The heat of summer was starting to settle on the metroplex as the players gathered once again to play Halo 3. We initially expected this to be our largest yet, but a few players had to bow out. Nonetheless, a new player (temporarily named McNutty) and a few guys who had missed the past few Halo Nights joined us. We ended up with a very solid twelve players, which made for some fun gameplay.

We played a lot more team matches that we have in the past, which added some interesting strategy elements. For example, on what turned out to be a pretty one-sided round of Capture the Flag, fartbubble almost captured the red flag, but was stopped by the teamwork of Mighty Nimrod 6 and stinklikeonion, whose quick thinking (and immediate access to a Wraith) saved the day. Or at least, it felt like it. The red team still ended up losing 3 to 1.

In addition to the round of Capture the Flag, we played several Team Slayer matches, on a variety of maps. From a two-team round on the vast Sandtrap-based Heavens Above to a three-team battle (red vs. blue vs. pink, for some reason) on Vehicle Fun, we had plenty of opportunity for teamwork and widespread mayhem in a wide variety of environments.

One of the best contributors to the Team Slayer matches seemed to be fartbubble's son, who recently acquired his own gamertag, Darth Gager. Whether he was playing the support role by getting assists or leading the way with a killing spree, he seemed on top of his game. Some of us wonder if he was just holding back because of school, but since this was the last day, he finally just decided to whoop up on the adults.

And speaking of mayhem, we tried out a new custom game type this week, appropriately titled "Mayhem." After the fast-paced custom Slayer matches of the past few weeks, it seemed appropriate to feel out a good combination of fast action and weapon selection. With gravity hammers and rocket launchers, the game requires some level of strategy, but offers little time to deploy it, demanding quick reflexes and excessive quantities of luck.

Mayhem wasn't our only first-time game type this time. We also played Infection for the first time, after several general explanations of the process and game rules. One more time, guys. It's scored like regular Slayer, but there are still teams as far as who you can kill to score (infected [aka zombies] and non-infected). Despite being away from Halo Night for a couple months, a bad variable seemed to get the hang of Infection almost immediately.

Of course, we played a few normal matches as well. Well, normal for us. For example, we played some Halo Night classics such as The Gauntlet and Fetch. After reviewing the video from The Gauntlet, we discovered that fartbubble managed to do the unthinkable. Somehow, he managed to laser himself (see his page for the screen shot). Impressive. Most impressive.

And one last bit of fun from the night... At some point, someone made a Monty Python reference ("It's not a palindrome" from the Dead Parrot Sketch). In what stinklikeonion believes is one of the greatest comebacks he's ever heard, bubbagump replied "Your mom is a palindrome." Classic.