February 2010 was our second-largest Halo Night so far, with eleven players. Many of the old-timers were there, including the long-time MIA Apollo884 (formerly known as scuba). Some of the newer guys where there, including sparticus and mushashi (who went by Matt last time, wherever he got that name from). And, we had a couple new guys in the form of Coldylocks and Lord ET.

Coldylocks' Halo Night debut performance was impressive. The second match of the night, a good old-fashioned round of Boom, had a pretty close set of front-runners including John486, Riley Craven, and stinklikeonion. However, Coldylocks threw everything but the kitchen sink (and those are exempt only because they don't spawn on this map) at his enemies, winning on his second Halo Night match.

A round of Team Slayer on Divided We Fall felt one-sided as the pink team dominated the orange team, 50 to 25. We can go into all kinds of in-depth analysis of establishing and maintaining vehicle control, teamwork and watching each other's backs, and the element of simple luck. The more important factor to consider here is that a group of eleven men somehow chose pink and orange as the two team colors. And this wasn't the only time it happened this Halo Night.

After sparticus had to leave early, we had the even number we'd need for some Rocket Race action. It was actually a fairly close match, for the first bit. Once again, though, John486 demonstrated his that his superiority isn't restricted to bullets and beat-downs. His driving, if a bit Dukes of Hazzard-esque, escorted Zamurai 278 to an easy victory. Not to say Zamurai 278's rockets didn't help. But we're not going to kid ourselves.

We also found that the large, open spaces and constant explosions of Heaven's Above really push the limits of the Xbox 360 when three are networked with eleven players. Constant lag for all players didn't seem to diminish the competition, however. SPARTEN 4000 found the perfect counter to John486's oft-used sniper post: lying in wait with a gravity hammer. The back-and-forth that followed was very entertaining. And the reduced effectiveness of John486 as the team's sniper might have just made the difference in his team's 47-50 loss that match.