Visiting from another clan or community? Looking to play some games? Great! We love meeting and gaming with new people. If you would like to schedule a mixer or challenge with us, please feel free to use the link below to do so. Here at SoF, we are generally a more laid back and fun loving group, so mixers tend to be our thing. But we’ll defend our honor and throw down if you tease us enough.

When scheduling your mixer or challenge, please make sure you include the following information:

-Desired arena of battle
-Whether you want a mixer or a challenge (all challenges will be considered recreational challenges)
-How many players should be present on both sides
-In the event of a challenge, please include your choices of maps and gametypes. Further details can be agreed upon with an event coordinator.

See you on the battlefield!

-Spirits of Fire

Last note: You’ll need to have a registered account on our forum to make your post. You can register HERE before following the link to the topic below.

TOPIC LINK: Invite us to play!

Attention: SoF Members Only

The time has come to put our boots back on the lines. This Friday, the 23rd of April, marks the first of many bimonthly Spirits of Fire Game Nights. Your attendance is highly encouraged. Be sure to report to duty no later than 7 pm PST (10 pm EST).

Hit the link below to RSVP through the usual channels:

Report for Duty

The move to a new server is COMPLETE! *cue applause and celebration* While things have been stable for two days now, work will continue to improve security and infrastructure. Any problems or suggestions may be directed to the webmaster.

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

Spring is in the air.  The smell of freshly cut grass lingers in neighborhoods across America, trees are blossoming, and so is the membership of the Spirits of Fire group.

Spirits of Fire welcomes Arkonyx, ElusiveEagle, Malechei, Marissasdad and Todman777 (GT = ReverendTiki) as our newest members.

Congratulations as well to Marissasdad on the birth of his new son.

On January 19th, 2010, Xerone and SkelBrute were added as new members of the Spirits of Fire clan. On behalf of the entire SoF group, we welcome both of you to our humble group of gamers.