Halo 4 Global Championships: When Marketing Campaigns play Dress-Up as eSports

Disclaimer: I want to make it absolutely clear that 343, the players, and the commentators were absolutely fantastic this weekend.  Nothing I'm about to say is directed toward any of those three groups unless I explicitly mention them in the statement.

So...how about those Halo 4 Global Championships?  They were pretty fantastic, right?

Audley Enough, it left a bitter taste in my mouth.

I saw some tweets about how it was a great tournament.  And here's where I'm going to stop you, and correct you.

That was an awful tournament.  It was a good show.  It was a good (expensive) marketing campaign.  But again, from a competitive integrity standpoint, that tournament was terrible.

First, the format.  A...100+ team FFA feed into a 4-player 1v1 BEST OF ONE finals?  The fuck is that?  Best of one?  Really?  Now, time constraints are one thing, but getting yourself so constrained that you have to limit yourself to best of ones for GRAND FINALS for (one of) the LARGEST PRIZE POOLS Halo has ever seen?  That's pretty fucked up.  Seriously.

FPS titles have traditionally been a showcase of multiple maps and sometimes multiple game variants.  Hell, even Quake Live, which still gets played at Dreamhack events has Best of 3 finals showing off three different maps.  And if you're unfamiliar, its format is always 1v1.

By my next statement I mean no offense to the winner, Aaron Elam...but when a player openly admits to only having practiced for an event for about a week prior and ends up winning Two HUNDRED THOUSAND dollars at said event over players who have put in substantially more time and effort...you know the format of the tournament is a little fucked.  Again, don't take this statement wrong.  Ace played fantastically and he earned his win...but as someone who preaches practice, I can't help but feel if there was a little bit more consistency required of the tournament, he may not have seen as great of success.  I still extend my congratulations to him.  Hey, he was the first Halo pro to have ever had me on his friend's list.  I can't hate.

Secondly, the trailers.

Okay, what the fuck.  This is a Halo tournament, right?  It's the HALO FOUR GLOBAL CHAMPIONSHIPS, right?

WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU SHOWING ME A FUCKING TRAILER FOR BATTLEFIELD 4 AND FUCKING PLANTS VERSUS ZOMBIES GARDEN WARFARE?  I don't go to LoL events and expect to see a trailer for DotA2.  You know why?  BECAUSE THEY FUCKING SHOW YOU LEAGUE OF LEGENDS at LEAGUE OF LEGENDS EVENTS.

For this to have been as marketing-focused as it was, I'm confused as fuck as to what Microsoft was actually trying to market.  I mean, they gave us some of the most limited scope of what Halo has to offer as humanly possible -- FFA and 1v1s of a team game... And then they go off and show us three trailers for three different shooters all coming to the XBox One console.  This event's about Halo, right?  So why are you trying to draw us to different shooters, Micro$oft?

Thirdly, the production.

Wait, the production?  Those production values were insane, Audley!  What are you smoking?

I'm not going to disagree that the production values were insane.  But the part that bugged me about it was how painfully scripted it was.  If you couldn't tell the two hosts were reading from a teleprompter, you weren't watching.  Granted, they would go off-script on occasion...but in those instances, it was the only time the two would actually engage each other or their surroundings during the show.  Otherwise, they just kept looking forward.  You could even feel when they felt the teleprompted jokes ("Spartan badassery") were too forced, and grit their teeth to grind through it.

I know Riot and the LCS use teleprompters, and often the casters read from it when setting up transitions.  However, most have enough genuine character of their own merit that it doesn't feel as awkward.

I do want to make it clear -- I enjoyed my time in Benaroya Hall during the finals.  It was a good show.  It was executed very well, and the games were intense and fun to watch.  But when I see people praising the event and lauding it as proof that "Halo is back!" and "343 gets it" I just shudder.

I repeat what I've said all along: Halo 4's launch state being poor isn't 343's fault.  That launch state is a publisher issue, not a developer one.  Publisher determines release date, and when something's released with no beta, tons of bugs, and missing content, you don't say "Oh, well clearly that's what the developer wanted.  What idiots."  That's a "Big Daddy Moneybags decided we had to release by this date or we wouldn't get paid."  Oh, and by the way... Microsoft Game Studios published Halo 4.

Also, how soon do you think an event that size will get done again?  Microsoft and Virgin gaming just spent hundreds of thousands of dollars for a tournam-err, excuse me, MARKETING CAMPAIGN, that had a couple months worth of qualifiers, weeks worth of headaches for the staff that had to moderate the online qualifiers (I honestly feel for Bravo and bsangel after seeing some of the tweets they got every time a loss or a leave happened during the Online quals.).  If they manage to do another one of these before PAX Prime of NEXT year, I'll be speechless.

Microsoft still hasn't shown that they understand eSports...neither from a format standpoint, nor from the standpoint of building storylines.  Hell, there wasn't TIME to build storylines with this mega-condensed faux-tourney they held this past weekend.  I don't even recall Bravo or Goldenboy mentioning that Ace's older brother happened to be at the Halo 4 GC as well (and, if you saw, ran onto stage to hug him when he won).

So for me, this was not an entirely reassuring experience.  It still shows a deep ignorance of competitive gaming from the corporate dogs at Microsoft and there's still miles of room for improvement in nearly every avenue.  I hope Microsoft takes a more serious approach to one of its most historically successful franchises and attempts to turn this into a more focused attempt to bring the series back to what it used to be, rather than an attempt to dump money onto a game whose fans are turning away from it in a half-assed attempt to bring them back to the game.  I sincerely hope the latter is not the case.

Anyway, in closing...  I want to thank 343, all of the players (even Gamesager), Goldenboy, Gh057Ayame, Microsoft, Virgin Gaming, and PAX Prime for enabling the Halo 4 Global Championships to happen.  It is a step...maybe not in the right direction, but at least in a less-wrong direction...toward bringing Halo back to the limelight.  And without all of their help combined, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to rant about it.

It was a great experience, and the finals were extremely tense.  Regardless of my gripes, I'm still elated that I went.  And I hope to see more in the future.  I leave you with photographic proof that "Halo is dad" though.  Gandhi and Maven casting Call of Duty:

Fighting Chance: Randomness in Competitive Gaming (and Sports)

If you're reading this, you probably play video games.  In fact, you probably enjoy competing, or attempting to compete in video games.  And if you're like me, you really hate arbitrary systems that limit your ability to outplay your opponents.  Often, people will talk about how "random shit" screwed them out of a win, or a kill, or whatever.

So...what is randomness?

The dictionary has a few different definitions both formal (from statistics) and informal regarding the word "random" - but for the sake of this blog, I will be using a bit of a fusion of the definitions.  In the context of competition, the word random means...

