Staff vs. Community
You might be forgiven for missing the last change in staff ranks since nothing was really mentioned, but two weeks ago the Staff took on a select few Forge Hub Community members in a revival of the Saturday Night Fight, exhibition matches usually held between representatives of the site and those of other communities. It's also normally held on a Saturday rather than a Sunday, but hey, it starts with an S so we've appeased the God of Prefixes. I thought it as good a time as any to defect to the grey and shrug off the burden of the writing up the damn thing, somehow this seems to have backfired.
With the Sock Monkey himself, Rorak Kuroda, Bloo Jay (providing video based juicies) and the oh-so-convenient appearance of Shad0w Viper rounding out the Staff team, we saw a couple more faces come and go on the Community side. Other than myself, the evening saw host to Confused Flamingo, Adelyss, dudemanpeace, ♥ Sky and AceOfSpades. Whilst writing this article and watching back Bloo's videos, it suddenly occurred to me that my bitter mutterings of a Shad0w host were unfounded, and it was in fact Vince who should have been the target of my excuses. Something something On LAN something something.
[l-col]Staff - Team Meteorite
Shock Theta
HomerSPC
Shad0w Viper
Rorak Kuroda[/l-col][r-col]Community - Team Dinosaur
iGotUrPegasi
ConfuseFlamingo
dudemanpeace
SkybladePhoenix
Adelyss
AceOfSpades0707[/r-col]
Game 1
MLG TS on MLG Splashes
We were hoping to show off another recent change to the Staff: erstwhile Event Staff Mr Pokephile (you may remember him as Bl00D F1R3) who has rejoined us as our first Media Director, but he was nowhere to be found. Luckily the Staff aren't short of people who are handy with a cap card, and Bloo Jay kindly stepped in to provide the audio-visual extravaganza laced throughout this article. After eventually getting complete teams on both sides, we kicked off the evening with some MLG Team Slayer on our last MLG feature: Splashes by HOMY.
I'll be blunt: the Community side did not come out hot. The Staff grabbed an early lead and didn't let go of it once. We did what we could to try and keep in the game, with Sky leading the pack, but we barely ever ran in pairs and found ourselves outnumbered even when we weren't outgunned. The Staff started off the evening with a convincing steak, beating us 50-28.
SNF: Staff vs. Community - Game 1 - YouTube
Final Score
Team Meteorite - 50
Team Dinosaur - 28
Game 2
Team Snipers on Sanction
After multiple failed attempts to hold the next game on Exodus, we eventually revamped our Community lineup and switched to Sanction by Zombievillan. Due to the pretty consistent room based cover and structure around the edges of this arena, Snipers play ended up more than a little circular, which often ended with battles between neighbouring rooms. Occasional pushes through the open, ground level area in the middle of the map did well to catch players by surprise in the middle of these focused standoffs, but didn't really promise any sort of longevity for the player in question.
Again the Staff held the lead early on, but Adelyss had jumped on board for our Community squad and was hitting nice shots, helping us to pull closer to level at the half way mark, with the lead proceeding to switch a few times around 30-35 kills. But we couldn't close it out and the Staff resolve and consistent shooting won through once again, as they pulled away somewhat and netted a 10 point victory to put them two up for the evening.
SNF: Staff vs. Community - Game 2 - YouTube
Final Score
Team Meteorite - 50
Team Dinosaur - 40
Game 3
Armor Walkers on Grab and Hold
After two competitive Slayer games in a row, we decided it was time for a change and Armor Walkers by MetaWaddleDee was thrown on. I'm by no means a mini game aficionado, and being set in my ways means that getting to grips with an unfamiliar game principle or objective phases me even more than usual. After some friendly pointers on how to start the game we were off, and this creation really is hella fun. After being pretty sure that I wouldn't be convinced of any silver lining for Armor Lock, and while I'm still not sorry to see it go in Halo 4, Armor Walkers certainly impressed me.
That said, I managed to get stuck in the release chute during the second (?) round, setting our team even further behind than they otherwise would have been. The Staff were putting in scores consistently through both their rounds, and even with our shot at redemption in the final round we were unable to catch up and added a third loss to our total. Losing Adelyss didn't help matters, but ultimately the Staff were better at hurling vehicles in to the air with glowing, barrel-rolling Spartans, and what can you really say to that? The victor for the evening was already decided, but as per tradition the games went on.
SNF: Staff vs. Community - Game 3 - YouTube
Final Score
Team Meteorite - 102
Team Dinosaur - 46
Game 4
MLG KotH on Oasis
Back to more comfortable stomping grounds for myself, we put on some MLG King of the Hill on Oasis. A great game and one I was sad to see leave the circuit, this map has a distinct Halo 2 feel to it with two long bases spanning either side of the map, Green building at one end which houses the middle hill and Sniper, and the two plats at the other end which are connected by a bridge holding Grenade Launcher. An Evade spawns below this bridge, as this map dates back to the days when MLG still had Sprint, Bloom and Evade pickups. Holding middle hill is typically tough, but with the strong push point of the opposing plat, and some sneaky routes behind the back, even holding the red and blue hills is tricky if you neglect to keep tabs on all enemies at a given time. We most certainly neglected this, and so the game was quite a lot more chaotic than you'd normally see on this map.
For once we actually came out in front, taking an early lead for the champions of grey pride. As with our previous Team Snipers game, the two teams held surprisingly level all game long but after pulling slightly in front after our initial lead, the Staff generally kept a narrow lead rather than it switching back and forth. Again, near the end they pulled away and closed out a convincing victory, effectively keeping us out of the bottom hill and scrapping up enough time on the side hills, even despite our constant hassle on this front, to pull away. The back route on these side hills through the base tunnels and past health packs was only used a couple of times; had either team clicked as to the potential of this route earlier on in the game these side hills probably would have played out quite differently.
SNF: Staff vs. Community - Game 4 - YouTube
Final Score
Team Meteorite - 250
Team Dinosaur - 170
Game 5
MLG CTF on Basilica
With the theme of the evening clear by this point, we decided to round out the 5 game series with a game of MLG CTF on Basilica by ILeviathonI and wccd7. With both Matt and Mingo having to drop out we were left with a 3v3, which played out surprisingly well on this map considering how sparse 3v3 games can often feel on maps of this size.
Again we took an early lead as we snuck in a cap, playing more off confusion as to our location than a typical MLG quick flag run. We hoped to correct our mistakes on Oasis and hold on to this lead, which we did even as the Staff looked certain to make a cap of their own, turning it in to a trade and keeping the score at 2-1 in our favour. The Staff tried to force another cap and tie up the score, but we took out their team and exploited the increased emphasis on staying alive in a 3v3 to pull off a reset right in their base. A minute or two of sparring back and forth followed, trading kills and trying to get a 3 down, occasional flag grabs were made but eventually we made one count and increased our lead to two, leaving us only one cap away from victory. With both flags out, we once again managed to stop the Staff's run short in their own base, simultaneously fighting our own cap in tooth and nail. Finally we'd earned ourselves a victory in the long foregone series.
SNF: Staff vs. Community - Game 5 - YouTube
Final Score
Team Meteorite - 2
Team Dinosaur - 5
I'd like to thank all the Community members (Confused Flamingo, Adelyss, dudemanpeace, ♥ Sky and AceOfSpades) for coming out and assisting me in my last act of defiance, and also to the Staff for upholding the SNF tradition and pounding us in to the ground, as well as putting up with me all these years. It's been fun, guys, and I had a great night.
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