Like January 9, February's Halo Night had twelve players. Four unlucky souls had to share a standard-sized television, but it certainly didn't seem to affect their skill. With the exception of a couple newcomers that are still learning the ropes (including one that had never touched a 360 controller before tonight), we had a very well-balanced group, and the night maintained a high level of competition (well, for most of us at least).

Early matches went about as expected, with stinklikeonion's wanton Ghost usage and Mighty Nimrod 6's anti-vehicular strategy. And as expected, the uber rookie, camp man, was at an overwhelming disadvantage while he learned his way around the controller, much less the game. However, the night still had surprises to come.

A game of Rockets on Guardian saw the first (and second, third, and fourth) ever kill for camp man, along with his first suicide (as expected on a Rockets match). More surprising, though, was that it brought Zamurai his first Halo Night win, as he won out in a four-way last second tie. He continued to perform well throughout the night, completing in the top 50% several times. Other relatively new players won throughout the night as well, including bubbagump (playing Fetch) and a bad variable (Slayer on Last Resort).

A round of Heavens Above didn't seem nearly as empty as it often does, thanks to the large number of players in attendance. There was no shortage of opportunities for any one player, though as usual, fartbubble chose to spend much of his time arranging the Elephants. Mighty Nimrod 6 pulled away with a win on the map, though, as he silently racked up kill after kill with a tank. For some reason, none of us seemed to notice the tank shooting everyone. Well, those who noticed died too quickly to do anything about it.

A couple rounds of Grifball proved to be as hectic as ever, though we did find ourselves spawning outside of the playing area on occasion. A quick, suicidal trip through a teleporter got us back into action, but the power play-like effect gave the opposing team a hafty advanage. Riley Craven proved to be a force to be recokoned when armed with a small basketball-gone-warhead.

We followed that with a couple goodl old-fashioned rounds of Capture the Flag which proved to be entertaining with the larger teams. And, finishing ht enight off with a round of Swords on Construct and Slayer on Last Resort, we ended one of the most well-balanced Halo Nights we have had. We were able to play a wide variety of maps and employ a vast number of stretegies, and everyone had a chance to get some kills in.