"Unable to be accurately predicted or controlled based off the knowledge any participating player has available to them at a given time."

To clarify, this means any action within the rules of a game taken by a player cannot, by definition, be random.  Being unable to predict an opposing player's actions is not an act of randomness, but rather an act of them out-playing you.  Sirlin covers the concept of reading and predicting an opponent's actions quite well in his article about "Yomi Layer 3."

In competitive gaming, many of the anti-randomness camp tend to cling to the argument, "There is no randomness in real sports."  But, let's take a closer look at that.

Say you're playing baseball.  A ground ball is hit toward third base.  On its way there, it hits a rock in the ground and bounces toward second base instead.

It is highly unlikely and completely unrealistic to expect that any player participating in the game has an intimate enough level of knowledge of the field's terrain to know that there was a rock there likely to cause such an awkward bounce.  This is an act of randomness.

Say you're playing basketball.  You go to participate in the tip off.  The referee (not a player participating in the game) throws the ball up, but the referee's hand is not level, sending the ball closer to you than your opponent.  Neither you nor your opponent had any idea or say in this occuring.  This is an act of randomness.

Football, wind during field goals.  A sudden gust or cessation of gusting can completely change the outcome of a kick.  Unless the wind is completely consistent, the wind's effects are random.  Nature is random.

Granted, many of these random factors are limited and often will only occur in edge cases.  Most random factors are able to be reacted to in a way that does not overall affect the outcome of a game.  And in most cases, the random factor is not enough to outweigh the differentiation in skill.

Of course, I emphasize my use of the phrase "in most cases" and point back in recent history to the "Inaccurate Reception" -- a play in the 2012 Packers/Seahawks game in which Seahawks QB Russell Wilson threw an interception to Packers' defender M.D. Jennings, which was ruled by the officiating staff as a completion to Seahawks receiver Golden Tate.  Even after video review that showed overwhelming evidence this was an incorrect call, the call stood, giving the Seahawks a win in an otherwise lost game.  This outcome, completely unpredictable and uncontrollable by the players (and wRONG by the actual rules of the game) was a random factor (by the above definition) that determined the outcome of the game.

This randomness extends into various video games, even those of a competitive nature.  Often, random factors are met with a certain level of disdain from the players.  Critical hits and status effects are referred to as "Hax" by the players of Pokémon -- and in niche competitive communities, moves and items that increase the randomness (lowering accuracy, raising evasion, increasing crit chance) are forbidden.

In many shooter series, the gun's bullet trajectory can be random through mechanics such as bloom or bullet spread.  This sort of mechanic proves especially problematic in games of higher kill times, as the longer an engagement lasts, the more opportunity there is for the randomness to affect the outcome of a battle between individuals.

Throughout League of Legends' development, various random factors such as "chances" to stun, critical chance being available at level 1 through masteries, the ability to dodge basic attacks (and at one point, towers), and Gangplank's ultimate have all been either stripped or reworked in a manner that makes them more consistent and predictable.

So, clearly with the fact that randomness can affect the outcome of a game, or greatly influence it without the player being able to predict it, randomness is bad, right?

I won't use my catchphrase (No, shut up, you're wrong.) here, but I will offer further insight on why a certain degree of randomness can be useful.

First, I'm going to bring up the game Connect Four.  This game has no true randomness.  Each player has full control over the actions he or she takes.  There are no arbitrary influences on the game except for the selection of who goes first.  So, this game is a perfect example of determining who is better at the game, yes?

No, shut up, you're wrong (there, I got to use it.)  Connect Four is a SOLVED GAME.  If played correctly, it is impossible for the first player to lose.  He or she can force a win regardless of any action taken by the opposition.  Checkers is a solved game.  Played perfectly by both sides, the game ends in a draw.  Chess is, with our current level of technology, too complex for an absolute solution, but has been solved for all 7-piece end game situations.

Solved games mean there is an ultimate barrier on the level at which a player can out-play another.  Ultimately, the game's rule set already has determined the winner, and the interactions of the players are completely meaningless.  This is poor.

If we were, however, to remove all randomness from the games I mentioned above, only one of those could eventually become a solved game (Pokémon.)  The others all have one distinct difference from board games that makes the implementation of randomness completely unnecessary.

They each require mechanical skill.  Players can out-position, out-maneuever, out-shoot, out-itemize, or out-skill their opponents in various ways through methods of both strategic and mechanical play.  Inconsistencies in gameplay more often come from the player's failure to properly control rather than the game determining they have failed through arbitrary rulesets, dice rolls, et cetera.

Let's take a closer look at Halo.  In Halo Reach, for example, Bungie implemented a mechanic known as Bloom.  As a player fired faster than the arbitrarily determined ideal rate of fire, the gun's accuracy would drop, leading to missed shots regardless of the player aiming properly.  This was counterintuitive given the game's comparatively long kill times (compared to not only other Halo titles, but more specifically to other shooters which included Bloom, which often have instant kills for headshots).  In any individual engagement, players' primary goals are to kill the opposition prior to being killed themselves, which means firing at the fastest rate of fire is often optimal, even if it becomes a gamble.

In this system, players were not punished for missing (as they would be in the case of an instant kill headshot game) -- but rather, punished for engaging.  Scoring a kill merely meant you had to immediately disengage (which was not often possible) or else start out at a huge disadvantage in any ensuing engagements.  This drastically reduced the power of an individual in games.

This implementation of randomness is completely unnecessary, as it only serves to limit the individual's capability for outplaying, rather than to facilitate the potentially intended goal of assisting less skilled players in scoring kills.  If the designers wished to include a cadence to assist newer players, the "bloom" should've been replaced by a sort of on-board aim assistance for the gun.  As the rate of fire increases, the computer's "processing speed" decreases, reducing the aim assistance and bullet magnetism of the gun and making the bullet actually fire more accurately in regards to the player's reticule.  In the case of high levels of player skill, the players can shoot at the max rate of fire without being punished for their level of skill.  In the case of lower levels of player skills, players can fire at cadence with moderate accuracy and still be able to score kills in a consistent number of shots.

In Halo 4, a new form of randomness was implemented in the game's Ordnance system.  Personally, I like ordnance.  I even don't mind some degree of randomness in the ordnance.  However, the implementation in the release version of Halo 4 was entirely out of whack.  Players could get anything from a set of extra grenades to the most powerful weapons in the game, just for earning enough points to call down a weapon.

