MLG's Dyslexia has posted an analysis of MLG Dallas and the utter domination that was and has been displayed by Final Boss.

The article talks about why Final Boss has been so unbeatable in recent competitions and about their rivals', Str8 Rippin and Carbon, continuing efforts to dethrone them.

Clan matches are going away, but there is still a way to play them. Check it out here!

Once we heard clan matches were going away, we decided there has to be a way to still play them. So we created a group called clan match. It is the original and first group of this catagory. We are holding clan matches and tournaments with ranks, ladders, and brackets. If you still want organized and fun matches to play with your clan online, then this is the place. Our clan matches are open to anybody (other than cheaters), and our tournaments are starting up this summer with great prizes.

Clan Match


[Bungie Ed Note: This is a user group and not a sanctioned Bungie playlist and as such, we take no responsibility for antic therein, but they seem like a nice bunch.]

Moments ago, we passed the amusing (and rather large) milestone of 3,333,333,333 multiplayer gameplays of Halo 2 online since launch.

This is the number we call "player-games", where an 8-player game counts for 8. (Now get back to the game and get us up to 7,777,777,777 ASAP!)

Just as a quick notice - Xbox Live will be unavailable due to scheduled maintenance on May 2 beginning at 2am PDT for 14-16 hours.  This means no Halo 2 online during that time.  Please refrain from emailing us about it, we're not the ones doing maintenance.

The planned maintenance will also affect xbox.com, and some stat displays on bungie.net could possibily be affected.

Jeremiah writes:

Stats for the new Rumble Hardcore playlist have been reset to correct a problem that was preventing some users from using the playlist.  Read on for more details...

This morning, stats for the new Rumble Hardcore playlist were reset in an effort to correct a problem that was preventing some of our users from using the playlist.

The process should now be complete, so any games you play this afternoon should count towards your future stats.  We apologize for the loss of 2 days worth of stats, but at least we took care of it now instead of a week from now.

For those of you who feel this is a tragedy, keep in mind that this is not a permanent playlist and it could be removed in the next update or a following update, don't get too attached to your rank.  Your stats for the past 2 days are not as important as some of our other users not even being able to use the playlist, so man up and don't complain about it.

Bungie's UI demigod, David Candland, is interviewed over at Macromedia's developer site. You can go read the interview HERE and find out how Dave uses Macromedia Director to prototype interface designs.

It's fascinating stuff if you're into user interface, GUIs or anything that let's you interact with machines. Go check it out.

Halo 2 Web Maps should now be working.  Please report any web site issues to this address if you experience additional problems.

Web Maps are working, sorry for the delay.  Stats should also no longer appear to be "purged" before they should be (nothing was actually being purged, the UI was just busted).

Halo Tournament on February 17th. Will be held at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. Charity Event to raise money for Philabundance (local food bank). $5 entrance fee. Winner gets 10%

[b]Note: This tournament is not sponsored by Bungie. Nor is it managed in any way by Shishka. Please use the contact information below or message [url=http://www.bungie.net/Account/Profile.aspx?uid=32185]ggivnish[/url] if you have questions.[/b] Halo Tournament on February 17th. Will be held at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. Charity Event to raise money for Philabundance (local food bank). $5 entrance fee. Winner gets 10% This tournament is being held to raise money for Philabundance. Philabundance works to end hunger and malnutrition in the Delaware Valley by rescuing surplus food and distributing it to local organizations serving people in need. Philabundance was the 4th leading supplier of food to victims of recent flooding in the New Orleans area. The tournament will be held at Drexel University at the Creese Student Center. University City Main Campus 215 Creese Student Center 3141 Chestnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19104 The tournament is welcomes all entrants. $5 to enter. Winner receives 10% of all entrance fees. Additional prizes for runners-up. Format will be 4 man slayer matches. One game elimination. Top two from each match advancing. This tournament is a charity event and all profits (besides 10% for the winner) will be given to Philabundance to aid them in their ongoing efforts. [[i]Note: The tournament will be held from 5-9pm -Ed[/i]] Please personal message me if you have any questions or concerns. thanks.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Or worse yet, a woman ignored by her Halo-addicted husband. One such lady managed to channel her rage into poetry however, and a surprisingly touching (and probably all-too-familiar) piece. Go read it at [url=http://nikon.bungie.org/news.html?item=15068]Halo.Bungie.Org[/url] and if you're a husband, feel guilty.

