This weekend, SoF members Das Kalk, SonofMacPhisto, and Xerone, along with fellow Hawtites Girlwolfie and ResilientMonkey (and their respective spouses) and NartFOpc flocked to Boston (great city, by the way, I highly recommend it) to visit their hero, the rather dashing elpolloguapo. Also to attend PAX East!

Xerone bummed a ride from SoMP and his friend Katie, while elpolloguapo met Das Kalk at the airport, where his flight from the great white north was delayed for an hour, leaving elpolloguapo to sit twiddling his thumbs (on his phone keyboard, bitching to everyone about how Kalk wasn’t showing up) waiting for him. That, however, was the end of the snafus, until about an hour later when the SoMP group and the elpolloguapo group were trying to meet up at 862 Beacon Street. Unfortunately, they were in two separate towns.

By the next morning, however, that had been resolved, and elpolloguapo met up with SoMP, Das Kalk, Xerone, and Katie, who were all fresh from a night of snuggling each other in their collective room at the Holiday Inn. Reaching the Hynes Convention Center just after 10AM, when the line was opened, our heroes grabbed their (disappointingly full of ads) swag bags and reached the front of the line for Wil Wheaton’s keynote address. After half an hours’ ambivalence, the five realized that it was not, in fact, worth waiting five hours to see a speech by someone who only ever reached acting ensign – and whose name is rejected by spellcheck, and so they retired to a nearby bookstore/café. elpolloguapo still owes Xerone $10 for breakfast, but shhhhh.

Returning to the line with only a couple of hours to go until the 2PM opening of the convention, the group – now back close to the middle of the hangar-sized room nearer the entrance – enjoyed quasi-entertaining Wait in Line games and made jokes about the guy standing up in the red sweatshirt (Redshirt, don’t get in that shuttlecraft!) and the state of West Virginia, unrepresented at the convention (They don’t have the internet yet!). In the meantime, Hawtites NartFOpc and ResilientMonkey showed up in line well behind.

At 2PM, the convention opened, and the horde stampeded in. elpolloguapo, SoMP, Das Kalk, Xerone, and Katie waited by the entrance to rendezvous with Nart and ResilientMonkey, then set off to explore the convention until a 3:30 panel on video game music. The panel – which SoMP, elpolloguapo, Nart, and Katie attended – was quite entertaining, featuring excerpts from games featuring music by the panelists, and montages of climactic musical moments in many games. After a montage featuring the opening to Combat Evolved, the Q and A session began, where elpolloguapo cited Bungie composer Martin O’Donnell in a question regarding synthed/midi instruments versus live orchestras, demonstrating, in SoMP’s words, that “Marty O’Donnell wins PAX without being here. Well, at least this panel.”

Dinner followed, at the upstanding (and well-located) establishment of Whiskey’s across the street from the convention. Hefty bacon cheeseburgers and heavily salted fries recharged the crew for their second panel of the day, at 8PM, concerning women and video games. While the panel itself was disappointing – the female game designers, marketers, journalists, and amateur journalists making it up were fairly ineloquent in their responses, particularly to a question by SoMP regarding video games and art – the group encountered a bright young woman researching for a PhD for SoMP to hit on. After the panel, elpolloguapo retired to his home, while the others left for a bar, where a man bought Katie a drink and paid for a taxi, which she used to leave without him.

The next day, SoMP, Das Kalk, and elpolloguapo arrived in the morning for the 11:30 panel “Kotaku and Croal: In Search of the Best Games Ever,” featuring a favorite video game journalist of SoMP’s, N’Gai Croal. Croal and Kotaku’s Stephen Totilo demonstrated their game, “Canon Fodder,” which took the top ten games on the metacritic-style gamerankings.com and allowed several prominent members of the game industry, from Lionhead’s Peter Molineux to 38 Studios’ Curt Schilling, to either replace one game with another or swap two games. The panel, less about what games are the best than about how to decide, was an excellent way to make up for the disappointing panel of the previous evening. Afterward, Das Kalk, SoMP, and elpolloguapo ambushed Mr. Croal outside of the panel theater in order to discuss Mass Effect 2, at SoMP’s behest. The group had an enlightening and intellectually stimulating conversation with Mr. Croal, who has yet to finish ME2. Considering his remarks, he is in for an especially interesting time.

