Who is the meanest, baddest, most ruthless, stone coldest, dog-eat-dog killer in all of the Good Game Network? That very question has tugged at the heart of all who travel the MidWorld Forum. The answer to that question will reveal itself. Today. 3:00 PM. That’s Central Time for those of you keeping score at home.
For the first time ever, and likely not for the last, Tied the Leader is hosting the GGN Tournament of Champions. Over one month ago, it was TTL DDay who issued a call to all of the hired guns that make their virtual home in an Affiliated Clan... “The Good Game Netowork is all about teamwork. This June, it is all about you…”
“Seek the wolf in thyself!” came the challenge. From all across the GGN, they came. Some sought glory. Others sought to defend the reputation of their respective houses. For all of those brave souls who put their boots on the line, this was a chance [to quote Carter 259] to leave that lone wolf stuff behind, just before each of them are recuited into the ranks of Team Noble.
The volunteers were counted. The brackets were set. For weeks now, these prize fighters have been clashing one by one in duels of cunning and skill. Six rounds of competition have boiled down the contenders in a crucible of gunfire and ‘splosions. In the end, only two gamers remain.
The Spooner vs. TLK Cloud
Arm The Flag vs. Team Master Theory
For those of you who have become invested in the outcome of these trials, the Final Round of the tournament will be broadcast live. Tied the Leader is offering you a front row seat for the carnage that will ensue. On the front lines will be Combat Correspondent Hoovaloov, risking his avatar to bring you all of the action. Death will be listening, and it will take the first gamer that screams.
UPDATE: Network lag is forcing us to stream a playback of the events. Check back at 3:45 PM for the feed.
It has begun. While yet to swing wide, the gates are open. The first wave has dropped, and maneuvers have commensed. The Halo: Reach Beta is live, and so is Tied the Leader.
Any good war needs combat correspondents embedded with the fighting forces that clash on the battlefield. There would be no war stories without brave souls on the field to collect the finer moments that erupt from the fog. The Battle of The Beta shall be no different.
Reporting from Tied the Leader’s advanced recon unit is Hoovaloov, our own combat correspondent. You are invited to ride along as we storm environments unknown. This is your invitation to be embedded with the Gunslingers.
Our Live Feed begins Thursday, April 29th. At High Noon [central time] the Gunslingers will get some. Check Justin TV for status updates on next playtimes and chat functionality. Or, if you don’t want to miss a single frag on the go, download their iPhone application and look up our tiedtheleader channel.
If you have been a constant reader of this gamerblog, you have likely beheld his mastery of the rich media. This Gunslinger wields a digital editor like he does a Sniper Rifle. He throws the funky beats like he’s hurling plasma on any map of Halo 3, turning his carnage into a dance.
If you have not been a constant reader, it seems extremly likely that you have been shot in the middle of your face by Hoovaloov on Xbox Live. Either way, you may see your own ugly mug below…
Welcome to his File Share. Hoovaloov has focused the spotlight on many of us in the past. This is his time to shine. That is, after all, what a File Share is good for… Hat’s off to The Maker for giving us the means to tell our own war stories.
There ain’t nothing wrong with a man that takes pride in his own work. Should we not admire the success of our opponent? Here is your chance to tell Hoovaloov that he plays a ‘Good Game’.
Halo 3 is a stage. Please enjoy while our resident auteur takes a bow.
The Halo Nation is very much a microcosm of the world in which we live. All of the archetypes that we encounter in our first lives are also present in the game. Leaders. Followers. Saints. Bullies. Veterans. Newbies. Zealots. Naysayers. Friends. Jackasses. You are as likely to find them traveling your favorite matchmaking playlist as you are to see them wandering through your own neighborhood.
To riff on this notion, the gamers who don Bungie’s rare armor permutation are like the Hollywood celebrities who get chased through the streets by ravenous paparazzi in the employ of fine journalistic outlets like TMZ. The obvious difference is that paparazzi don’t shoot people with machine guns.
Just like over-exposed celebrities, someone who bemoans the attention that they get for wearing Recon in Halo 3 is lying to you. It would be far easier for those people to revert to their original helmet than it would be for [say] Leo DiCaprio to settle down in a Kansas City suburb and open a pub.
So why tolerate the endless messages? Why invite a stream of Friend Requests, invitations to chat, and threats to hack one’s account? What gain could possibly come from being repeatedly rolled over in the deadbox by curious opponents who want a closer look?