Players could press any of three directional pad buttons to call down a randomly generated weapon, item, or power-up upon acquiring Ordnance.  Interestingly, there were three "classes" of weapons in the game -- Human, Covenant, or Promethean.  I found it odd that the Orndance choices were not first tied to selecting one of these three classes to further specify what kind of weapon ordnance the player could then get.  After selecting a class of weapon, the three directional options could've then been reduced to something along the lines of "Close Range" (Shotgun, Scattershot, Energy Sword, Gravity Hammer), "Explosive" (Sticky Detonator, Concussion Rifle, or any of the grenade choices), and "Powerup" (available to all 3 class choices, randomly selects Speed Boost, Overshield, or Damage Boost).  The "up" button could be used to return a menu and investigate the other options.  It would reduce the randomness and improve a player's ability to quickly determine what they want.

Alternatively, they could've been organized in a manner that focused on primarily what they improved -- Left = Mobility.  Speed Boost, Jetpack, Thruster Pack.  Down = Defense.  Overshield, Hardlight Shield, Regenerator.  Right = Offense.  Damage Boost, various mid-tier weapons like the Railgun or Concussion rifle.  The main reason I defend the possibility of randomness in the Ordnance system is that regardless of the choice, they are all better than whatever the CURRENT state of the player is.  There's no chance that the randomness will yield a worse outcome.

In League of Legends, there are very few random factors remaining.  Currently Twisted Fate's passive and Critical Chance are the two most notable.  Twisted Fate's passive is mostly a non-factor as it averages out to the same effect over the course of a game.

Critical Chance, however, is a factor that has had to be limited and hammered by design into a form that was made acceptable due to various abuse cases due to its random nature.  Once again, this is an ability that doesn't have to be random.  Rather than critical hits being left to the whims of a calculator, they could instead occur on a pattern.

For example, the Brawler's Gloves grant an 8% chance to critically strike.  On average, this means a player will critically strike once every 12.5 attacks.  Instead of this system, it could generate a range (for example, 10-15) of "focus" per attack.  Once the amount of focus reaches 100, a critical hit occurs.  (Yes, this is still random.  It does keep the element of randomness, but takes away the most important element that makes randomness bad -- unpredictability.)  This would also serve to eliminate problematic edge cases of double critical hits or long strings without critical hits.  And since the next "critical hit" would be a trackable occurrence, it would encourage interactivity between players in the case of a laning phase in which one player has generated enough focus to crit.  It brings about more options for outplaying and counterplaying situations while reducing the randomness tied to one of the last bastion of offenders of RNG fuckery remaining in League of Legends.

Now, to return to Pokémon.  I mentioned randomness is necessary to prevent it from being a solved game.  Do this mean I believe that, on a given attack, a player should suddenly be able to deal double damage and disregard any defensive bonuses of the target (how crits work in Pokemon)?  No.

The primary issue with the randomness in Pokémon, as a competitive game, is that it is ABRUPT.  There is no chance to react to the issue.  A crit will always come without prior warning, and will often completely screw you over.  This is a huge negative.  However, crits do serve a positive purpose in some occasions.  They can prevent guaranteed stalls, or help break a wall attempt in an otherwise hopeless case.

So, how do you eliminate the abruptness?  It's really quite easy.  You delay the effect of the crit until one turn after the game has determined a crit occurs.  This could be done by replacing "Critical Hit" with "has been knocked off-balance!"  -- where an off-balance character is treated as +0 on defense upgrades, and takes double damage from the next attack to occur.  This status effect always only lasts one turn.

A method like this proves more interactive for both the person getting the critical hit as well as the person who was hit, as once you are knocked off-balance, there are a number of choices you can make.  The player who has knocked the opponent off-balance will likely want to use their current Pokémon's most powerful move in order to inflict as much damage as possible.  The person who has been knocked off-balance has a few options they can select: 1) Leave in the current creature, hoping the damage is not enough and the wall can continue.  2) Use a faster move in order to attempt to knock-out the opposing Pokémon.  3) Attempt to swap out their Pokémon to avoid the critical hit taking effect.

If the attacking player guesses that the defending player will likely use #3, the mind games begin.  "Do I stick with my strongest move, or do I try to guess what Pokémon they will swap to, and instead swap my own Pokémon to something that will be strong against their likely switch?"  The level of Yomi (again, go read the Sirlin article I linked earlier.  He's a great design mind.) that occurs just from this one mechanic change greatly increases the amount of fun and interactivity between the two players while drastically reducing the amount of frustration from a random moment in the game, while still in essence keeping that randomness which can reduce or prevent the game from ultimately devolving into a "solved" game.

Randomness in gaming is not all bad.  It creates a certain level of chaos that can, in many circumstances, improve the interactivity between players.  However, randomness that exists as an unpredictable factor, or solely to limit the level to which a player can outplay another has no place in a game of skill, and wherever possible should be removed.

Audley Enough, very few games since the most popular early game, Pong, has seemed to grasp this concept and we are left with the artifact of 80s and 90s dungeon crawlers keeping random factors in our games.  As the competitive gaming envelope continues to get pushed, hopefully we can stamp out any remaining randomness that limits player skill and replace them with mechanics that instead reward skillful interaction over dumb luck.

Is that Rally All It Takes?

Today, I'm going to be writing about a relatively unhighlighted facet of top level Halo play.  In fact, it's so unmentioned in competitive Halo, I don't even know if players are aware they're doing it or have a term for it.  So in this Audley Enough article, I'm going to dub it "Rallying."  In this particular article, I will use the term to explain why Pistola is God, and why ToTz and RyaNoob are both much, much better than fans and fellow players give them credit for.

If you've played League of Legends, you're familiar with the laning phase being focused on two major things: killing minions and harassing the opposing laner in order to try to deter them from killing minions.  Rallying is much akin to harassing in League of Legends.  There are three possible outcomes when you attempt to harass -- you can LOSE the exchange and become behind, and therefore be left to the whims of the opposing laner.  You can come out EVEN in the trade, and depending on other factors put yourself in a better or worse position in the lane, or you can come out AHEAD and potentially zone the enemy laner off their minion wave.

So why am I talking about League of Legends in relation to Halo?  Because that concept really is what is being applied when I refer to Rallying in Halo.  So, now to explain exactly what I mean.  You are slightly in cover.  An opponent you see is also slightly in cover.  You both see each other, and neither of you are in position to really get help from a teammate.

Much like the aforementioned harassing in LoL, there are three outcomes if the two of you attempt to fire upon each other.  You miss one shot while your opponent doesn't.  Your fate is now less in your control, as you must either back down, or hope your opponent misses a shot.  The opposite of this can occur.  Or, you can both be even in shots -- leading either to the decision for one player to back down and await allied assistance, or for both players to keep pressing the situation until one or both die.

