For the first time in the history of Halo Night, we let a player slip on via Xbox Live this April. Given that half of the purpose of Halo Night is the camaraderie and the fellowship, and given the lag and other issues that can creep up, we've never really allowed it to happen. We made an exception for John486 thanks to a light turnout (only four other players) and his underage-and-without-a-ride status. This time....

Like many recent Halo Nights, we've expanded our horizons a bit with a new game type. While we've done some Crazy King before, we had yet to do a round of Mosh Pit. This time, we did two. The first, on Heretic, was absolute chaos littered with live sticky grenades. In other words, it was awesome. The second, however, involved a little more strategy as we combined the open spaces of Narrows with a rockets-only game type. And we learned that Coldylocks is quite the mosher.

And speaking of rockets, we had a round of Rockets on Guardian that proved to last longer than you might expect. And speaking of learning, we learned that a bubble shield deploys at full size despite the animation showing that it grows out. Riley Craven got credited with a suicide when stinklikeonion deployed such a shield directly in front of him. The shield wasn't even visible yet, but that didn't stop Riley Craven's rocket from exploding just outside his barrell.

The night wasn't all random and new. We also played a simple round of Slayer on Balanced Variety. And  John486 dominated. And not in a "Wow, he did good" kind of way. More of a "I'm ashamed to have participated in that"  kind of way. He used sniper rifles, Banshees, Hornets, Scorpions, Spartan Lasers, and possibly voodoo (though we have no proof... yet) to reach 25 when no other player had even reached 10 yet. It was a slaughter.

So what do you do when the one guy who isn't there in-person destroys everyone else? Kick him out of the party? Of course not! That's unsportsmanlike. Instead, we put him on a team by himself on Heavens Above. Riley Craven assumed the classic "more targets equals easier win" equation would play out. He didn't take into account that a well-armed and well-armored team against some guy by himself is still one-sided. It was not unlike an Easter egg hunt. Just with tanks. And John486 fared about as well as the eggs.