After another lunch at Whiskey’s, SoMP left for the hotel to rest his aged body, while elpolloguapo and Das Kalk were joined by Xerone, GirlWolfie, and her husband for the greatest of all panels – Rooster Teeth. In the (enormous) main theater, the panel featured 21 minutes of fantastic new Red vs Blue (the first four episodes of season eight, which will begin airing in five weeks), along with a live-action video entitled “Immersion” (which will appear on the site within a few weeks), and boatloads of hilarious banter.

Following the panel, the entire crew met up with Hawtite Penguin Ninjoid and his girlfriend Kayla at the Barking Crab for a Boston-style dinner. Despite an attack from a vicious and well-armed lobster…

…the dinner was entertaining and delicious.

Tearful goodbyes were said, as ResilientMonkey and his wife departed, as did Penguin Ninjoid and Kayla. GirlWolfie and her husband returned to PAX to see the concert, while Xerone, SoMP, Das Kalk, and elpolloguapo dropped off both SoMP’s car and Xerone at the Holiday Inn, then went back to PAX to try to get into a panel on choice in video games. A few stops along the train ride, SoMP realized he had left his pass at the room, and had to go back to get it. Unfortunately, he was well on his way back when Das Kalk and elpolloguapo reached PAX to find that the line for the panel had reached capacity. The three retired to the bookstore/café for some lethargic non-conversation, and eventually realized that there was nothing left to do. elpolloguapo headed home, while SoMP and Das Kalk stayed on briefly to say goodbye to GirlWolfie.

As I write this, I prepare to return to PAX one last time to visit some of the booths, but I do so alone (well, with an IRL friend using SoMP’s pass, but IRL friend are of course lousy friends). SoMP, Xerone, and Katie are on the road headed for Pittsburgh, and eventually Cleveland, while Das Kalk is soon to be airborne heading “overseas” to his home up north. The Hawtites and Spirits have scattered once more, but with many memories and the odd souvenir.

An addendum, from this evening: I spent a while at the Rooster Teeth booth, and got my “You Will Worship Me As Though I Were A God” shirt signed by Burnie and Geoff, and a Blood Gulch Chronicles poster signed by Burnie, Geoff, and Monty, and best of all…

From left: elpolloguapo, Burnie, Monty, Geoff

Special thanks to everyone who attended, to ResilientMonkey for the photos, and of course, everyone who had a hand in organizing PAX.

-LPG

Yesterday, CrazedOne1988 and I participated in the Fight Like a Girl 2v2 tournament. All in all it was a bunch of great games, with (generally) great opponents and (always) great refs. Our first match was a set of three games: TS on Construct, CTF on Narrows, and TS on Foundry. We managed to scrape by a victory, 25-24, in the first game, but were promptly demolished, 3-0, in CTF. Foundry went well for most of the game, but with the score tied at 22 we lost control of Rockets, and along with them, the game, and lost 25-22.

Having made the adjustment from ODST to Halo 3 (for the most part – I never quite got the grenade throw distance right, as you’ll see in a moment), we launched ourselves with renewed vigor into the losers’ bracket. Our next game was TS on Blackout. Normally my worst map, we were able to establish a solid strategy of holding the Sniper tower with sniper/shotgun and BR/sword. Our opponents were extremely good-natured, and there was much playful banter on proximity as they charged us again and again, but they never effectively dislodged us from that end of the map, and we took the game 25-9. KotH on Heretic was next, and right at the start of the game with Crazed going for shotgun and me attempting to grenade the enemy spawn, I demonstrated that really, I wasn’t used to the Halo 3 grenade throw yet with a spectacular betrayal-suicide. However, we recovered and won 150-77. While we happily would have played the third game against our opponents, the next team was ready, so we moved on to round 3.