Generally, players will not attempt to trade deaths.  If they're in a situation where they are not ahead in the battle and still have decent positioning themselves, a smart player will back down and try to stay alive with as much health as possible.  The other player will either be baited to overextend to chase the kill or also back down / stay in the same position, giving your teammates an opportunity to close and finish the kill.

I refer to these individual gun battle exchanges in which neither player is actually attempting to kill the other as "Rallying" -- they're much different than battles in which a player is mid-push and has no cover to take when a battle starts.  In those cases, the player MUST go for the kill.  This is specifically for encounters in which both players have cover available to them and may choose to back down at any point.  (I chose the term "rallying" because of the word's definition in regards to Tennis.  A Rally is an exchange back and forth between two players until a point is scored.)

Pistola is one of the best players at Rallying you will see in Halo.  He will fire until either he takes damage in return, or until the opponent catches up in damage, then immediately back down and stay alive.  He is what I refer to as a bully (a player that will focus on only favorable rally exchanges).  And he's a damn good bully.  Granted, there are many more aspects to Pistola's gameplay that make him a fantastic player, but his Bullying is top-notch.  And it's a large part of why he's so hard to kill.  If he's not confident he'll come out ahead, he won't take the fight.

One of the biggest mistake other players will make when in a Rallying situation...is that they will attempt to force the Rally even if they're still even (trading) or behind (losing / being bullied).  This is a great way to get yourself killed either by the player you're shooting, or by his teammate who has now had time to flank you while you focus on your rally.

Players who trade in Rallies constantly are a liability to their teammates.  Why?  Because if you are even or behind in an exchange, you are relying on your teammates to bail you out in order to come out ahead overall.  There are times, however, where being bullied or trading can be a net positive for your team, however...and it's something ToTz was actually superb at, and Ryanoob still does even in Halo 4.

If you are behind your opponents, (i.e., your opponents are between you and your teammates)...then it is okay to trade, lose a trade, or be bullied.  Of course, the longer you stay alive, the more net positive you can get out of such a flank.  Why is this the case?  Because your teammates aren't pulled out of position to save you.  They can move naturally.  And suddenly your opponents are pinched.  Even if they kill you, they have to turn completely around and find your teammates to take advantage of your death.  If your flank's timing was proper, this can actually turn into a 2 for 1 or 3 for 1 or other net-positive for your team.  In certain maps/gametypes, this can actually force a cycle where you then spawn at your base as your opponents spawn outside their base (as your teammates have pushed into the enemy base), and you can set up another rally where you may be forced to sacrifice yourself in exchange for your team gaining several kills.

Now, I do want to make one thing clear: Although you are LIKELY to die by doing one of these intentionally-bad-position flanks, it is not NECESSARY for you to die.  The goal is to be like Singed from League of Legends -- you want to draw as much attention to yourself while being as difficult to kill as you possibly can be.  The longer the opponents are spending to deal with you, the more freedom your teammates have to make their plays.

Think of it as a split pushing Tryndamere in LoL drawing 3 people to come kill him as he attacks your inhibitor tower in the bottom lane at 40 minutes into the game... well, now your team has an easy 4v2 at Baron...or a free Rocket Launcher that just spawned.

These bully-baiters and self-sacrificing players relieve pressure from other areas of the map by making themselves deceptively easy targets.  Much like the adorable Slow Loris...they may look harmless, but stopping to deal with them is actually poisoning your team's chance to win.  And ignoring them is just digging yourself a bigger hole.

The concept of Rallying is one that I've personally never heard players really articulate in Halo, though it's obvious from watching gameplay of players like Pistola that it's not outright foreign to top players.  You want to come out ahead in an exchange whenever possible.  And if you know it's not possible, you want to stay alive long enough to force players out of position to enable your teammates to get their own favorable positions.

Being able to understand when and how to flank to set up a sacrifice that ultimately benefits your team is why RyaNoob is such a valuable, albeit undervalued, player and how teams he's on manage to win even if audience and statistical perception suggests that he is performing poorly.  It's a play style that requires tons of situational awareness to pull off successfully...and Audley Enough, top players still don't seem to understand how much freedom they're given from actions of a seemingly "bad play" setting them up for many kills themselves.

Audley Enough: Respawned

Well hello there.  It's been a while, no?  Sorry about that.  I kind of died for a bit.  But the best thing about death in video games is that you usually respawn.

Speaking of respawning, that's what this entire Audley Enough entry will be about.  Respawning in Halo 4.  No fluff.  Before I get started, I'm going to highly recommend you all take a visit to the past and read b0b43's Spawn Guide for Halo 3.  It is what inspired me to do this, and it will explain things very clearly

First things first, I'm going to define a few terms and probably insult your intelligence:

Respawn Point: The bluish circles in Forge mode that indicate a potential spot for a player to respawn.

Influence: Measurable added weight to a respawn point from the game based off various factors, such as deaths, nearby players, or being looked at.

Forge Unit: A unit of measurement in forge to measure distances.  1 Forge Unit is the equivalent to 3m when looking through the scope of a DMR, Sniper, or through your VISR.

Respawn Zone: A volume placed in Forge mode to add or subtract weighting to an area of the map or a collection of spawn points.  There are four types of Respawn Zones: Respawn Zone (heretofore referred to as RZ), Respawn Zone - Weak (RZW), Respawn Zone - Anti (RZA), and Respawn Zone - Anti Weak (RZAW).  I will be using the abbreviations for these from here on.

IMMINENT DANGER: (Will Robinson).  Explosives or projectiles targeting a specific spot on the map.

Natural Geometry: The landscape of the map that was hand-created by 343i/Certain Affinity and cannot be altered in Forge.

Forge Objects: Any map geometry that was placed in Forge, rather than part of the map's natural geometry.



Second things second.  A basic explanation of the spawn system...as it has worked in Halo 3 and Halo Reach (not sure about prior Halo titles.)

Players can only spawn on Respawn Points.  Each Respawn Point has Influences that add or subtract Weight from the spawn.  Each Influence has a specific value, that, if measured precisely, can tell you exactly which Respawn Point (or group of spawns, as some may end up mathematically the same) a player will spawn on.  Although there's very little time in a game to pull out your abacus and try to triangulate the spawn on a precise basis, knowing these influences' rough values helps you make an educated guess.



Okay.  Now that we've got that out of the way...I'm going to make a few comparisons from Halo 4's spawn system to Halo Reach's spawn system, since that is the most recent Halo and the one most of you that are reading this are most familiar with.

In Halo Reach, if an RZ had been placed on the map, any spawns that existed outside of that would be ignored by the map (except for one bugged case which I won't go over.).  The RZ was a way to say "Hey, Map, these spawns are the only ones that matter.  Don't pay attention to those other spawns please."  In other words, if there was a "Defender" RZ placed across half the map, all of the spawns inside it would be given to the "Defender" with zero chance of the Red team spawning outside of that RZ.