If you're a wife, commiserate.

Wideload's excellent [url=http://www.wideload.com/home.html]Stubbs the Zombie[/url] shares code with Halo for Xbox and [url=http://www.rampancy.net/blog/narcogen/07022006/mean_green_fighting_eating_machines]Rampancy.net's[/url] Narcogen has taken some time out to note the differences and similarities between the two green heroes.

[url=http://www.rampancy.net/blog/narcogen/07022006/mean_green_fighting_eating_machines]What are you waiting for? It's a good read![/url]

Joyride has posted a preview of its new series 8 Halo action figures. You can see some of the prototypes here: [url=http://www.joyridestudios.com/news_2006-01-16.asp]JoyRide Studios' new Action Figures.[/url] Naturally these may change slightly before they are finally released.

The new figures will be in stores June 2006. Series 8 will feature Master Chief with Flood Infection Form, Elite Commander, Heretic Elite Leader and the first ever 7-inch scale figure of the Jackal, complete with the Jackal shield.

[url=http://halowiki.net]halowiki.net[/url] now features two new functions that lets you track and save your recent games: [*] [url=http://h2wiki.halowiki.net/wiki/Special:Recentgames]Recent games listing[/url] [*] The [url=http://h2wiki.halowiki.net/wiki/Special:Gamesaver]Gamesaver[/url]

The [url=http://h2wiki.halowiki.net/wiki/Special:Recentgames]Recent games listing[/url] Syndicates the Bungie.net RSS feed of a players recent games. It's designed to make it work in forum signatures. Like for me it would be: [*] [url]http://h2wiki.halowiki.net/wiki/Special:Recentgames/CoB_PEZ[/url] The listing is far richer in both looks and content than stock RSS syndicators do fro this particular feeds. For instance: easy access to map specific [url=http://h2wiki.halowiki.net/wiki/Carney_Holes]Carney Holes[/url] and game specific strategy articles. Then there is the [url=http://h2wiki.halowiki.net/wiki/Special:Gamesaver]Gamesaver[/url] that pulls the game data from a given game and lets you save it on halowiki.net. Now you can save your best games for bragging purposes. To make it really easy the Recent games listing includes links to the Gamesaver for each game it lists. Quick links for those functions: [*] Recent games: [url]http://h2wiki.halowiki.net/wiki/Special:Recentgames[/url] [*] Gamesaver: [url]http://h2wiki.halowiki.net/wiki/Special:Gamesaver[/url] Enjoy!

One of our more creative readers has decided that there just isn't enough Elite loving out there. With that in mind, he has launched a campaign to get as many folks to switch to Elite models as possible, and rampage through Halo 2.

You can read about his half-crazed scheme here. [url=http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=5833792]Rise of the Elites Campaign.[/url]

The results are in from IGN’s Best of 2005 and the Halo 2 Map Pack has walked away with two awards this year.

IGN’s Best of 2005 results are in and after Bungie’s near blowout of the awards last year, Halo 2 has still managed to walk away with two awards. Bungie’s release of the Halo 2 Map Pack in July has managed to scoop up two awards beating out such titles like Splinter Cell Chaos Theory and Far Cry Instincts. The Halo 2 Map Pack scooped up both the [url=http://bestof.ign.com/2005/xbox/18.html] Best Downloadable Content Award [/url] and also the [url=http://bestof.ign.com/2005/xbox/17.html] Best Xbox Live Game.[/url] IGN gave praise to the Map Pack’s features such as the new maps and improvements brought to the game not to mention how well the pack was delivered to the community. For the full story and complete articles you can visit IGN’s [url=http://bestof.ign.com/2005/] Best of 2005 page. [/url]

Earlier today, we completed the update of the Halo 2 playlists as described in the weekly update. If you can still see Head to Head in your playlist selection screen in the game, you need to log out of Xbox Live and log back in until Head to Head is gone and the new playlists are showing up. Bungie.net is now also correctly showing the new lists. Have fun, and post any questions to Optimatch.