I can’t speak for everyone. For this gamerblogger, however, the interest is purely tactical. What’s that? Recon armor for tactical gain? You read me right… and I need all the help I can get. Anyone who plays with me on a regular basis can tell you that they don’t invite me into their party lobby on the merit of my Battle Rifle.
In the absence of “sick snipa skillz”, I use every tool present in Halo 3 for tactical gain. Every corner of the map gets a catchy nickname to flower team-chat with pneumonic devices. Armor color and HUD callsigns become battlefield indicators of squad loadout; for easy reference between Offense, Defense, Snipers, and Pilots.
And Recon? Well, Recon, my good friends, is a lightning rod for idiots. We all know who those gamers are. They come in many varieties. To illustrate what I mean, you are invited to look in on this recent match on High Ground…
Here we have an Elite with an eye for rare battle dress. He just scored himself a kill in what battle-hardened veterans would affecionately refer to as “Territory 2”. Does he spin on his heel to check his six for the next would-be assailant?
Nope! Instead of replaying this moment again and again and again in the Theatre, he spends crucial seconds during the actual game to admire the lines of his prey.
Big mistake, you hunch-backed savage! Perhaps you didn’t receive the memo that SPARTANs travel in packs. Have an earful of Mauler-shot, courtesy of the TTL Gunslingers.
Thank you for pausing in a war zone to smell the roses! We appreciate your low threshold for distraction. While you may have been amused in the beating of a dead horse, it looks as if the joke is on you.
Fortunately for Blue Team, it would seem that Red Team is packed with Elites that are attracted to shiny objects. This one just took down that very same Recon Marine in the vicinity of what the locals call “Rocket Spawn”.
As part of his post-kill celebration, he invites his prey to a tea party. If you are ever invited to one of these parties, it is advised that you say “No”. Sadly, these imfamous parties are a far too common ritual among many gamers, whether they drink tea or not.
Of course, a virtual combat scenario is hardly the venue for weilding a teabag. Mere seconds can mean the difference between life and respawn. Among the objectives in the current matchmaking playlist, no additional points are awarded for humping another gamer’s corpse.
What’s more, you never know where that opponent of yours may respawn. The last thing you would want is for them to watch you do your nasty dance from the deadbox, only to materialize somewhere behind you.
If that were to happen, they would know your exact position. There would be nothing to stop them from returning to the scene of your sick little crime to exact a measure of vengeance in response to your poor sportsmaship.
That opponent of yours could literally march right up behind you, using his own dead form as a lure, and introduce the non-business end of his Assault Rifle to your reptilian skull. Odds are, that would smart. Odds are, that could even kill you!
OUCH! How did that happen? There you were, minding your own business – with your crotch in another man’s face – when the same exact man showed up and pistol whipped you across the back of your misshapen head.
No one wants to go out like that. That would leave any gamer feeling foolish. Wouldn’t it?
In August, the power-armored crusaders in the Saved By Grace clan issued a summons. In a bid to assemble a congregation of gamers in competitive union, a cash purse was dangled before hand-picked opponents who were invited to participate in a series of Big Team Battles. That’s how clans extend their campaigns into Halo 3. You want Big Team to be ranked? Rank it yourself. 16 teams quickly descended upon their forum to claim the prize. The winning clan would claim $100 – intended to support their website operations. Server space don’t pay for itself, after all…
Tied the Leader would like to thank SBG, on behalf of all clans involved, for being excellent hosts. This invitational was an excellent chance to become acquainted with new clans, and deal some lead to some old friends. Our Good Game Network even gained a new affiliate, or two.
From round to round, the preceedings were managed with efficiency, order, and… well… grace. As the finals drew near, they were even forced to negotiate delays of game due to everything from hurricanes to LAN Parties. The Gunslingers, as always, fought to benefit their TTL Foundation. In our house, any spare cash is forwarded to people who need it more than us. That was our inspiration, and we thumbed back the hammers on our revolvers.
Who won?
Everyone who played won. Clan-based community is the best way to enjoy a video game, after all. Knowing that one is part of something larger than one’s self adds so many dimensions to the role play. Teamwork. Commaraderie. This invitational tournament was a solid reminder of why we fight.
Who claimed the cash prize?
