Wherein we recount our failed attempt at kicking Bungie in the junk during one of their "legendary" Humpday Challenges. Read on.
Week before last, at the end of Bungie’s Hump Day Challenge wrap-up, Urk casually let slip that their next challenger would be 2old2play.
In true 2o2p fashion, none of us who “run” the site knew anything about it.
There was a good reason for that. The challenge wasn’t issued to 2o2p.com, but to 2o2pHalo, one of 2o2p’s most active Halo clans.
It would seem 2o2pHalo had been sending requests to Bungie over and over again for the past three years. Like Robert Paulson, 2o2pHalo stood on Bungie’s doorstep, bedroll in hand, waiting for the bell to be answered by the developer.
And so it was.
Jonny12gauge, overlord of 2o2pHalo, a generous guy and ardent supporter of the site, and despite having plenty of Halo fans in his own clan who’d love to be a part of taking on Bungie, made some space for some of the Admins and otherwise nefarious Halo characters from 2o2p’s Rogues gallery.
Bungie named the time, but not the place, saving the map/gametype selection for the challenge itself. We knew it’d be a series of 8v8 games, and as the challenger, 2o2pHalo was allowed to select one game. Jonny and crew picked some Hemorrhage CTF where the flag runner could drive; some old school CTF, more or less.
When the time came, we loaded into the room and exchanged pleasantries with the Bungie crew. They seemed like all right guys. Personally, I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t swear, and some of them seemed my kind of people, if you know what I mean.
Game 1: Slayer DMRs on Atom
Yeah, uh, we didn’t see that coming. Pretty sure 90 percent of our team hadn’t even played on Atom before. I heard one of my teammates say, “What’s this map? Is it new?” Nothing like the fear of the unknown to set the tone for a game of TS.
I found myself rushing rocks alone on opening spawn … annnnnd dying alone (yeah, that first picture in the Bungie write-up of the event? That’s me dying trying to pick up the freaking rockets. Yay, me). Bungie took rocks, then they took the middle platform of the map, and then the hammer, and then they proceeded to stick their collective foot up our collective ass. No one knew where to go or where to shoot. And what good are call-outs when no one knows what anything is called? We sure didn’t know where any of the power weapons spawned.
Well, okay, that’s not entirely true. I’d played that map the night before in matchmaking, and then walked it with Doublefire after receiving a butt-kicking. I knew where to find rockets and the microwave gun (focus beam, whateverthehellitscalled). But that’s about it.
At one point, after seeing a Bungiteer rocket another of my teammates to death, I asked the crew why we hadn’t gotten rockets. Okay, I didn’t ask it like that. It was more something like this:
“Doesn't anyone know where the fucking rockets spawn?”
At least six voices responded, “No.”
…
We spent the first half of the game trying to figure out what in the holy hell was going on, but after that, we settled down and closed the gap. One of the Bungiteers remembers a 15-point lead. I don’t remember it getting that carried away, but maybe it did. I know Caesar went a little nuts somewhere in the middle of that game and brought us back from the brink. Bungie even called “host” on him after the game (good to see that they, too, recognize those types of … issues).
What really matters is that we came back from a lot down to get up by nine or 10 kills. In fact, we were up 95 to 89. And then they kept getting kills in clumps. Tied up at 99, and then it was finished, and we’d lost 100-99.
No shame in that loss. I thought we played pretty well considering three-quarters of us had not played the map. Frankly, I think we let it slip away, and I felt our odds of winning the next game were pretty good.
Game 2: Multi-flag on Hemorrhage
It’s still a weird sort of feeling to see this map load up. All my early days of Halo were spent running about on Coag/Blood Gulch, and I can’t tell you how many times I’d played Multi-flag to a draw.
I think there might’ve been a plan to cap a flag for this. I think it might’ve even been discussed prior to my logging on that evening. No one told me what it was, so I defaulted to old Halo 2 habits: get the sniper rifle, get a good spot and play proactive D while the rest of the team rushed the flag.
