SDtektiv's Halo 2

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

I'm Famous on Podtacular!

Ok. Not really, but I have to admit that I was really really really really excited when I heard a tip I submitted to Podtacular, the unofficial Halo universe podcast, read on the show. Podtacular is like a radio show you can download to your iPod or you can listen to it on your computer http://www.podtacular.com . They talk about a lot of Halo-related stuff, dealing with strategy, playing on LIVE, et cetera, and they have Clans. So check it out. You can support the show by submitting news and tips about Halo 2.

Monday, June 19, 2006

Behind the Scenes: the Rec C vs Rec D Challenge

How it began
There are two "more competetive clans" of Podtacular called PodtacularPro A and PodtacularPro B. There are also 5 Recreational clans of Podtacular: PodtacularRec A, B, C, D, and now E. I am in Rec D.

Foo mo jive, the master of Podtacular, the unofficial Halo universe Podcast used to be in the clan PodtacularRec A where he would spend his days on Xbox LIVE, just chillin', holdin' customs, et cetera, and no one thought anything else of it. Until one day, a member of Podtacular, Crazed Penguin, had a great idea! This idea would revolutionalize... umm... stuff.

The Idea that forthbrough a Challenge
Instead of Foo mo jive only being in once Rec clan all the time, he shall cycle through the clans and "spread the love." Thus, he moved on to Rec B and they welcomed him with open arms. Then a member of a Pro clan said they would welcome him with opener arms. I then posted and showed on my keyboard how open Rec D's arms would be.

Later on, a member of the clan Rec C the next clan that would have Foo mo jive be visiting, challenged Rec D a challenge to see which clan has the openest arms. The member was Stealth Zealot.

Thus, a challenge was created
A post was created on the Podtacular Forum by me, and it was simple. It explained that it would be 5 rounds, 8 versus 8, and that 8 people from each clan should sign up. People were checking their schedules, and signing up. http://podtacular.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1069 .A few people became busy and couldn't make it, but Rec D ended up with a solid roster, and on Game Day, Rec D team all showed up. I was a bit nervous, because I knew that Rec C has existed longer, but I was focused and looking forward to fun match.

Game Day
On game day, all of Rec D Team showed up, which is a spectacle, the team was: SDtektiv, Da L0C, Stigmatic, BastionZ, Corbin23, GroundZERO 63, lx Fatality xl, and Carts 27. The members of Rec C that showed loyalty, good memories, or perhaps a combination of both were: LegendTrogdor, DrThom, PurpleDemon666, and Stealth Zealot, then other people from Rec C were brought in and leaving and floating around too.

The people were antsy, and ready to play. Before the game started, I presented the rules in a Hip-Hop format. I haven't rapped very much in front of strangers, so I was very nervous, but I layed down a pretty cool rhyme and I was please with how I did. Now that my adrenaline was pumpin' the match was about to begin.
The matches begun. I made a summary of the matches on a forum post of Podtacular. Here is my summary of the face-off:
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Hey Purple Demon! Before visiting Podtacular today, I made a summary of the game in Microsoft Word too! I will post it here:

Rec C vs Rec D results!

I was inspired by how Frankie describes the atmosphere of the game.
Five Rounds
Round One
Map: Burial Mounds
Settings: Team Slayer BR Start, no motion sensor, force even teams on, with Rec D being the green team and Rec C being the blue team.
Atmosphere: Unsure… and “When’s my turn!”

At the beginning it took awhile for everyone to spawn, but once they did, it became an epic battle taking place mostly up and down the “valley” of Burial Mounds. Because a few Rec C people didn’t make it for whatever reason, a few of our teammates had to be “sitting out” with force even teams on. It might have been that when teammates sitting out were watching from deathcam a team mate fighting, they were both hoping that their teammate would survive, but secretly hoping they’d die so us people sitting out could get a turn in the recreational mayhem. Rec D got a 20 kill lead halfway through the game, but remained cautious of the possibility of Rec C catching back up. In the end, the score was Rec D: 100 to Rec C: 72.

Game Stats: http://www.bungie.net/Stats/GameStats.aspx?panel=kills&gameid=508652645&player=SDtektiv for some reason the stat viewer didn’t make the team colors, but you can know that the top part is Rec D until you reach LegendTrogdor, the first listed Rec C person.

Round Two
Map: Waterworks
Settings: 2 Flag CTF, first to three Captures wins, force even teams on
Atmosphere: More like capture the LAG!

