2old2play

The first (of what's sure to be many) 2o2p Frags Away FFA tournament played out earlier this month. Many entered. Only one became a champion.

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Two months after the Frags Away FFA hit Awesome Town (aka, the Chicago Lan), I decided we could do an Xbox Live version to allow those members who couldn’t make the trip to Chicago to partake in some Halo 3 goodness. This first Frags Away Xbox Live FFA was a tribute to the famous Halo 2 map, Midship, reborn as Heretic in Halo 3.

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In Halo 2, this was the FFA map. The remake then became a no-brainer for the battleground of our first Frags Away Xbox Live FFA.

I limited the enlistment to 32 people; any member of 2old2play at any rank was allowed to sign up. The top prize was a choice of 3200 Microsoft points or a $40 Best Buy Gift Card (way to go above and beyond, caes. -- ed.). We almost reached the 32-player limit on the first day the sign-up was posted. It took only a few more days to max out and get the party started.

Once all the players were signed up, I went through every name on the list and did my best to spread the skill levels out across the rooms by player rank and by my knowledge of the players’ skill sets to make the matches as equitable as possible.

Listed below are the rooms broken down by the players that signed up (RL: Designating Room Leader):

Room 1
RL: Caesar
Kevtek17
killthrash
ripend Turmoil
Bioslayer
Ghost92
Eksessiv
Soulvoid

Room 2
RL: Fire
Risen
trizev
Boulder
Soup Nazzi
Kid Mach
Kontrolled
Legendcalledjim

Room 3
RL: Knifeman
Biorod
I6Hitman
Ladiesluvme
Gridiron Grace
Lala Calamari
Twisted Caboose
Ekattan

Room 4
RL: Killa Gorilla
Neksone
Normal Guy
Emminett
Sparhawk
CBASS
Tman
Nogame22

There were a couple changes from the way we ran the tournament in Chicago. For one, I changed the round time limit to 10 minutes in order to shorten up the games, make them more intense, and to keep us somewhat on schedule. I didn't want it to take all night. Also, It was a double elimination tournament. In Chicago, you made the cut or you didn't, but then again there were more maps in Chicago.

Everything went down on October 5. I signed on early to ensure everyone got in their rooms and had the proper settings and whatnot. One thing that threw us for a loop was the amount of no-shows: we had seven in all across the Winner Bracket Round 1, which put a kink in things for the first two rounds. But real life happens, so we forged on!

All the games had really tight scores. For example, in Knifeman’s Winner Bracket Round 1 room, Phreaks and Gridiron tied for fourth at the end of the game: not only in kills, but in deaths as well, forcing us to go to assists to determine who would advance. By a small margin, Gridiron progressed to Winner Bracket Round 2. Almost all the brackets played out in similar fashion. It made for exciting times.

For the Full Brackets please click the link below:
http://www.gamer-grafix.com/2old2play/FragsAway09/ffa09results.htm

The finals played out exactly how I hoped they would: an extremely close-fought battle between eight of the site’s toughest members. The game was intense, to say the least, as each player jockeyed for position to move up the board. The end result was a spectacular finish with one kill separating placements from second to seventh. Neksone walked away victorious in the end. He lead most the game and managed to keep his lead all the way to the finish.

Congratulations to Neksone for winning the first 2old2play Frags Away FFA Xbox Live Tournament!

For the final game stats, see link below:
http://www.bungie.net/Stats/GameStatsHalo3.aspx?gameid=1390527529&player=Neks0ne

I have plans for another Frags Away FFA tournament, including more maps like Citadel, and some others. I6_Hitman is most likely going to help me run that one, so stay tuned for more info.

Thanks again to all who signed up and played!