In Halo 4, this is not the case.  The RZ works more akin to how it worked in Halo 3, where it has a specific positive weighting that it lends to the spawns within that respawn zone.  In past Halos, this weighting has been enough to outweigh any other positive/negative influences (again, barring one bug in Reach) so that players would not spawn in an opponent's RZ.

Every Respawn Zone (any of the four) in Halo 4 adds (or subtracts) a specific, measureable weight to the respawn points inside it.  However, if these weights are outweighed by other factors, players will NOT spawn in the respawn zone, whether it's an RZ, RZW, RZA, or RZAW.  Using a single RZ will not guarantee a sided spawn for players in Halo 4.

If you want to 100% guarantee the sided spawns, without any potential for neutral emergency spawns, the laziest, safest way to do it is to set spawns on Red side of the map to "Defender" and spawns on Blue side of the map to "Attacker."  However, I find this to be an arrogant way to handle the spawns, as it's a way of essentially telling the game you know better than it where a player should be allowed to spawn.  I'm going to describe later in the article how to better handle this, once I've outlined the influences a little more.


Respawn Zone - Weak (RZW) is the influence value I used to measure the other values in the game.  Everything was measured in terms of "How many RZWs does it take to outweigh this."  Because this was the base unit I used, I have assigned it the value of "100" influence points in order to best represent the next influences I am going to describe.


Here's a list of the influences I have measured, and their approximate influence points on a respawn point:
RZ: +1375
RZ-W: +100
RZ-A: -200
RZ-AW: -50
Death*: -180 (I will explain the * afterward)
Nearby Enemy: -1950
Nearby Ally: +275
Enemy Line of Sight: -340
Allied Line of Sight: -75
Enemy Inside Respawn Zone: -175
Ally Inside Respawn Zone: +275

Note, that these are not EXACT values.  They are rough estimates based off measuring them in testing in a vacuum (no other influences present).  I will now explain a few terms a little further.

Line of Sight means, simply put, looking at a spawn.  But you may be wondering "How do I know if I'm actually looking at the spawn or not?  What determines how wide that cone is?"

Line of Sight's cone of vision is best described as "Any spawn visible on your screen while you are in the first scope of a Sniper Rifle."  Meaning, if you scope in with your gun, and the respawn point is anywhere on your screen, you are influencing that spawn.  And rather heavily, too.  It's roughly a -340 weighting.

If there are ANY natural geometry or forge objects between you and the Respawn Point, you will not be negatively influencing the spawn.  This means that if you are looking through a glass window at the spawn point, the game will not subtract 340 points from that respawn point.


Nearby Enemy means an enemy is within 9.0 Forge Units of a spawn.  (Note: YOU CAN MEASURE THIS WITH VISR, DMR, or SNIPER RIFLE BY LOOKING AT A PERSON.  9.0 Forge Units is equal to 27 meters!)

Nearby Ally means an ally is within 12.0 Forge Units of a spawn.  For both this and Nearby Enemy, there did not appear to be any stronger influence for being closer to the respawn point.

Being on the other side of a wall from the Respawn Point, whether it is natural geometry or a forge object does not take away your presence influence.  Meaning: STUFF IN THE WAY DOESN'T BLOCK YOUR SMEXIFIED AURA OF RESPAWN AFFECTING.


"Inside Respawn Zone" explains itself.  If someone is inside the respawn zone, all the respawn points in that respawn zone are affected.  It applies to RZ, RZW, RZA, and RZAW.


And now for the asterisk: Death.  Unlike in past Halo Titles, Death is not a flat amount in its entire set radius.  Death has a maximum radius of influence of 12.0 Forge Units, just like a nearby ally.  HOWEVER, the -180 estimated value ONLY applies within a 3.0 Forge Unit (9m) radius around the spot where the player has died.  With each bit further away from that 3.0 unit radius, the death influence is decreased.  Around 9.0 Forge Units, the death influence is a meager -50.  So deaths only significantly affect spawn points if they are in the immediate vicinity of the spawns.

Death influence lasts for 7 seconds.


There are a few influences I have not measured, as I either forgot, could not reliably test them due to mechanical requirements,  or did not consider they might affect respawns in Halo 4...they are:
1) IMMINENT DANGER.  Because this requires some precise timing, it was very difficult to test with two controllers.  Just know that this is a heavy influence and the game doesn't want to spawn someone into a grenade.

2) Nearby Objective.  I know in Halo 3 and Halo Reach, the oddball negatively weighted spawns around it.  I am not sure if this applies to Halo 4, as I simply forgot to test it prior to writing this article.  It is likely the oddball still carries its negative weighting for spawns, though.

3) Nearby weapon ordnance.  I did not think to test this while going through my initial tests (only just thought of it while writing this article.).  It is possible that random ordnances or resupplied Initial Drops that have spawned near a respawn point may negatively affect it in order to reduce the chance a player spawns close to a power weapon.



And...back to creating "Sided Spawns" for a map -- (this section is for Forgers or settings-makers):

Instead of setting all spawns per side to a specific color, leave them neutral.

Now, stack 3 RZ (Respawn Zone / Strong Respawn Zone / whatever) on that team's third of the map and label the respawn zone for that team (Red side for Defender, Blue side for Attacker.)

Place an RZA (Respawn Zone - Anti) on that team's third of the map.  Label it for the OPPOSING team.  (Blue side should be labeled Defender, Red side should be labeled Attacker)

Now place some "emergency" spawns in the neutral third of the map that you have not yet placed influences for.  Either put NO respawn zones of any sort on top of this, or place a single RZ-W (Respawn Zone - Weak) set to neutral.
The game -should not- use these spawns ever, but if a situation ever comes up where the game's math has decided "Well shit, there's no possible way for me to spawn them in that stack of Respawn Zones you placed." then the neutral respawn zones -should- always take effect before the Respawn Zone - Anti is even considered.

This is untested theory, but at the time of writing this, it is how the maps Solace and Adrift are set up for TylerHoyt's Competitive Settings.




That's...pretty much it.  If you have any questions, be sure to post them in the comments below.  I will answer them to the best of my ability.

If you would like to expand this guide, whether it be by adding pictures, or filling in any sort of gaps in my information, either ask me first, or make clear where credit is due.  I'm not against someone coming along and making this pretty (Again, I'm a writer, not an editor or a magazine.)...and I'm all for any improvements into the accuracy of this information.

If you wish to post any of this information on your own Halo related website, please link back to my original article with merely a snippet.  I wants my pageviews, cause I'm stingy.


