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NYC Halo LAN Fest
On July 19th four members (LOGAN, DmAn, BadAzZ, and sLiPnOt) of the OvK Clan (better known as Team Overkill), attended a Halo LAN Fest held by Miguel Chavez (Bungies official #1 fan) of the NYC Bungie-holics in Manhattan, NY. Assuming we would get lost we left early, a little too early actually, because we showed up before Miguel! A young woman opened the door and told us we had the right place, so we decided to go get our stuff. We walked the two blocks back to the car and got the TV and Xbox out. When we got back, people were already setting up and we finally got to meet Miguel and Louis Wu (HBO operator extraordinaire).
The setup was pretty good; there were three TVs on a table towards the end of the room and a large screen projection right beside the door. The $3,000 projector Miguel brought took some time to set up, so we made a game while we waited. Since the four of us were the only team there, we took on six others in a CTF game on Blood Gulch and then Hang Um High. We played with our rules and won both games 5-0. After those games, we played a TS match on Hang Um High. We won that as well, but you must remember what we have always said about games like that: "Its not fair for the larger team in TS. They have fewer targets, while the smaller team has more."
Apparently, we made a good impression, because a challenge was made. Team Overkill accepted the challenge. It was to be us vs. everyone else in the room! It was our four vs. twelve (12!!!) others. It was the greatest challenge we have ever faced. We set up the match on Blood Gulch with our rules (includes all vehicles). After a while, we took a 2-0 lead with DmAn scoring both captures. Unfortunately, those would be the only captures Team Overkill would see. We fought hard, we gave them all we had, but it was just too much. Every time we managed to actually get in their base, we were swarmed by blue MCs. They beat us 5-2, but not without a fight. It took at least an hour, probably more, for them to beat us. Whenever someone scored a capture, no matter which team, I think the neighbors knew about it. It was a lot of fun and we were not disappointed with our play a bit. We gave them hell.
The pizza had come during our long game, so everyone took a break to eat. Five boxes went so fast; we were lucky to get out with a slice and our hands in tact. After everyone was done eating, it was time for more Halo! For a while we stayed as team with the addition of four other players, but everyone kept saying we should be split up. We played a bunch of free for alls and team matches. Somewhere within that time, *Ar-Isildur of *WP* (a HBO Forum regular) showed up. It was good to meet him and see he was feeling well enough to come.
We played almost every imaginable game type in the hours to come. Most of them were a lot of fun, but there two that went a little sour. The Assault match became a little heated, with Miguel having to constantly shout "Zen" afterwards in attempt to calm everyone down. The other was a Reverse Tag on Longest that some people got fed up with. A combination of just not liking the match type and the fact that everyone was playing it wrong (killing people who were not it) resulted in the only game that was never finished. After those two, there were some really fun and close games. A team Crazy King on Battle Creek ended 5:00-4:57 and only one or two kills decided two of the team shotgun matches (50-49 and 50-48).
Towards the end of the night we suggested one our more interesting match types: Extreme CTF! We played an 8vs.8 CTF on Blood Gulch with no radar, invisible players and rocket launchers only! That game took a while, but was a lot of fun. Driving around you never knew when you were about to be sent fifty feet into the air. After that game, it was getting late, but everyone wanted to do one last big game. Some how, everyone came up with Extreme CTF on Hang Um High with Iron rules applied to the flag (meaning you could not return the flag by walking over it). This was quite an interesting game; with rockets flying everywhere, flags soaring through the air, it was total mayhem and a fun way to end the night.
The room that had been transformed into a battle arena was now being taken down piece by piece. We stayed around to the end and said our good-byes. It was really cool to meet everyone, who until then, we had only talked to online. Miguel, Louis, Ar, and everyone else who was there, were very cool and fun to play with. We just want to thank Miguel once again for letting us come, setting things up, and for just a really great time. We had a lot of fun and hope to meet up with some of the guys in the future. If you have never been to a sixteen player LAN battle, you dont know what your missing! Its amazing how much fun it can be and what you can do to the frame rate with just bodies or needles.
This write up is mentioned on HBO. Click here and also here.
It was also mentioned on Bs.Bungie.Org (which also contains Miguel's write up of the day)..
Check out some more pictures from the day:
sLiPnOt used his digital camera to
take a short movie of the inside (not the greatest quality).
Check it out:
The Setup
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