The last time we decided to throw down on the Mythic Map Pack, we were testing our mettle against our very own Online Team.  While our backend boys put up an admirable fight, the internal stomping grounds just doesn't cut it for us anymore.  It's high time we took the training wheels off this two-wheeler and pedaled our way down the street like big boys.

And which city's neighborhood did we choose to roll through, shouting obscenities to rile up the residents?  Team Mythic Town, of course. 

Population: You.

We're doing things a little bit differently this time out.  Though we're not doing away with the Humpday in its current form, we're adding an oft-requested new format to the mix.  We'll run Game with Flame matches from time to time, notifying the community by way of our forums of the time and date they can expect us to roll on through Halo 3's Matchmaking.  Once the time is up, we'll give it a little while and then check back on the games to gather up the screenshots our opposition (you) took.  As long as they're good enough, we'll use 'em to fill in the gaps in our writeup.

All of these screenshots embedded below were taken by the players we squared off against.  You can click each of them to check out the games they were culled from, laugh at the Carnage Reports, and see if they happened to snag some Saved Films for you to download.


Sound like a deal?  Good.  Let's get started.

The four game set we detail below was taken from consecutive matches in our Halo 3 Matchmaking hoppers.  Whether we got matched up against a full compliment of Generals or one player and his three guests rocking splitscreen on their thirteen-inch set wasn't up to us.  It was up to chance, as was our random fourth squadmate.

And by chance, we mean we lost a ton of games and plucked out the four game win streak to make ourselves look better.  Think of this as our very own Team Mythic Montage of sorts.  The first few games in our stint were warmups, and the last handful, well, we're pretty sure we were victims of lag switching, second accounters, standbying jerks, and grenades that never rendered on our screens.  They simply don't count.  If you were lucky enough to play in one of our unsuccessful runs, then you've now been banned from Matchmaking forever.  The price for your victory is steep.  Suck it down.

Also, the mention of a random fourth should have clued you in that there was a catch this time out.  We're a man down this week.  It turns out Team Captain and Long Rifle Sharpshooter TJ Scoot, aka Lukems, aka Treated, aka L.M. Smith was unable to join in on the fun.  We had to ask ourselves if the squad was deep enough.  Could we go in without our greatest trash-talker and come away with a victory?  Could the 90's Dynasty Chicago Bulls have won all those NBA Championships without Number 23?

Of course not, but anyone can string together four wins over the course of a season, and that's just what we did.

The Bungie Roster

• ske7ch - Brian "Don't call me Steve" Jarrard
• Shishka - So sick of you
• Tasty Primate - Delicious and Nutritious
• The Random - Our Saving Throw

The Preliminary Rounds

Five games.  Two wins.  We didn't get off to the greatest of starts, but hey, we were just warming up.  Gotta stretch the hammies.


Team SWAT on Sandbox(Tundra), aka "How much did your 50 cost?"

In what would become a common theme over the course of our romp, victory depended on the strength and broadness of our random's shoulders.  NorseForce28 did not disappoint, rocking the +16 K/D.  Margin of our victory?  Sixteen, of course.

Team BRs on Assembly, aka "Okay, so it looks like your 50 is pretty legit."

We all go negative.  Peeps from Halo 3 in the Work PLace make us wish we took the damn day off.

Team Slayer on Sandbox, aka "ske7ch steps away to check his email.  Urk steps in and betrays him with Rockets."

Ah, things seem to be clicking now.  All three of our Band of Bungie Brothers turn in a positive performance.

Team BRs on Orbital, aka "BR goes where?"

What clicked into place the last game, now fell away and clanged to the floor.  Flames were extinguished by three shot bursts and liberal grenades.  We probably could have pulled this off, but there just wasn't enough equipment strewn about the cramped hallways for us to utilize.

Team BRs on Sandbox, aka "Ugh."

Even Doug 117 couldn't prop up our failing trio at this point.  Fatigued and defeated, we decided we might as well get the inaugural Game with Flame under way.  On to the real games.  And of course, by "real games," we're referring to the one string of consecutive games that we actually won.

Game with Flame

And here we go.  Game time.

Game Uno

Team BRs on Assembly

Who wants to Tango, er Tengo?  The first game in our official GwF kicked off in tasty style, with our fourth leading the charge with twenty-two of our fifty kills.  What can we say, we like to make the fans feel like they're contributing.  You can thank us later, Tengo.  Send anything you like 'cept beef jerky.  We're all stocked up.


Final Score: 50-38.  Bungie wins.  And we're up one to nothing.

Game Deuce

Multi Flag BRs on Assembly

Luckily for one of the players on our opposition's squad, he dropped out just before the game started, because we took this trio out to the shed and gave them a good old fashioned Multi Flag whoopin'.  With a total gametime of just under three minutes, we made short work of the shorthanded red team, and sent them nasty text messages over Xbox LIVE urging them to give up Halo for good.


Final Flag tally: 3-0.  Bungie dominates.  Two zip overall.

Game III

Multi Flag BRs on Orbital

Lopsided team not required this time out, our three man strong squad navigated the halls of Orbital with flags in firm grasp and shut down the blue team with ease.  In the end, we figured we better let them snag at least one flag.  Why not, right?  While we don't mind demoralizing folks, these guys were good sports and we'd gladly square off against them again (at least as long as we kept on winning).