From the outset, Bungie’s strat seemed to be some heavy D mixed with some exploratory sorties to see how hard it was to get to our flag. As it turned out, it wasn’t that hard. There were usually only two of us back near our base (not counting our frequently respawning teammates). When they finally pulled our flag, they brought in a Revenant and a Hog, took advantage of our advancing teammates, and pulled with minimal resistance.
Doodi and company mounted the classic toss-the-flag-to-your-buddy-on-the-roof-by-the-teleporter-entrance tactic, and carried the Bungie flag back to our base. At that point, I think both teams just played for stalemate. Little did we know. Should’ve done our due diligence, I suppose.
Apparently, Bungie has some rule about ties in Objective games and how kill counts become the tie-breaker. They decided early in Game Two that it would probably be a stalemate, and opted to sit back and camp their base and slay.
They call it a victory. I’ll call it a tie. I mean, cmon, Bungie.net shows a “1st” next to my name as well as Urk’s. Perhaps they’d like to replay that one?
Game 3: Elite Slayer, Powerhouse
Tone of the game: Mass effing chaos.
When you put 16 players on Powerhouse and wrap them up in an Elite candy shell, you can expect some manner of unpredictability. Elites are harder to kill. The map’s not really that big. Everyone knows where the choke points are and how to get to the really good guns.
But the real difference in the game was the 16 players. There were no safe spawns, no harbors in the storm. I honestly couldn’t even tell you what happened in that game. I’d spawn in, try to find a teammate and start shooting. I remember a lot of fights near the bottom of the hammer ramp and on cliffside.
We kept it close through the first 50 or so kills, but then they managed about a 10 or 12-point lead. We closed to within five somewhere in the 60s or 70s, but couldn't maintain it, couldn't get closer.
It was a fun game, however. I remember a two-clip fight with Urk on top of the dorm. Someone else ended up killing him, but it was kinda fun Evading in and out of cover, peek shooting and waiting for the shields to pop back up. That’s pure Halo to me. Work for your kills, son.
Despite all that, they bested us by a mere nine points. Again, respectable.
Post-hump Wrap-up
Now, you might take some of that recap as sour grapes. Quite the contrary. Most of you on 2o2p know I’m sorta, I dunno, competitive. What I tasted last Wednesday just left me hungry for more. We put up random teams and played toe-to-toe with the developers of the game.
Sure, it’s natural to feel a little disappointed with a loss, but … c’mon, they made the game. I want another piece of them. Right. Now. I hope it doesn’t take another three years for Bungie to make a return visit to 2o2p.
However, much as it galls me to admit, this particular event was less about winning or losing than it was getting to interact with some of the people who’ve given us so much enjoyment over the past decade.
Props to 2o2pHalo for fielding competitive teams, and more for letting some of us “outsiders” screw with your clan chemistry. In a very really way, 2o2pHalo represents everything 2o2p is supposed to be, and I think Bungie saw that.
It was a competitive challenge with good between-game banter, and I’m pretty sure it evoked some mutual respect. Certainly from our side. I don’t often hear about other game developers taking time out of their schedules to hang out with their fan communities and game. Oh, sure, if Xbox Live sponsors it, but nothing like the Bungie Weekly Humpday Challenge. That’s respect for their fans.
Thanks, Bungie. Good games.
That said, 2o2p is a site home to a bunch of great Halo-based gaming clans. I’m going to go ahead and say that more than a few of them might like a shot at the belt, and you can consider this being slapped with the proverbial white glove.
We may be old, but we’re feisty, and we’re pretty sure our wisdom and treachery can overcome your youth and exuberance.
Also, I know a lot of you are over 25. I’d like to formally invite you to sign up on 2o2p. C’mon in, make yourself comfortable. We have something even your own forums can’t offer – a safe haven from the trolling Timmies of the world.
If you're new around here, send an FR to: A1A 2o2p Reach
