This is the blister I got from playing Halo 2 last night against three very good players, probably Singapore's top Halo 2 players. They are about half my age. My mates and I were getting our asses kicked all over the place by dcosta, TidusSG and FarCue85 (rhymes with a naughty word), and loved every minute of it.
I was told that TidusSG is the World Cyber Games champion of Singapore. I told them I was World Cyber Games champion of my house. What I didn't say was that I was the ONLY gamer in my house.
At one point, we decided to play 6 against 3 because it was getting obvious that if we played in equal sized teams (or even every-man-for-himself), it would be a major bloodbath. So we played the remaining games with us against three of them, and the games became more managable, like a major bloodshower.
These three young men obviously had the talent. Having the reflexes of youth and time to game — they were students— didn't hurt either (at least, that will be our official excuse).
What made it fun was that they were getting the practice they wanted for an upcoming tourney, and was having a fairly good challenge fighting off a team superior in numbers. And we weekend warriors got to learn a few tricks just watching them play, and watching them function as a team. Plus, we ourselves actually got better as a team. Nothing like the risk of being mowed down by an Army of One to force us guys to stick together.
In many ways, it is like the future of Singapore (insert National Song here). Sure, we all like to do our own thing. But if we know that running out into the open on our own will get us killed, we are more likely to stay together and figure out how to work together to minimise our own demise, while maximising our kills.
Ok, forget maximising our kills, we were just happy to Not Die. Our team motto was "Die Less".
Things learned (and all this stuff is common sense but easy to forget in the heat of battle):
-Against a superior enemy, there is no shame in four of you shooting at one of them
-It takes four of you to kill one of them, and even then, three of you will die
-Deny deny deny. Do not let them get any key weapons, like the Sword, Rocket Launcher or Shotgun. Do not let them get any weapons at all if possible. Let the buggers fight you with their fists
-One of them with a shotgun on the third floor and all of you taking the lift up = many dead yous. Think Elevator Turkey Shoot
-Listen to your teammates if they tell you, "Don't go up! He has a shotgun!"
-Always tell your teammates where the enemy is coming from (and shouting "enemy is coming up the slope!" is meaningless when the whole map consists of slopes)
-He has two SMGs, you have two SMGs, but he can shoot at your head while jumping around and moving, while you can only spray your bullets in his general direction and die horribly
-It is good to assign one or two members of your team as snipers while the rest of you do the close-quarters hunting. But make sure someone covers the back of the sniper too. Snipers need backside protection
-A grenade can be thrown really far and accurately. Snipers can die from well-thrown grenades
-Do not wander out into the open without your buddy. Do not even go to the toilet in the game map without your buddy
-Stay together but loose enough that you don't all die at once when one of the enemy gets hold of a rocket launcher. Tell your team mates if you spot the enemy with a launcher, then run like mad away from your team mates like they have body odour or something
-A Warthog with a gunner turns your team into Armoured Infantry, until the enemy locks on to you like a big fat target and blows you up. Or your stupid driver crashes the two of you into a wall, killing you both
-In the heat of battle, your driver will shout to you, the Warthog gunner, to drive! drive! drive!
-It is an honour to have died by the guns of Singapore's best player
-It is even more shiok to have killed him once or twice, while he was busy fighting with three of your teammates
-It is easy to say "Hey, meet my friends Mr Plasma Pistol and Mr Magnum, and eat THIS!" to Singapore's best player when you have five of your teammates behind you spraying bullets at him
My favourite game in that set was the Magnum-and-pistols-only game on the Midship map. We were like Chow Yuen Fatt firing our dual pistols, but without the trenchcoats.
Oh, and the three of them didn't trashtalk us too much or gloat about their wins, which was also nice. I always appreciate polite and skillful killers. And they were humble enough to admit that they were getting their asses kicked by other overseas experts.
I may be dying like flies in the face of insecticide assault now, but just you wait. When my son grows up to be their age, and they reach my age, I will transfer all my Shaolin kung-fu skills to him so that he can kick their asses. All my hopes rest in my son now.
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