The Halo Humpday Challenge
Bungie Vs. Japan!
Technically, it was Bungie versus the GunShin clan. We asked Microsoft's Japanese office to hook us up with a typical group of Japanese Halo players, and they decided that GunShin was the right group. The word GunShin, means literally "God's Army" and the clan was formed by Hiroya Nozaki, a university student in Tokyo.
Our match was arranged by Shigeo Tatsumi, (Strawberrrrry) who is a Microsoft employee in charge of the Japanese user community and plays Halo 2 with the members on a regular basis. He is a member of three clans (including MSKK Halo Club) but decided to play against Bungie with GunShin this time since he wanted to show how typical Japanese players play. GunShin members claim to hold the Samurai spirit and tend to fight very aggressively without ever resorting to hiding.
The Bungie Guys
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Shishka
- Doki-Doki Ganbare Densetsu Lord British-u
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Frankie
– Idiot - Typing
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New 0001
– Joseph Tung - Multiplayer
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Evil Ottoman
– David Candland - UI
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Achronos
– Tom Gioconda – Interweb
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Ske7ch
– Brian Jarrard - Community
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agdTinMan
– Andrew Davis – Crayons
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HarangUtan
– Rob McLees – Guns
The GunShin Clan
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GS MAGUS
- Hiroya Nozaki, University Student
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YASUHIRO 001
- Yasuhiro Sasaki, Highschool Student
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MAKUWAJISHI
- Shogo Tsue, University Student
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tOuma
- Touma Abe, University Student
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gogoplasma
- Masahiro Hokari, University Student
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bulo ha
- Nobuhiro Ohchi, University Student
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shakka JP
- Nao Sugiura, Freelancer - playing as "StrawberryBauer
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strawberrrrry
- Shigeo Tatsumi, MSKK Xbox (Microsoft Japan)
* One of the games was wrongly selected, and was abandoned immediately.
GAME 1:
Single Flag CTF
Game Stats
Headlong , Standard Weapons
Game Duration:
12:02
General Tone of Game :
Warui!
We honestly thought we had a chance for a bit. Some off things were happening, or at least unusual. For example, when we were on offense, we'd quickly rush to the Rocket Launcher under the bridge - only to find a Banshee and a Ghost waiting to pick us off and secure it for themselves. We've seen plenty of folks race there, but never with backup. It was a little unusual, but not completely weird, yet.
The game continued normally, but at a frenetic pace. We were sniped, battle rifled, plasma overcharged and occasionally rocketed. But it seemed like your garden variety tough game. We did reasonably well on defense, horribly on offense and ended up losing, but thinking, "Hey, we can maybe take these guys..."
We were about to be proved very badly wrong.
Final Score:
1 Flag to Zero GunShin Clan Wins.
GAME 2:
Custom CTF
Game Stats
Coagulation , Standard Weapons
Game Duration:
11:42
General Tone of Game :
TOTALLY INSANE!
Oh my good gravy. The skies were thick with Banshees. The Rocket launcher was nowhere to be found. Before we knew it they had BOTH of our sniper rifles. Ske7ch watched me spawn, only to see two simultaneous sniper trails pass directly through my head. We never, ever got out of our base. We were trapped there, like fish in the proverbial barrel. And of course, they hammered, pummeled and embarrassed us. Eventually we were too ASHAMED to come out of our base. Not to mention frightened.
This beating was the worst we've ever faced. By far. We literally never stood a chance. The covered our teleporters, moving their ghosts aside just long enough to let their own flag-stealer through and then continued to eviscerate us. There was a point where they had every major weapon and every single vehicle on the map. We'll admit, we're not great players and we don't play as a team all that much (Humpday Challenge is pretty much it) but we don't suck - and we have never seen teamwork like this. It was sick.
If it hadn't been so dangerous, we'd all have assembled on the roof of our base to admire their skills.
Final Score:
3 flags to zero GunShin Clan wins.
GAME 3:
Team Slayer
Game Stats
Colossus , regular rules, standard weapons
Game Duration:
6:58
General Tone of Game:
Dame-Dame!
Here's a thing I've never seen. Maybe I've seen it, and not really understood it - teams of two, one with plasma pistol, one with battle rifle, able to take out folks even more efficiently than with just the Plasma Pistol-Battle Rifle combo. And harder to kill than a lone gunman. It was horrible. We were pounded mercilessly from beginning to end. The only real high note for us was the switch to Slayer meant that we were at least assured some sort of score. Even if it was a third of theirs. One of their players scored 23 kills. 22 of them were an unbroken spree. That's just wrong.
We quit.
Final Score:
100-35 - GunShin Clan wins.
Next Challenge:
Kittens. Kittens with broken thumbs.