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5 years ago (12/16/07)
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1 year ago
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SI vs Tactical WarfareBefore I even get into the writeup of this game, I've got to clear some things up. The game was scheduled for 7:00 PM EST. We were there at 5:30 and practising, getting ready for the game that we had hoped to win 9-0 (TW hasn't had a great record). Come 7 o'clock we were ready to rock, but our opponents were nowhere to be found. Our team captain (Gambs) sent an angry message to their captain with a demand that they get out and play us. Technically if a team is more than 10 minutes late you can report a forfeit. However, under the original rules, a forfeit only counts as a loss for the team that doesn't show, but counts as nothing for the team that showed. Because of our particular situation and connections to more influential members of the Rooster Teeth community Burnie changed the rules a few hours later. Now when a team forfeits, they lose and their opponents win, but no stats are recorded.
Anyways, they got on a while later and said they couldn't play the next day (which we had suggested), so we decided to just get on and play them cold to avoid a forfeit. Technically it turned out better than a win with no stats, but the lack of warmup showed. What should have been an easy 9-0 turned into a horribly disappointing 6-3 with errors all around.
Game 2: SI vs Tactical Warfare
Tone of game: Gong-show
We started off alright. Even in the pre-game network test I scored. Much in the same way, we scored fairly early on. It was a decent start for us (although it took a couple minutes), and it showed that when we were actually on our game we were entirely dominant. Most of our goals were much the same. I grab the ball, we play around with it for a while, we come up with some good offence, we perform some form of strategy to open up a lane and I run it in.
Our second score was a quick one that had me running it in fairly uncontested. Not a whole lot of interesting, but it was what we expected the rest of the game to look like. Which it didn't.
Although we don't see a lot of teams trying it, we are typically able to defend against a team who's main tactic is to run to centre and launch their carrier into our waiting hammers. Somehow, we managed to screw it up. Score one for the team who doesn't consider showing up on time important.
This is how they scored. Dude has no shield and 4 enemies to beat to the goal. We managed to not stop him.
I'd love to describe the rest of the game to you, but it's almost embarrassing. Sure we were dominant when we scored, but that wasn't most of the game. The only thing that saved us is that I could still (usually) keep them from taking it from me in our own end. They actually did manage exactly that a couple times, what with our entire team repeatedly sucking horribly on the hammers and being effectively spawn camped by a team that shouldn't have ever been able to. I can't as that I was at all blameless either, since there were a few times where I went for stiff arms either too close to a second enemy or went for an easy stiff arm and failed.
Proof that when we actually start playing decently we can efficiently execute a sweep to the goal. This one was particularly nice because half their team was stuck on the other side of the court and the other half had previously been getting raped by RomanArrow. It worked perfectly.
Eventually we made it to 5 with the occasional burst of skill and organization. At that point they had 2 scores and we had hoped to net another two. Unfortunately, we gave up yet another bad goal and brought them within 2. Not at ALL what we wanted. So we gritted our teeth, got down to business and ended the foolery before it got out of hand. One smart, well executed rush later and it was all over.
It was a frustrating game that really had us all off kilter for the rest of the day. Eventually we decided to quit being angry and accept that a win is a win, and accepting the proof that we can still win a game if we play horribly.
I realize that blaming the game on scheduling issues seems like just making excuses, but it really does make a difference. We warmed up for SG-1 by playing against parts or all of their team for a good 45 minutes before the game, and before that another 45 minutes of scrimmaging against eachother with the extra spots filled by other players looking for a game. That was by far our best played game with almost no mistakes, and going into this game cold after we had all been doing other things than grifball for a few hours had us making 25-30 mistakes a minute. Sure they deserve some credit, they had moments of genuine good hammer skills and not just capitalizing on our sad, sad attempts at playing the game. Regardless, we should have annihilated them.
Download the assets here
Next game is Sunday at 9 EST. Should go a bit smoother, although our opponents, Team Teabag Commandos, recently beat Team WYLASS, who were previously undefeated. We expected them to lose maybe one game before facing both our team and Team SG-1 in the final week of the season, but from all indications the Teabag Commandos are a very unskilled team. We'll have to see what they're like ourselves.
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SI vs SG-1 (Game 2)In an incredibly close and unbelievably fun game Team SI has been handed it's first (and likely last) loss of the season. It was a game that very few people outside our own team expected us to do half decent in, which is somewhat expected since SG-1 walked through the first tournament casually, as if punching a child in the face instead of a 7 foot tall armoured colossus. A friend of mine on another team commented in our pre-game scrimmages that we were "going to lose 9-0 for sure." He didn't realize we were both just dicking around.
Game 2: SI vs SG-1
Tone of Game: Edge-of-seat-pee-your-pants-oh-my-sweet-son-of-God-tense
The game started off fairly good; I called middle, smacked SG-1's captain KrozeGG hard enough to push him away, and grabbed the ball before retreating. Eventually SG-1 took the ball back from us, and back again fairly soon. By fairly soon I mean in around two minutes; Kroze is very good at not rushing into situations that he is likely to die from, and his possession times show it.