Next up was our chance to atone for our previous failure on Foundry. Learning from our previous mistakes, we held the back of the map and kept the lead throughout the game, winning 25-21. During the next game, KotH on Construct, Crazed showed just how effective a bubble shield can be, when combined with a sword in a game of King. The one time the other team got ahold of both in the hill, we ousted them by diverting their attention with a flamethrower charge as Crazed leaped in from behind for an assassination. We won the game 150-132, and moved on to the next round.

Our next game was another TS on Blackout, and we used our same strategy with great success, winning 25-19. Unfortunately, during the next game (KotH on Snowbound) Crazed became afflicted with a foul lag, forcing us to restart (a special thanks to our ref for making sure we weren’t crippled by the lag). The lag cleared up during take two and we played a solid game, but we lost nonetheless 150-133. Our opponents, who perhaps were up a bit past their bedtimes, bitched us out slightly for using the ghost, and we moved on to the tiebreaker, TS on Assembly. After a brief moment of stupidity by me (the ref needed a minute to get a custom powerup and reach a spot where she could observe the game – I forgot we weren’t supposed to move and ran off to get weapons, necessitating a restart), we were off. Newly driven by our loss on Snowbound, and helped along by our opponents from time to time (one of them got rockets right at the start, but killed himself with his first shot), we fought our way to an easy 25-10 victory.

Unfortunately, all good things come to an end, and in the next round we were facing off against a pair of generals. In spite of our best efforts, we were never able to put together a cohesive offense in TS on Isolation (a 25-12 loss), and never achieved any map control for the following game, KotH on Sandbox (150-83). Our opponents were gracious in victory nonetheless, and both Crazed and I had an excellent time in the tournament. On behalf of both of us I’d like to acknowledge the folks who set up the tournament and reffed it, and also rowboat 000 for putting up our entry fees. Thanks to all of you.

Last night, seven brave Spirits of Fire faced off against the forces of HaloCharts.com. Good sportsmanship, good games, and epic pwnage were present in all four games, of which details can be found below.

Spirits of Fire: Rowboat 000, bs angel, Jim 028, CrazedOne1988, GreySpark, elpolloguapo, BrusselsSprouts/Merde123

HaloCharts: HC Halbarand, Pete VenkmanPHD, ZaccyBengeance, HC Redemption, Boss Vos, EgonSpenglerPHD, HC CallMeDaddy (later subbed out for HC Bubba).

GAME 1: NEUTRAL ASSAULT ON VALHALLA (47:46)

This was truly a monster of a game. Five minutes in it was already a pitched and even battle, and we realized that a time limit had not been set. However, both sides confident in their ability to win out, the game went on. After several attempts by both sides to plant the bomb, elpolloguapo, Rowboat 000, and CrazedOne1988 rushed through the creek in a Warthog, charged into the enemy base, and successfully armed and detonated the bomb for the first plant of the game. However, in spite of their exemplary skills at human shielding, killing vehicles with small arms fire, skyjacking, and spamming grenades, the HaloCharts crew were, well over twenty minutes into the game, able to sneak past the Spirits and score themselves. A stalemate ensued, with both sides pushing and being driven back. Soon it was declared, with the score still standing at 1-1, that the next score would win. When the game clock approached 45 minutes, the teams were given five minutes – score or it would be declared a draw. With time running out, elpolloguapo, Rowboat 000, and Jim 028 once more assaulted the HaloCharts base in a warthog, breaking through their defenses and planting the bomb. Rowboat 000, the sole survivor of the initial attack, held off the HaloCharts crew long enough to score. The bomb detonated at 47:45, taking four HaloCharts SPARTANS with it.