Audley Enough, there will be no catchphrase this time.
Follow me on Twitter. @TiberiusAudley

Competitive Gaming: Hunting Big Game for Sport

So, it's been a while since I've written an Audley Enough. I've been busy as a Halo Coach and more recently as a writer/blogger for MLG. Lately, I've been following the professional gaming scene even closer, and one debate just keeps springing up wherever I go.

"Should competitive games be labeled as sports?"

Now, I'm sure 95% of my audience just said, "No, they're not athletic, so they're not sports."

What's my catchphrase? NO. SHUT UP. YOU'RE WRONG.

And since that's not a valid way to argue, I'll go ahead and be so kind as to break down the argument and explain, in detail, why I personally believe eSports should be qualified and viewed by outsiders as actual sports.

First, going to drop a few dictionary definitions.

sport
noun
1.
an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc.

So, the dictionary definition of sport is that it is an athletic activity. "Ha, Audley, you're wrong after all!" Read further.

ath·let·ic
adjective
(I deleted 1 and 2 of athletic because they were actually less descriptive.)
3.
of or pertaining to athletes; involving the use of physical skills or capabilities, as strength, agility, or stamina: athletic sports; athletic training.

ath·lete
noun
a person trained or gifted in exercises or contests involving physical agility, stamina, or strength; a participant in a sport, exercise, or game requiring physical skill.


Athletic - something with athletes that requires physical skills.
Athlete - a participant in a sport, exercise, or game requiring physical skill.

There's no denying video games require a great deal of hand-eye coordination in order to play. In fact, apart from thinking and reacting to the information given on screen, the majority of gaming is hand-eye coordination. You move your joystick or mouse, your character (or army) moves across the screen. An enemy army appears, you see it, you move it as fast as you possibly can to get the fuck out of there! It's ALL reaction time.

Hand-eye coordination is an athletic ability. It's what allows baseball players to hit a tiny ball with an oversized stick. It's what allows basketball players to arc a ball into a hoop. It's what allows boxers to not get knocked the fuck out. Sure, these other sports I'm naming ALSO require stamina, strength, speed, et cetera, but I would go so far as to argue that several competitive games require a greater deal of hand-eye coordination than these sports to make up for that (maybe not boxing...but that depends on how much you're reading an opponent's muscles versus how much you're just hiding behind two arms and getting beaten up waiting for an opening). Information is presented for fractions of seconds and players must react to them accordingly.

If you have slow reaction speeds, or can't really get your hands and eyes on the same page (I have stupid fingers, I know what it's like)...you will fail at competitive gaming. It is both a talent and a physical skill which can be trained and improved upon.

Some competitors even go so far as to train in gyms in order to improve their body's physical strength, believing quite firmly that this physical training benefits their reaction time and mental health when competing in the game of their choice. Flamesword and Roy of Halo, and eG.InControl of StarCraft II are a few examples of this.

But here, I'm just arguing semantics, which is not my goal. Come on, you know me better than that. I push the envelope with my arguments.

The crux of my argument comes down to three bullet points. Competitive games should be viewed as sports because:
1) Participants have to invest large quantities of time in practice in order to remain competitive.
2) Competitive games gather a significant number of spectators to watch the players or teams compete. If there are no spectators, there is no sport. It's just two guys in a dick-waving contest.
3) Players, now, are capable of making a livelihood off practicing and playing their game.

The latter two of those are recent developments, sure, as eSports have exploded into wide popularity with StarCraft 2 and League of Legends driving competitive gaming to a new level of popularity.

The first bullet, regarding practice (Yes, Allen Iverson, we're talking about Practice. Again.) is one I've talked about in a past Audley Enough. Skills go dull when they're not kept sharp. And, above, I explained that video games do require skill. Not that I had to, we all know competitive games are competitive because someone can be better than someone else at them.

I don't feel I really need to explain the logic behind including practice. It's self-explanatory, and I kinda feel like I'd be beating a horse that's already been turned to glue and bits. So let's move on.

Spectators. They matter.

As I said in the bullet, without spectators, a competition between participants is ultimately just for naught. There's no fan investment. There's no glory. There's no being hoisted above the shoulders of Billy Iwannagopro and carried off the field. It's just you, and some butthurt guy you beat in something.

Sports are played for spectators. Even as far back as the gladiators, sports were all about pleasing the people in the seats of the arena just as much as seeing who would win. If there weren't asses in the seats of the arena, it's just two slaves beating the shit out of one another until one dies. Or a man stupidly wrestling a lion. We'd label him a lunatic, not an athlete.

Spectator numbers for eSports have been skyrocketing recently. This isn't arguable -- MLG has been releasing numbers for their viewership after each tournament, and numbers have been consistently going up. Fandom of StarCraft 2 and now League of Legends is expanding rapidly, and even gaining mainstream viewership as events like BarCraft are getting organized worldwide.

(For those of you that don't know what BarCraft is -- it's essentially a giant party and at a local bar, where StarCraft II tournaments are streamed. There is also Bar of Legends, which is essentially the same thing but for LoL. If this sort of thing interests you, check www.reddit.com/r/BarCraft for more details and attempt to find a local BarCraft.)

At MLG Providence, the viewership among males aged 18-24 surpassed MTV, FX, Comedy Central, and TBS for the weekend and over 3.6 million hours of combined video were consumed over the course of the weekend among the 1.2 million unique online viewers. (Source: http://www.majorleaguegaming.com/news/mlg-delivers-the-largest-season-in-esports-history The 1.2 million comes from dividing amount of video by average viewing time per viewer. Logical maths.) Concurrent viewers jumped from 138,000 at Raleigh, to 180,000 at Orlando, to over 240,000 in Providence. The spectator base for eSports as a whole is rapidly growing.

A large part of this is that the games themselves are being designed to be more friendly to spectators. The mechanics have less senseless complexity. Visuals are being "cleaned" up to make it rather clear to viewers what's happening on screen. Games are given Spectator Mode so commentators broadcasting the game can give a full picture of the game's goings-on, much like the SkyCam set-ups in football games. Additionally (and again, much like real sports in this age), commentators are required to have a deep enough knowledge of the game to translate the in-game action to the viewing faithful. Through graphical and mechanical enhancements over the years, video games have reached a state of watchability by a much larger market than there was back in the days of colored squares and slightly different colored squares, and those in control of broadcasts have a lot more control over what is communicated to the viewers.

Commentators like Day9 go a long way in bridging top-level gaming to new and experienced viewers alike, with a combination of colorful humor and deep game knowledge that makes complex maneuvers understandable to even the most n00bish of n00bs.

The existence of a large spectator base helps facilitate the next bullet point: the players have to be able to make a livelihood off their game. No, I'm not discounting college sports (see: scholarships) or amateur events like the Olympic games (which, I'm pretty sure they have sponsors to feed them anyway).