Please remember that for the next 24 hours, it will be possible for people to be playing with old playlists, which may make things a bit screwy. Most of it should be cleared up by this evening.

Thanks to a problem with Xbox Live servers, many players reported stat and ranking losses in the last 24 hours. The problem has been located by the Xbox Live team, and will be fixed when the service is taken offline for maintenance in the early hours of Wednesday, November 9th. Ranks should reset to their pre-problem levels at that time.

Unfortunately, that means any levels gained (or lost) in the intervening period, will be reset to the pre-problem state. We apologize for the inconvenience. You can read more about it at [url=http://forums.xbox.com/250436/ShowPost.aspx]Xbox.com forums[/url] and we'll update as needed tomorrow.

Gamertag Linking, the process by which you can link your Gamertag to Bungie.net and Microsoft Passport (so you can see your stats and more) is offline until later this week, thanks to the ongoing process of updating Xbox.com and Xbox Live.

We'll keep you posted on the progress of Gamertag Linking and expect to have it up and running in a few days.

The scheduled Xbox Live downtime today (Monday October 24th) while they enhance and ready the service for Xbox 360, will affect our Halo 2 stat tracking ability. Expect to see oddities until they are finished. [b]Update:[/b] Until everything is back to normal, gamertag linking will be unavailable. We'll update our links as soon as the linking service is working again.

We will continue to update you as the situation evolves.

In objective games there is one way you can assure you don't lose. Just set up a perfect defence. In the [url=http://h2wiki.halowiki.net/wiki/Defence]halowiki.net article "Defence"[/url] Chiggs examines what makes for a successful defense.

Yeah, maybe perfect is hard to achieve, but at least this should highlight how importance the subject of defence is. According to Chiggs these five actions needs focus: [*] Getting Rid of a Nuisance [*] Cutting off Avenues of Attack [*] Closing off Points of Entry [*] Clearing the Base [*] Protecting the Objective And of course the eternal [b]Communication[/b]. Read the article on [url=http://halowiki.net]halowiki.net[/url] to check what Chiggs puts into those important defence actions. Here: [url=http://h2wiki.halowiki.net/wiki/Defence]Defence according to Chiggs[/url]

On Tuesday, there was an issue with our servers that receive the advanced game data from Halo 2. This problem lasted from just before 4:00 pm PDT until about 6:20pm PDT. You may consequently be missing some games in your game list if you played during this time, even though Xbox Live and the XP/Level system were fully functional and recording your games as normal. Read on for the full details.

There are two parts to the data uploaded to us after each game of Halo 2. The first set of data goes to Xbox Live. This is the XP/Level info that notes your win or loss and handles your XP gain/loss. This system operated normally. However, the other part of the data gets uploaded to a set of dedicated severs that are responsible for processing the detailed data - the game viewer and the post game carnage report. This data, normally available under the Games tab on a player's stat page, was lost due a network failure on this hardware. This failure affected both the primary and the backup. The missing games still counted in terms of experience points and level, they just won't have any detailed information or game viewer available. They won't even appear in the list of games played. We apologize for the data loss, and are taking steps to prevent this failure from happening in the future.

Team Hardcore is Live. The toughest, meanest, grimmest playlist of them all is now available. I just tested it myself. Stats are being tracked and there’s a ton of folks playing. And it’s hard. The balance is tipped in favor of objective games, Battle Rifle starts, motion detector off, and lots of precision teamwork.