Final Flag tally: 3-1.  Bungie busts caps and caps flags.  Three nil, for those keeping score at home.

Bonus Round: Game Pfhor

Team SWAT on Assembly

It was time to separate the men from the boys in one last GwF outing and of course, our three manly men ended up on the burly side of things, but just barely, claiming victory against not only the blue team, but over Matchmaking as a whole.  The folks we played during our first ever Game with Flame were clearly the best players Halo 3 has to offer, and rightly so, we now claim our spot at the top of the heap.

We're better than you.  You know it.  We know.  Get over it.

Final Score: 50-46.   That's all she wrote.  Four in a row.

From here on out, requests to "versus" us will be met with pshaws, tssts, and pffts.  None of those are actual words and we don't care.  That's how hardstyle we are.

Enter the Exhibition Matches

We decided that it was probably for the best if we went ahead and stuck around for a few more games after our flawless victory.  We knew that tales of the coming fire would spread like, well, fire, and we wanted to go ahead and throw some matches in the hopes that the mere sight of the Bungie nameplate wouldn't forever be the source of quit matches from here until the end of time.  So we laid down and took our beating like men.  Men who will do what is just and right in these dark times.  We did it for you.

We're not going to recount these matches here.  There's really no point considering they don't really count.  In fact, we should probably head over to RocketMoose's desk this afternoon and go ahead and have them purged from the statistics database.  They're just that meaningless.  If you happened to be placed on our team during our dives, we apologize.  We hope you understand that we did it for Truth and Justice.  If you ended up on the opposition, well, your victory was hollow and you should be ashamed of yourself.  Honestly, shooting at players who refuse to take up arms against you, players whose only kills were accidental and unavoidable?  Shame on you.


Enter the Sketch

Though the write-up above is dripping with sarcasm and absurdity (we got our asses kicked), the following is all real talk, straight up from our Community Guy himself, Sketch.

"Our Humpday Challenge this week was a departure from the usual formula but it gave us a cool opportunity to get out there and play the new maps “in the wild” and in doing so, cross paths with quite a few of you in the process. I’ve been having a lot of fun in the Mythic playlist ever since it went live last week and it’s been an enjoyable yet daunting experience getting “back” into playing Halo 3 multiplayer on a regular basis. While the maps are certainly of Mythic proportions, one myth I was able to quickly debunk was that “Sketch used to be (pretty) good at Halo 3 multiplayer.”

Wow. The time away has not been kind to me.

As much as I’ve been enjoying playing again and really digging the Mythic maps, it’s been a painful wake up call that something happened in the months where I wasn’t regularly playing – I got older and slower and everyone online got really, really good at the game. Those of you who play a lot can attest to the fact that if you don’t play for a week so or so and then go back, you can tell a difference. It doesn’t take long to get it back, but you know that you can quickly lose that split second edge that determines if your 4th BR shot gets off in time or not. Well in my case, it feels I’m about a full minute off the mark. A fact well evidenced with a peek at my game history (by my accounts I’m 46-52 thus far in Team Mythic).

Ok, enough with the crying. Yesterday we took to the field, had a blast and, unsurprisingly, got our asses handed to us most of the time. Playing in a relatively smaller playlist has had this cool side effect of a more intimate experience – the chances of bumping into someone from our forums or re-matching a prior foe is a lot more common. It felt more personal to me, which also translated to more embarrassing when the hundredth tea-bag was unleashed on my smoldering corpse.


Speaking of – while we’re throwing out excuses here – I really should note that the flaming head might as well be a giant magnetic target that automatically attracts any projectile in the air straight to my face. Imagine playing SWAT on Tundra, playing peek-a-boo over the lip but having your head be a shining beacon of fail visible from all corners of the map. That was me. Since I was already resigned to performing poorly we kept the flames on for the fun of it but it definitely has drawbacks. If there is an upside to wearing a flaming helmet it is this – every time I die, without fail, the other team can’t resist the urge to stand over my corpse and examine it, which almost always results in them being killed. In that regard, I happily embrace my role as bait for the greater good of the team.


It was also not surprising that in most cases, our random 4th person who joined our team ended up carrying/out-performing any of us in our games. I’d like to thank you, Mr. anonymous 4th man, for helping us save face in a few of our victories.


I’d also like to thank our opponents who were mostly good sports and good competitors. If I could I would’ve said “Good Game!” during the game, but alas I have to keep my communication settings to “Friends Only” or I get immediately inundated with spam, harassment and pestering. Nothing personal though, I just don’t have much choice given the all-or-nothing option that LIVE offers me.

For me, the high points have definitely been epic objective matches on Sandbox and Orbital and I’ve seen some pretty spectacular battles and saved-film-worthy moments. For those of you who don’t have the maps yet, don’t fret – this is not the only time we’ll get Bungie people online and playing. The long awaited Mythic release is pulling many of us back into the fray and I’d love to see more frequent, scheduled appearances of Bungie folks in matchmaking playlists.

All I ask is that if you happen to cross paths with me on the battlefield keep in mind that just because my helmet is on fire doesn’t mean I should be the first threat you neutralize. In most cases, I’m the exact opposite. Also, resist the urge to linger and gawk at my corpse because chances are you just fell right into my trap and my teammates are about to run you down."