This match was unfortunately very laggy, but both teams put up with it (for the most part) and we tried to go along with it. The members of both clans were patient and most of them stuck through the match. PurpleDemon (from Rec C) was a part of their concentrated assault on our base. Rec D kept a good defense but sacrificed it for a good offense as members noted that someone should try to get their flag. We raced against them and managed to get tied with them, but in the end, they got the last lag---um, I mean flag, excuse me, capture and arised victorious showing us their Capture the Flag Skills. Way to go Rec C!

Wins: Rec C: 1, Rec D: 1

Game Stats: http://www.bungie.net/Stats/GameStats.aspx?gameID=508669183&player=SDtektiv

Round Three
Map: Containment
Settings: Team Snipers! (force even teams), whoever can get the most kills in 12 minutes wins
Atmosphere: Thank the Lord there’s no lag at all!!!

After the previous round, we were considering splitting it up and having two mini faceoffs, but we started up the snipers game, and thank God, it was green bars across the board! This was a great formula… Large party, large map… snipers, 12 minutes on the clock, ready Go! C and D members set themselves up for sniping position, and you could hear the sounds of teammates constantly calling out enemy locations. An ominous feeling of epicness filled the snowy valley… or maybe just lots of criss-crossing smoke streams. Either way, Rec D took the victory. Making the win-loss record be Rec C: 1, Rec D: 2.

Game Stats: http://www.bungie.net/Stats/GameStats.aspx?panel=kills&gameid=508679166&player=SDtektiv

Round Four
Map: Lockout
Settings: Team Oddball, BR start, no radar, Score to win: 5 min. Time limit: 15 min. Human Weapons on map.
Atmosphere: Tense

The tension was on. If Rec C were to rise victorious, then a final battle would decide it all, but Rec D wanted this to win this round to take the ultimate victory. A classic set-up: Lockout. Team Oddball. Semi-MLG style. The race to win had begun. The ball was taken by Rec D and they attained a lot of time, but then Rec C took it and held off many waves of attackers in the Green Room.
Rec D eventually managed to get it out of there and get ahead of Rec C again, but Rec C went back to their “Green Room” strategy… a tough strategy, and they certainly made it work. Many of our Rec D team had tried and failed to get the ball out of there until a warrior of Rec C jumped off the elbow with it for a “Play Ball.” Rec D then attained a lot of time by camping the ball out under the towers. Rec D got a far lead, but in the last minute, Rec C got it back into their hands! Fortunately for us and unfortunately for them, the always-in-the-back-of-the-mind 15 minute time limit expressed itself and cut Rec C’s time-gaining short.
The final score was Rec C: 4min 5seconds. Rec D: 4min 30seconds.

Game Stats: http://www.bungie.net/Stats/GameStats.aspx?gameID=508689097&player=SDtektiv

Rec D will welcome Foo mo jive with open arms! Thanks to all of Rec D Team, who all showed up! And I would like to thank Rec C on behalf of Rec D for playing with us!



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End of post.
You can read a summary of the game from a Rec C person's view at: http://podtacular.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1586

The Beginning of a Revolution
The Rec C vs Rec D face-off inspired a Rec A vs Rec B match in a similar way. This is the beginning of an era of Rec Clan events. All started, from one small statement. A seed that was watered, fed, and now branching off into multiple challenges. I hope you enjoyed this edition of: Halo 2 Stuff with SDtektiv.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Contention on Foundation

Ever been in a game and you are doing a really good job of staying invisible while helping your team a lot and you get that feeling in your gut of "I hope the other team doesn't mis-take me for cheating."? Well I did get that feeling in a specific game. I was playing a great session with some folks from Podtacular (shoutout!) and we went to a one-territory game on Foundation. What happened was that the whole blue team flooded in to take the territory (located in the smack-dab middle of the map).

While this was about to happen, I was sittin' in the little house-dealy and I backed up into one of the corners, instead of trying to kill any of them. They didn't see me for a while so they were all in there in saying, "how come it won't let us take the territory!?" It turns out that it is possible to take the middle territory while being backed up into one the corners of the "house", you don't have to be standing right on top of the "flag spot" in order to take a territory, and you can keep the other team from taking the territory as well. So it worked out great! The other members of the team would be killing all the blue guys coming in, while I stayed in there to keep the territory from being contested.

I imagine that they must've been flabbergasted when a member of my team would stand on the "flag spot" while I hid in the corner, that the territory was still being taken even though they killed the only guy (that they could see) trying to take it. I'm sorry if I made the other team mad, but I had to do what I thought would get the win!

The other members of my team definetly did most of the work, I was only a small part in a big picture.

http://www.bungie.net/Stats/GameStats.aspx?gameID=496560429&player=SDtektiv

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