I just tested it with rumble feedback turned off, and that wasn’t smart. I basically lit up and dropped dead without ever really knowing where I was being shot from. This playlist is not for the faint of heart. The Playlist FAQ and stats [url=http://www.bungie.net/Stats/page.aspx?section=FAQInfo&subsection=playlists&page=1]pages[/url] have been updated with the new info for Team Hardcore. There's additional info on the [url=http://www.bungie.net/News/TopStory.aspx?story=weeklyupdatesept30]new Playlist here.[/url]

Effective immediately, the Halo 2 Xbox Live Leaderboards are no longer being displayed on Bungie.net. Player rankings and stats are untouched and nothing else has changed.

As we first mentioned two weeks ago, the Halo 2 Leaderboards are officially gone from Bungie.net. This is something we've discussed at length for quite a while and ultimately we feel that the Leaderboards are not worth keeping. Unfortunately the leaderboards ended up being a shrine for cheaters and hackers and for the most part did nothing but cause legitimate players pain. We don't have the resources to manually investigate and monitor every single player on the Leaderboards nor do we feel that is warranted. That is time and energy better spent on creating new playlists and making the core online experience better for everyone. Keep in mind that only a tiny percentage of actual players are affected by the Leaderboards - only 1,000 of several hundred thousand ever make the list. The amount of work required to cater to this small minority compared to the overall return for the community just isn't worth it. We sincerely apologize to the few players out there who have played hundreds of legitimate games to work your way up the leaderboards. You will still keep your rankings and your stats as a token of your l337 skillz. Unfortunately the reality is that the vast majority of people who do appear on the leaderboards have only got there through some form of cheating. Your rankings and player stats will remain unchanged and there will be no noticeable difference in Halo 2 other than the absence of the "Top 1000" lists on the Bungie.net stats page.

In a rare and much anticipated HALO 2 Tournament, a gathering of 40 year olds (that’s right, there are 40 year olds playing XBOX) joined together at [url=http://www.2old2play.com]2old2play.com[/url], decided to rumble it out to crown the “World’s best 40 year old HALO 2 Player!”

Though the immediate thought that comes to mind is Ben-gay, Geritol and Maalox, this group of skilled players demonstrated that they have more than what it takes to compete amongst themselves, as well as the ”timmies” (terminology used to describe the 25 and under video gamers) of the world. Organized by the self-proclaimed world-titlist, Dantez Inferno, the seniors, organized, meleed, sniped, and laughed there way through, multiple rounds of mayhem and carnage. Eager entrants shuffled to enroll from, New England, Hawaii, and as far away as the UK. After sorting out conflicting schedules, due to work, soccer practice, lawn duty and PTA meetings, the tournament was scheduled over three nights consisting of 16 players. “Remember when we could play any night because we could stay up all night, sleep an hour or two (if at all) then go to work and it wouldn't bother us at all. Those days are gone...!” posted Beeman110 a tournament finalist. Each round 8 players competing in 4 individual rounds of XBOX Live generated rumble pit, with the top 4 finishers (determined by the sum of total kills) advancing to the finals on, Tuesday, September 27th. Competitive warm-up rounds provided the most intense games initially, all 16 combatants running through the close-knit quarters of Midship, Foundation and Lockout led to mass hysteria. Georgia native, “Too Gray” summed it this way. “It was lots of fun especially the practice rounds on the small maps though it was hard to move without taking it from both ends. Took me 2 games to realize my sensitivity was set on 1. WTF no wonder I couldn't turn around! The final 8 participants all gathered together for 4 final rounds to see who would take home the prize. For their efforts, the winner received a prize package that included Xbox 360 and the 2006 lineup of EA Sports games, NOT! One Bad Daddy requested” Perhaps the prize should be a coupon to Lens Crafters for some new glasses so I can see you $(@%’s coming! The premise really was to get together a group of peers, dish it out and take it, and make future alliances and contacts for XBOX Live play. All in all, the entire tournament was a smashing success. So won you may ask. Everyone in the first monthly senior’s invitational! For the video feed, check out the full article on [url=http://www.2old2play.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=127&mode=nested&order=0&thold=0]2old2play.com[/url]