an upset, or at least a third game, sudden death Elimination Slayer. As was mentioned in The Specialists summary one of the 272 JDR team members had a fantastic opportunity to return his team’s flag but somehow managed to avoid hitting the flag bearer and thus losing 3 captures to none. Game two was closer, and 272 JDR even led midway through the battle but that was the last moment of glory as their night soon came to an end. Taking second place must be disappointing, knowing that your team was so close to ultimate glory! But I think they did unbelievably well seeing as nobody had ever heard of this local team and they beat down better known teams throughout the day. Their second place finish earned them a free-pass into the next Invitational some time in January. We’ll see them, and everyone else at the HALO: Killtacular Invitational . * Round One MVP: Wally ; The A-Team; Two time runner-up in kill count, which led team to a two games to one victory. * Round Two MVP: Lestat69 ; The Spartan Hunters; Others had higher stats but his last minute ball-hog heroics powered his team past DPAJ in the closest round of the invitational. * Round Three MVP: SammyU ; Team Webhouse One; Scored all three flag captures and was the top kill leader of game one. Also was tied for fourth in kill counts for game three, which led his team winning two games to one. * Round Four MVP: Assassin ; The Specialists; In the premier battle of the round he accounted for 50% of his team’s time in both KOTH and Ball to secure a two-round bye into the $1,000 Championship Round. * Round Five MVP: dark2dawn ; DPAJ; With his team facing two must win games he scored all 3 flag captures and then led all players in KOTH time. * Round Six MVP: unknown * Round Seven MVP: Qbix ; The Specialists; Led both games in kills with 24 and 59 respectively. * HALO: Running Riot Invitational MVP: Qbix ; The Specialists; Although it was a true group effort, Qbix led his team 8 times in a variety of statistical categories including the two championship games. | |
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| Replies: |
| HALO: Running Riot Invitational Summary | emildlux | 10/22/02 2:39 a.m. |
| Re: HALO: Running Riot Invitational Summary | emildlux | 10/23/02 11:55 p.m. |
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