On January 19th 2010 Xerone and SkelBrute were added as new members of the Spirits of Fire clan. On behalf of the entire SoF group we welcome both of you to our humble group of gamers.

Yesterday, CrazedOne1988 and I participated in the Fight Like a Girl 2v2 tournament. All in all it was a bunch of great games, with (generally) great opponents and (always) great refs. Our first match was a set of three games: TS on Construct, CTF on Narrows, and TS on Foundry. We managed to scrape by a victory, 25-24, in the first game, but were promptly demolished, 3-0, in CTF. Foundry went well for most of the game, but with the score tied at 22 we lost control of Rockets, and along with them, the game, and lost 25-22.

Having made the adjustment from ODST to Halo 3 (for the most part – I never quite got the grenade throw distance right, as you’ll see in a moment), we launched ourselves with renewed vigor into the losers’ bracket. Our next game was TS on Blackout. Normally my worst map, we were able to establish a solid strategy of holding the Sniper tower with sniper/shotgun and BR/sword. Our opponents were extremely good-natured, and there was much playful banter on proximity as they charged us again and again, but they never effectively dislodged us from that end of the map, and we took the game 25-9. KotH on Heretic was next, and right at the start of the game with Crazed going for shotgun and me attempting to grenade the enemy spawn, I demonstrated that really, I wasn’t used to the Halo 3 grenade throw yet with a spectacular betrayal-suicide. However, we recovered and won 150-77. While we happily would have played the third game against our opponents, the next team was ready, so we moved on to round 3.

Next up was our chance to atone for our previous failure on Foundry. Learning from our previous mistakes, we held the back of the map and kept the lead throughout the game, winning 25-21. During the next game, KotH on Construct, Crazed showed just how effective a bubble shield can be, when combined with a sword in a game of King. The one time the other team got ahold of both in the hill, we ousted them by diverting their attention with a flamethrower charge as Crazed leaped in from behind for an assassination. We won the game 150-132, and moved on to the next round.

Our next game was another TS on Blackout, and we used our same strategy with great success, winning 25-19. Unfortunately, during the next game (KotH on Snowbound) Crazed became afflicted with a foul lag, forcing us to restart (a special thanks to our ref for making sure we weren’t crippled by the lag). The lag cleared up during take two and we played a solid game, but we lost nonetheless 150-133. Our opponents, who perhaps were up a bit past their bedtimes, bitched us out slightly for using the ghost, and we moved on to the tiebreaker, TS on Assembly. After a brief moment of stupidity by me (the ref needed a minute to get a custom powerup and reach a spot where she could observe the game – I forgot we weren’t supposed to move and ran off to get weapons, necessitating a restart), we were off. Newly driven by our loss on Snowbound, and helped along by our opponents from time to time (one of them got rockets right at the start, but killed himself with his first shot), we fought our way to an easy 25-10 victory.

Unfortunately, all good things come to an end, and in the next round we were facing off against a pair of generals. In spite of our best efforts, we were never able to put together a cohesive offense in TS on Isolation (a 25-12 loss), and never achieved any map control for the following game, KotH on Sandbox (150-83). Our opponents were gracious in victory nonetheless, and both Crazed and I had an excellent time in the tournament. On behalf of both of us I’d like to acknowledge the folks who set up the tournament and reffed it, and also rowboat 000 for putting up our entry fees. Thanks to all of you.

Learn more about the Fight Like A Girl tournament here: Fight Like A Girl

UPDATE: We’ll have two teams ready to fight for the bewbs.

4v4 – Spirits of Fire:
Apollo Running
rowboat 000
Jim 028
Das Kalk

2v2 – El Pollo Loco:
CrazedOne1988
elpolloguapo

I’ll update this post as more sigs are added.