After about 3 or 4 minutes of gameplay, I went on a rush with a single blocker down the left side. My blocker took out one opponent for me, then was killed by the next. I neatly forced my fist down his throat and ran towards the goal. I was all of 2 inches away from the kill point when I was rudely launched across the court. It was damned close, and it let us know that we really could compete with the most likely candidate for best team in the league.
From there they took the ball, and after a couple minutes of push and pull back, Kroze managed to slip into the middle and score. 1-0 SG-1.
A similar scenario happened right after, making it 2-0 SG-1.
The next score belonged to me with a skilled run to the goal from the left side of the court. 2-1.
From here it went back and forth in an incredibly tense fashion, what with all the near scores and well planned drives. SG-1 took it to 3-1, then I managed a couple sweet stiff-arm rushes to even it up at 3.
I scored here, but nearly knocking Dixon's noggin off was the highlight of this rush.
THIS is where the game got stylish. Before it was 3-3, the game was GOOD, but overall lacked style. Sure, it's skill and not style that wins games for you, but pure skill without style doesn't make for many cool clips or screenshots. There was the odd sweet stiff-arm or multi-kill to record, but overall nothing spectacular. That all changed.
The game was 21 minutes long. 3 of the 9 scores occurred in the last 90 seconds.
At 3-3, both teams were looking hard for that 4th goal, knowing that going ahead that late in the game often helps a team pull through fast. The fight for that pivotal 4th goal lasted 4 or 5 minutes, when after being rejected so many times by our defence (and subsequently stopping my runs at the goal on the other end), Dixonij got onto our goal area. Anyone who has played against Dix knows that once he sets up shop on your goal line, you have less than a 5% chance of getting rid of him. He scored a Killtrocity (that's 8 straight folks), then hopped out of the way in time for Kroze to squeeze in. 4-3 SG-1.
Kroze meets a grisly end in his own end. This is noteworthy because it's the only time we killed him deep in his own territory. They definitely knowhow to avoid turnovers in their own end. That's me behind the hammer.
Now when SG-1 got it in, there was a general "Hurrah!" from their side and a general "Oh poopknuckles" from us. However, we weren't done yet, as we proved all of 5 seconds later.
There is something in Grifball called a "Pro Run." It consists of running for the bomb at the beginning of a round, killing the opposition in front of you, and scoring, all without slowing down. Usually the manoeuvre requires one team to be of low quality as it is a very unlikely event, seeing that at some point a good team has two defenders against the ball carrier.
Team SG-1 has never had a team score a pro-run against them in competitive play. I broke that streak. Instead of having to stiff-arm one of the opponents, I killed the nearest one with my hammer as I got close, then as I grabbed the ball my teammate behind me hammered as well, but slightly off to the side, killing the second defender in the middle. The two other players did their typical sweep to the sides, and were distracted and dealt with by my two teammates who were there (both teams have identical starting point strategies, seeing as I came up with ours and based it off of playing with the members of SG-1). All I had to do from there was run it right up the gut and hit the goal before anyone who respawned realized what had happened (Dix actually flipped out because nobody told him I as running, when in reality nobody realized I had the pro run coming. After reviewing the film he agreed that it was a perfectly executed Pro Run.)
The score was 4-4, and after 20 minutes of gameplay both teams were desperate to end the game once and for all. We pushed them, they pushed back, we put up a mini-push, then Dix got to our goal line. With 3 of our 4 players being spawn raped, Kroze took a path down the edge of the court, hoping to get past Gambs, our last remaining able man. Gambs got one shot on Kroze, knocking him aloft but not killing him. Unfortunately, directly before this run Gambs accidentally teamkilled his only other able man, who was standing behind him like a fool. This left Gambs alone to deal with Dix and Kroze, who used the extra boost from Gambs’ swing to plant the bomb. Had Gambs been able to jump before he attacked, there is a strong possibility that either Dix would have scored or
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SI vs SG-1 (Game 2)Cont.SI would have turned the game in their favor. Alas, we will never know.
Game over, 5-4 SG-1.
The post game lobby went something like this:
OH MY GOD!
HOLY SH**!
THAT WAS INSANE!
BEST! GAME! EVER!
I believe it was Dix who said "That was, quite honestly, the best we have ever been played in Grifball. You guys are damn good."
We then decided to practise with each other as opposed to separately, in order to use the other's high level of skill to increase the other team's ability. Should be some intense practises.
Download the game film and other Game Assets here (the Game Assets tab)
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SI vs Stags (Game 1)I administrate Halo3Planet.com and have been writing up my games for the forum there. This is the copy paste of the first writeup.