Man! You are persistent in your fetish for the scoreboard. Aren’t you? Those exploits are not for me to descibe. This gamerblogger is not a prize-fighter. My desk job in the propaganda ministry at TTL – not to mention untold hours in the plush seat of the Warthog, has made me soft.
For the gorey details, you will have to consult TTL Gilthanis. He was our Team Leader and Mission Commander for this series of bouts. This eager, young killer took our Gunslingers by the belts and marshalled them up to and through the final round against SBG.
Tied the Leader would like to introduce you to a baby named Hayden. There she is, all dressed up for Halloween. Hayden’s daddy is a TTL Gunslinger. That means that he has hundreds of gamers who have his back covered on Xbox Live. As it turns out, gaming clans are good for more than just boosting rank.
What’s that you ask? Why is Hayden on the cover of a magazine? That little detail, constant reader, is at the crux of our little tale. You see, Hayden won a contest. You could even say that she won an election…
Now, at TTL, we don’t traffic in politics. It’s written into the law that governs our great land. However, when Sunburned Goose told us that his daughter was a finalist in a contest named “Babies Gone Wild”, well, we just had to come to her aid. When posed with the question, it just so happens that the Halo Nation thinks that babies who come from good, solid gamer stock are the cutest.
You could go so far as to say that beauty is in the eye of the controller-holder.
In Hayden’s defense, she didn’t really need our help. Perhaps we contributed to her early momentum in primary voting, but she’s a charming young lady all by herself. She went the distance on her own power. Over 2,000,000 votes were cast to select the face that would grace the cover of the Fall Issue of Alabama Baby. Try as we might, the Tied the Leader Community would never be able to muster such numbers needed to overturn popular opinion of that magnitude. Yet, every successful candidate needs a strong base, and we were more than happy to play that role.
There is Hayden, surrounded by her campaign staff at ChicagoLANd 3.0. Any baby that can brave a LAN Party wins my vote. Ours was no cakewalk. The battle was hard fought and won. During the campaign, intelligence gathering brough to light a similar grass-roots movement that sought to support a rival baby on an Internet forum for dog-lovers.
What started out as an amusing way to pass the time between raiding parties into Halo 3 became an experiment in the power of gamer culture. Competitive spirits bloomed. The objective was painted like a target. War was declared.
When it seemed that we were contesting a battleground state, TTL activated the Good Game Network. Through our alliances, we were able to marshall honest votes from the Praetorians, the Buddies, O7AH, 8Bit Brigade, and even the Cavegirls.
Was this bias? Of course it was! All elections are decided by the bias of those who vote. Was this a misappropriation of power? Who is to say? The prospect of gaming communities inserting their influence into baby pageants is a very grey area of Election Law.
All we know is that, when all of the ballots had been cast, it was our girl who was sworn in as the face of Autumn in the Southeast.
Congratulations, Hayden. Here’s looking at you, kid. If those tiny little hands ever find their way to a controller, remember the Gunslingers that helped to make you famous…
At Tied the Leader, this front page has been enjoying somewhat of a sumer vacation in recent weeks. Your friendly neighborhood gamerblogger will safeguard his pride by not asking if you had noticed.
We have been getting outside from time to time [no, really]. We are planning a LAN. And, of course, we are playing our favorite game. There is always time for that. When the green ring on the box comes alive, there will be blood.
There are times when it seems that not much more can be said about that. We have stated our case. We have chiseled our charter into what passes for stone in cyberspace. We have built our army and mustered our allies. We play the game for the opportunities it grants us to interact [either peacefully or violently] with our fellow gamers…
May the lead trade sides on several occassions throughout the match!
As gamers, the game is our stage. Here is a look back on some of our favorite plays, executed recently in the warzone lovingly maintained for us by the fighting men and women at Bungie Studios.
This assembly of highlights exists not to rub the noses of the fallen in their own blood, but to celebrate the fact that gamers are active participants in their own quest for entertainment. They are their own playmakers, their own closers, their own gold medalists.
Enjoy, as we have… Love, TTL.
p.s. Don’t miss Yours Truly at 2:15 in the timecode, executing a one-wheel reverse-endo in a Warthog – flag on board! They don’t pass out medals for that…
p.p.s. Mad props to Oboe Crazy for shining the spotlight on our better moments!
Ahhhhhhhh, man! I didn’t even see that guy. What the hell am I doing in this hallway anyway? Red Team is obviously camping out the beach because they know I want my-
Wait. Oh, shit… This guy’s gonna teabag me now?