But up until recently, gamers still had to work part-time or full-time jobs in order to get by in life. Three things have changed. Prize money, sponsors, and the advent of streaming.

Prize money has gone up for many of the games we label as eSports. Not necessarily at individual tournaments, but the quantity of tournaments and leagues that are able to sustain themslves has increased dramatically with the success of new competitive games. But prize money is only awarded to players who...well...win. If only winners got paid in sports, the Columbus Blue Jackets would be one broke-ass organization.

This is where sponsors and streaming come in. Sponsors, whether they be sponsor teams like vVv, TeamLiquid, Evil Geniuses, Complexity, Quantic Gaming, or Dignitas, or products/organizations like Red Bull, Stride Gum, or Dr. Pepper, take off a chunk of the financial burden on players by paying their way to the tournaments they attend. I'm not entirely sure about the details these sponsor teams go through, but on several recent podcasts (vVv's Loser's Bracket and Live On Three to name a couple), eSports personalities like djWHEAT, SirScoots, and LordJerith have mentioned that sponsors are actually able to make money off eSports these days and give a livelihood not only to the players, but also to coaches, commentators, and even little guys like me who simply write about games.

This, of course, trickles down to players. Team houses are springing up in the American eSports scene. Team houses are a staple among Korean StarCraft players, but only recently have American teams and players become able to afford the investment. In StarCraft, Evil Geniuses have a team house. In League of Legends, Team Solo Mid have their own place in New York. Even in Halo, pro player Naded is attempting to reach out and start a team house. For the latter two teams, which aren't under any major sponsorships like EG, they are paying for their house through one of the best things to happen to eSports: Streaming.

Thanks to organizations like Twitch.TV and own3d.TV, players are able to sustain themselves financially through streaming. For more popular games like StarCraft or League of Legends, the income is quite a bit more substantial than, say, Halo Reach (where the most popular pro streamer, Ninja, rarely reaches 1000 viewers...compared to the several thousand to over-nine-thousand of League of Legends pro players.) However, players are able to partner with these two companies and include advertisements on their stream, and for each view (or thousand views) the ads get, the players earn money, simply for playing (and practicing) their game.

This has a doubly beneficial effect since it allows players to invest more time into practice, which ups the level of competition, which can gain more fans for the game, which can increase stream numbers. Players that don't have to work a full or part-time job to sustain their livelihood and can instead just invest their time into practicing are given a leg up on their competition. It also serves as a way for players and fans to interact with one another, through streamers offering community rewards, or through simply talking in chats for the streams. In this manner, players can earn more fans for themselves, meaning more retained stream viewers, meaning more revenue.

Through streaming and the growth of sponsor teams, players are getting larger exposure and are finally becoming able to support themselves outside of tournament rewards.

So, I've made my three points. And I know it's not the standard argument people use in the "is professional gaming a sport or not?" -- but I am of the opinion that as long as you're arguing about the physical demand of the game (which, professional gaming DOES have, mind you) they're only arguing semantics, and the argument will go nowhere.

I feel sports need to be defined not by the skills required, but by the goal to be brought out through the competitions. The amount of competition and skill (physical or otherwise) required to compete is not particularly arguable for competitive gaming as a whole (though some individual games may be argued). However, as competitive gaming is growing, the focus of tournaments is shifting toward the spectators, much like many of the sports we've known and loved for the last century, and the competitors of these games are becoming able to focus on it as a career. This paradigm shift is what I believe (and debate) qualifies competitive gaming as a sport.

If you really have that much trouble with the name, because you think gamers are all unathletic nerdsacks and nothing they ever do could possibly be qualified as a "sport", at least acknowledge our collective banner and rallying cry of eSports. This call goes out to members of the FGC as well -- I know you separate yourself from eSports (and, based off precedent, I don't blame you) -- but for the good of both our communities, we need to unite and show off the power of competitive gaming and eSports.

Look forward to my next Audley Enough...whenever it may be. You know how few and far between these can be. However, I think I shall be writing again soon, with a deeper look at how games need to be designed for Spectators in order to be successful tournament games these days. I wonder why that is...

Red Bull Gave Me Wings!

So, for those of you who haven't heard, I am now the coach of the MLG Pro team Turning Point (with the current roster of Walshy, Ninja, Naded, and Mikwen). As part of my initiation into the team, I was invited to join them at the recent Red Bull LAN in Santa Monica, California.

Before I delve into my experience and the technical aspects of what went on at the LAN, I would first like to give a huge thanks to the entire Red Bull Gaming (@redbullgaming) team, and especially to Nils (@nilsgranger), Sam (@slkeene), Audrey (@AudreyAdair), and Kevin (@kdoohan). Red Bull took care of nearly all our needs over the course of the weekend, and delivered an amazing experience.

I'll start off with a recap of my experience of the whole weekend, then switch over into a short (by my standards) explanation of the mechanics of the weekend.

But first...my trip. It started off with a plane to Los Angeles. I met Status Quo's coach, Diesel (@tylerhoyt) during my layover at Dallas/Ft. Worth. Next was LAX, where a shuttle service (provided by Red Bull) picked the two of us up, alongside my teammates Ninja (@Ninja_MLG) and Mikwen (@iMikwen) and several of the StarCraft 2 pros, including Destiny and Slush (I'm not sure who else was on board.) We checked into our hotel upon arrival. (Walshy (@Walshy304) and most of Status Quo were already there...Red Bull had taken them skydiving that day! LUCKY THEM!)

That night, we all gathered at a local bar called Barney's Beanery where dinner and everyone else awaited. I sat with Turning Point, getting past that awkward getting-to-know each other phase, and was approached by some of the Red Bull team, who were all very sociable and made me feel very welcome to be there (I was still nervous at this point!).

Friday morning, after breakfast, we headed to Red Bull Headquarters, where the very impressive set-up was waiting. A huge platform housed the eight XBoxes for Halo Reach while three stations were set up for StarCraft 2, with about 10? 12? computers total provided for the players, including two in an isolated booth.

Friday afternoon, the scrims began. It was my first time ever coaching, so I was a little wary at first. I was doing by best, but still easing my way into the process. I think I zoned out a few times, just focusing on one player at a time, a little unable to shake the fact that I was standing right behind pros playing Halo. Regardless, my team encouraged me and said I was doing fine. It helped build my confidence, but I still knew there was a lot I was missing. Overshield timers, especially.

Friday evening was the first night of streaming. I've never been a part of anything streamed before, so it was completely foreign to me, but everything was set up completely professionally. Red Bull attempted to keep everyone moving and focused on keeping everything flowing smoothly for players and fans alike. The cameras didn't really make me nervous, but I still felt like I wasn't doing my best as a coach.