As many of you know I am on a Grifball team for the current season (Winter League '08) with a group of people I've known for 6 odd months called Separate Intelligence. We got our matches for week 1 (Team Stags and Team SG-1 [the reigning champs]), and scheduled our first game (vs Stags) on Thursday the 10th at 7 Eastern, and the second game (vs SG-1) the following day (Friday the 11th), also at 7 Eastern. Today was our game against Team Stags and our first game of league play, and due to no scouting of the opponent (none of us knew them) we did not know what to expect. Here's the game summary (we won 9-0 as the title suggests).
Game 1: SI vs Stags
Tone of Game: Surprisingly well organized
We started off the game perfectly; I ran to the middle and got the bomb, one guy went left, one went right, one stuck back. However, I was in no position at that time to bust through their ranks and get a quick Pro Run score, so I backed off. We went 2 or 3 minutes with the occasional push forward, usually ending with an unfortunate hammering and change of possession. The score may read 9-0, but for the first half of the scoring they were right in it, matching us in almost every way.
Somewhere around 2:30 into the game Zero (GT Oldbo Jenkins) got the ball, crossed half, and saw an enemy hammer coming at him. He BARELY got to the A button in time to get a jump off, but he managed to just lift off the ground as the enemy swing his hammer at him. Coincidentally, our teammate RomanArrow (GT DankaArrow), who frequents Halo3Planet.com, happened to be right behind him. Assuming that Zero had been obliterated by the first swing, he took a swing milliseconds later, intending to kill the opposing hammer-man. As it turned out, Zero managed to survive BOTH attacks, the force of which propelled him from the centre line, over the rest of their 4 man team, directly upon the goal area. Score 1 for the good guys.
Zero (glowing) is propelled by the forces of the near simultaneous attacks of our
opponent and RomanArrow for our first point.
Our second score also came from Zero, and again via an airborne assault. The first one can be attributed to luck, but his second was a textbook Air-Surf direct to the bomb drop off point. Until this game nobody had any idea he was any good as a quick attacker hybrid position, but he certainly proved he can make a few great rushes for some solid points.
After those two impressive looking scores, we moved into more tactical strikes. We would take the ball from them, back up, drop the ball, I would pick it up, and we would push until I managed to find a good lane and stiff-armed my way to a score. With only a couple small errors causing a couple failed rushes, I managed to net two more within the next few minutes.
After we made it 4-0, they had clearly decided to switch to a more defencive strategy, making good routes for me to run ever so scarce. However, after many minutes of trying to find the perfect moment, we managed to pull their team to one side, then kill the two nearest me, allowing me a middle route (the respawns were on the other side of their teammates) to the kill zone to make it 5-0 and the assured win. In grifball you play to a total of 9 scores, making it essentially a best-of-9, first-to-5 game. Once one team hits 5, the rest of the game is played in order to determine overall kills for and against and total scores for and against.
Once I had punched people in the face enough to get us the guaranteed W, the scoring opened up in large part due to fast rushes from centre by Zero (who else would be able to run directly at the enemy and still manage to get points?). Just 3 seconds after I had scored the 5th goal (among groans of "SH**!" and "DAMNIT!") and their entire team had died, they respawned in a neat and tidy way, two on either side of the goal, with Zero about 4 feet away from a score, directly in the middle of the court. Normally in this situation, the two close respawns swing their hammers at the same time and take out the carrier, but it just so happened that one guy noticed earlier than the other and TURNED toward Zero before he swung. Had he been close enough to Zero, he would have stopped the score. Instead he only damaged Zero and betrayed his teammate who had just realized what was going on. Score one more for us.
Zero homes in on (read: runs directly at) his target as a recently bombed Team Stags
respawns and eventually fails horribly.
From there we had one more quick run for a point, at which point they decided to stop us. About a minute later XBox Live chose to poop a brick and we all went to blackscreen for about 45 seconds. One member of the other team was lagged out by the error, and when we came back the connections were all in the red. A couple confusing but playable minutes later and we had the final two scores to provide us with a 9-0 victory. We honestly didn't know who had scored the final two until we reviewed the video. Zero got them both.
Download the Video Here.
Stay tuned for coverage of Game 2 vs Team SG-1, current owners of the Grifball title, and everyone in the league's target.
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Hello Everybody!Either I made an account a while ago under my usual name (HaloHero, yes I realize it's brutal and LBCountry is somehow better), or someone else decided to steal that horrid excuse for a nickname. Either way I ended up with this account name. LBCountry is short for LilBitCountry, my nickname on a couple IRC servers. I have been most often known as HaloHero, although on the IRC server that I know KrozeGG from I am known as DrNick (a mediocre attempt at shedding "HaloHero").
Anyways, I've been following Halo since before Halo: CE, watching RvB since season 2, and Grifballing since the day after it was "discovered" (read: stumbled upon) by Burnie and friends.
Happy to be here.
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