Spirits of Fire Wins, 2-1

POSTGAME CARNAGE:

SoF: 237 total kills, 168 total assists, 298 total deaths, team spread of -61, 0 total suicides, 0 total betrayals (and we’re very ashamed of you, angel), total score of 2

HC: 298 total kills, 171 total assists, 239 total deaths, team spread of +59, 0 total suicides, 2 total betrayals, total score of 1

GAME 2: TEAM SLAYER ON SANDTRAP (10:02)

Due to the first game taking up such an enormous amount of time, it was agreed that this game would be to 75 kills only. On the scorched sands of Sandtrap, HC took an early lead over the Spirits, which they were able to keep through vehicular control of the map. The Spirits, scattered by irregular spawns, made valiant attempts to come back, and were able to briefly tie the game and take the lead through effective deployment of warthogs, but HC soon slipped away. The game seemed fleeting in the shadow of the behemoth of game one, reflected in the Spirits, who were still planning on how to retake the lead when HC scored the 75th kill.

HaloCharts Wins, 75-59

POSTGAME CARNAGE:

SoF: 59 total kills, 43 total assists, 77 total deaths, team spread of -19, 1 total suicide, 0 total betrayals (angel, are you sure you’re feeling well?), total score of 58

HC: 76 total kills, 43 total assists, 60 total deaths, team spread of +16, 0 total suicides, 1 total betrayal, total score of 75

GAME 3: MULTI-FLAG CTF ON AVALANCHE (15:08)

In spite of the Spirits’ commendable performance in the first objective game of the evening, the Halo gods were not with them on Avalanche. While early on attempts to reach the SoF base were stonewalled by effective vehicle defense, HC commandos were soon able to infiltrate the base from the side and sneak out to teleport with the flag, mancannoning to the center and escaping in a warthog. As the Spirits struggled to regroup and countercap, HC once again made off with the flag, cutting down those few Spirits who had attempted to remain on defense. Playing a more conservative game, SoF was able to block further attacks on their flag, but never made a concerted attempt at a cap of their own. With only a few minutes left in the 15 minute game, CrazedOne1988 was able to mongoose rush the HC base and get their flag to the bottom middle, where he was stopped. No Spirits being nearby, the timer ran out and the game fell to HaloCharts.

HaloCharts Wins, 2-0

POSTGAME CARNAGE:

SoF: 76 total kills, 50 total assists, 83 total deaths, team spread of -7, 0 total suicides, 0 total betrayals (now I’m really getting worried about you, angel), total score of 0

HC: 83 total kills, 41 total assists, 76 total deaths, team spread of +7, 0 total suicides, 0 total betrayals, total score of 2

GAME 4: TEAM SLAYER ON STANDOFF (8:32)

With Five-Star General HC Bubba entering on HaloCharts’ side to replace HC CallMeDaddy, the Spirits of Fire and HC once more met on the field of battle. The game began on a sour note, as through nefarious methods HC was able to destroy the Spirits’ Warthog at the very start of the game, taking two Spirits with it. Without the Warthog on their side, SoF attempted to mount an effective defense on foot, but HC clamped down with effective usage of their Warthog and the Spartan Laser. In spite of performing magnificent feats such as surfing on the HC warhog and BR-ing out the driver, and the beginnings of a comeback towards the end of the game, the Spirits were unable to surmount HC’s lead.

HaloCharts Wins, 75-64

POSTGAME CARNAGE:

SoF: 64 total kills, 60 total assists, 77 total deaths, team spread of -13, 0 total suicides, 0 total betrayals (angel, I think you should see a doctor or something), total score of 64

HC: 77 total kills, 59 total assists, 66 total deaths, team spread of +11, 1 total suicide, 1 total betrayal, total score of 75

INFORMAL GAMES

Slayer on Guardian. Winner: bs angel (25 kills)

Slayer on Construct. Winner: ZaccyBengeance (25)

BTB Multi-Flag on Valhalla (mixed teams).

Several games ensued as the crowd deteriorated. An excellent time was had by all, and while HC may have won three out of the four games of the challenge, in this Spirit’s opinion it is worth noting that the total time of the game won by SoF (47:46) is greater than the total time of all three of HC’s victories combined (33:42), so while HC’s victories outnumbered SoF’s, SoF won for longer than HC. Thus, this challenge is officially a draw.

SoF at the start of Game 2 (screenshot by Jim 028)

-LPG