No. Actually not. He’s just gonna sit there and glass in on my… Oh! I get it.
Yep! You got me. The gig is up. Take a screenshot after the game, it will last longer. Are you gonna message me with one of those challenges in which I am supposed to strip naked at the end of the match?
RESPAWN
Damn! That’s just great. Real smart! Why don’t I just rush into the same hallway, only to get killed in a different corner? All the best players pull that move.
Oh, c’mon! This guy again?
Dude, go away. I know this pose with my back arched in a feline curve is hard to ignore, but go play Halo. Seriously. Did you hear that? We just took Territory 3 from you. Not interested?
You might think I was asking for this when I cowboyed back into your hiding place, but this is actually getting a little creepy. Let a man rest in peace, for crying out loud. Would you like for me to put the lotion in the basket? I am not a size 14, you know…
RESPAWN
For Pete’s sake! Are you engaging anyone else on this team besides me? If a Gunslinger catches you poking at me with a stick, they’re gonna loan you some grenades. Now Git!
Oh, great. That’s it! Beat me around like your little doll. Go ahead, roll me over and put me in a pose. Cut my ear off and put it on a necklace, if you must. You know, any FBI Profiler would tell you that is a “problematic behavioral element”. Shouldn’t you be doing anything besides this right now? Like helping your team take Territory 2 from us on a sudden death?
Can the Halo Nation accommodate yet another series of combat montages? The staunchest critics of machinima would say “NO!”
This gamerblogger says “Why not? Bring ‘em on!”
Capturing the more explosive events from an unscripted encounter is a celebration of the individual that plays the game. It’s a salute to the fact that, in the midst of countless explosions and confrontation, every gamer gets a chance [sooner or later] to play the role of the hero.
Creating an alternative storyline using a game engine is certainly clever, but the game is the thing at Tied the Leader. In playing the game, a gamer writes their own story – with themselves as the main character. And, they do it on the fly. Submitted for your approval, or at least three-and-a-half minutes of your viewing pleasure, we proudly present some of the more vivid moments captured by TTL Gunslingers during combat maneuvers for the month of June.
This isn’t a parade of “MLG awesome sauce”. These are the every day people that play the game for fun. And fun they have. Don’t worry. It’s not set to speed-metal.
It has been said that you should never return to the scene of a crime. Fortunately for the TTL Gunslingers, and a few distinguished guests, that same pearl of wisdom does not hold true for LAN parties – especially when the scene in question is a beach. Thus, on Memorial Day weekend, Tied the Leader held a repeat performance of last year’s AtLANtica event.
Telling the stories engendered at a LAN party is always a tricky proposition. Photos from the scene usually end up depicting faces frozen in a mask of tactical concentration. The camera is rarely trained on the attendees when the party erupts into exaltation. The competitive electricity in the room escapes the snapshots. The tension and suspense of live competition and social camaraderie defy illustration.
Thanks to the video stylings of one Sunburned Goose, this problem is solved in living, breathing high-definition. We bid you welcome to come along with Goose on his journey. Should you crave a higher resolution of this video documentary, register for a login here, and access the Downloads menu in the lower right-hand corner.
All told, 37 attendees graced us with their presence, their gunfire, and their company. Through the execution of a [not-so] silent auction, $1,200 was raised to benefit wounded combat veterans via the Tied the Leader Foundation. It was, after all, Memorial Day!
This event was many things. It was a vacation. It was a tournament. It was a live assembly of the membership from a virtual social network. It was introductions among new friends and reunions among old friends. It was a fundraiser for charity. Above all else, it was a party.
Tied the Leader is a community that finds it roots in LAN Parties like this one. When we played Halo: Combat Evolved, we didn’t have Xbox Live. We didn’t have hotel meeting spaces or 40” plasmas, either. Events like this one are always a much-needed reconciliation with the truth – that we are gamers in a clan to enjoy ourselves, as well as to enjoy the company of each other.
Next stop… Chicago. For the third time. After all, if one scene is worth returning to, so is another.
To those who attended AtLANtica, 2.0: Thank you, and Good Game.
This blog is an interactive front page for a broader online community of gamers committed to honorable conduct and fair play. Our goal is to share with our allies and our opponents a gaming experience of the highest possible quality. "Good game" is our Mantra. Sportsmanship is our Law.
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