Afterward, we headed back to the hotel. I checked the MLG forums from my phone and saw Snipedown had posted that it was the first time he had fun playing Halo in years. I knew this was a bad sign for the weekend to come, but I headed to bed. I was frickin' exhausted.

Saturday, breakfast again. I was the first one up, so I spent quite a bit of time talking to the guy who had been bringing the food to our lounge. We talked about several games from the past. Audley Enough, the guy providing our food every morning was a gamer (aren't we all?).

Back to Red Bull. Believe the Hype's day to pick gametypes. They picked mostly standard gametypes, apart from picking Countdown Flag twice in a row during their practice against Turning Point (because we won the first one in a nailbiting 5-4 fashion. The rematch went the other way.) I felt a lot more comfortable as a coach this day, and I think TP's performance on the day, for the most part, reflected my comfort.

Saturday evening, stream time. I don't remember many details from Saturday.

Sunday morning, more breakfast. I stayed down in the Red Bull lobby for quite a long time, not really wanting to stay in my hotel room. I mostly remained hidden behind the couch until I heard a familiar voice, though I did manage to startle a few StarCraft 2 players who came down for breakfast early (Should've scouted better, guys!)

Back to Red Bull. We had lunch waiting in the theatre, but once the theatre was down to just Halo players, Nils and Audrey brought in a surprise -- since it was Cloud's birthday, they had prepared some awesome cakes-on-a-stick that were shaped and decorated to look like XBox 360 controllers. Happy 20th, Scotty. After lunch, I remember seeing Bomber (of the Korean team StarTale) preparing to play LiquidTyler, and having just this amazing expression of pure joy on his face. He looked like a kid who'd just unwrapped a new toy on Christmas. It was so refreshing to see someone of such stature in the StarCraft II pro scene enjoying himself so much.

It was our day to pick games. We focused on our weakest gametypes and played phenomenally that afternoon. If I'm not mistaken, we won both our afternoon series before stream time, including our very first game of Zealot Team Slayer, due in part to Mikwen's reborn playstyle on the map, and partially due to my timing of the Evade power-up (I'm allowed to take SOME credit).

That evening was more streaming, and more watching Snipedown win games (okay, Believe the Hype were all playing well... but Snipedown was just... well, you remember 2008? Yeah, he's back.)

Again, I don't remember many of the precise details during the streaming portions (as it was very hustly-bustly) but I had a blast during all of it. I felt my coaching was the weakest during this evening. I blame fatigue. And Best Man.

Afterward, back to hotel, rested up for my long flights back. Connected in Chicago-O'Hare with Diesel and Ninja. Talked to Diesel a lot about the title update and potential settings while waiting on our flight from LAX to arrive and got some advice on how to improve my coaching a bit come event time. Chicago was very beautiful from above at night, but the plane was cold and tiny. Then finally, home!

And now on to the less mundane details!

Although past Red Bull LANs have been strictly for Halo teams (such as the most recent one, in New York, with Turning Point, Status Quo, and Warriors) this time, Red Bull brought along the legendary Day9 and a group of StarCraft 2 stars to give them an opportunity to practice in their awesome environment.

If you follow MLG at all, you know that typically, Halo teams use LANs to prepare and practice for the upcoming event. Red Bull decided to facilitate this and give each of the three teams present their own "day" to focus on whatever gametypes they wished prior to the beginning of each evening's streaming of the LAN (at which point, the teams would play games out like a regular series).

Turning Point, for example, believed Zealot and Countdown Team Slayer variants to be their weaker gametypes, so they made sure to play those in each of their afternoon matches in order to try to hammer out the kinks in their gameplay on their designated day, Sunday. It was a rather nice change of pace from the regular LANs, where teams just play out a full eleven game series versus one another, on one of each gametype, and expect the best.

If you read my last blog about Practice, you'll know which method I believe to be better. If you didn't read my last blog about Practice... you should. ;)

For StarCraft 2, Day9 and Red Bull gave the players an even better method of practice than just outright playing -- each day focused on specific matchups. For example, Day 1, I believe, was TvT and ZvP, while Day 2 was PvP and ZvT, and Day 3 was PvT and ZvZ. (I may be slightly mixed up on those...also the players took liberties with those).

In addition to this, players were given the opportunity to tell their designated practice partner what they wished to work on. If, for example, Sheth (shout out!) thought he had a weakness to Cannon Rushes from Protoss, then while he was practicing ZvP, his Protoss opponent would cannon rush him. This would allow him to practice countering his hypothetical Achilles heel. If a player wanted to focus on his overall gameplay and macromanagement, his opponent was barred from any sort of cheese or all-in type play.

Perhaps the most intriguing part of the LAN was the addition of the physiologist team, who took blood and urine samples of participating players (those participating in the physiological study, that is...it was entirely optional) -- to test markers like the hemoglobin in the blood and the urine's specific gravity -- to weigh a player's hydration against their own self-judgment of how they played that day. Additionally, the players wore a heart rate monitor and their heart rate was tracked over the course of the day.

This was the first time (at least, as far as this physiology team knew) that such variables have been tested for gamers, and is yet another step toward recognition of competitive gaming as a true sport, as diet and nutrition come into play regarding a gamer's performance. Who knows, this could lead to stricter regimen for gamers who wish to focus and perform better over the course of a tournament.

During all of this, Red Bull provided those who wanted to see the performance of these players (whether they be fans of Halo, StarCraft, or both) with several streams, including selectable streams for every single Halo player (and I believe there were a total of three available StarCraft 2 streams, but I am not entirely sure). And of course, there was also a main stream featuring updates and commentary from Day9 and DMAQ.

If you wish to see what went on at the Red Bull LAN, go to http://www.twitch.tv/redbullgaming for rebroadcasts of the main stream. And you can find stat breakdowns for all the players at http://www.redbullusa.com/LAN

Many thanks, again, to Red Bull for this amazing experience, and Walshy, Ninja, Mikwen, and Naded (@Naded_MLG) for the opportunity to coach them on team Turning Point. Also, a thanks to Master Theory's founder, Anubis, who initially helped me with setting up Audley Enough, which Audley Enough helped get me the exposure that led to me ending up with Turning Point! Shout out to all the StarCraft 2 players, Diesel, all of Status Quo and Believe the Hype, to anyone who pitched in for the streaming of the LAN, and to the masseuses who worked very hard this past weekend!

I look forward to representing Turning Point well in ten days at MLG Orlando! And if you have Twitter, you should follow all of the awesome people I mentioned over the course of this blog, and me, @TiberiusAudley. Because I said so.

Practice: What I Preach

So, it may come as a shock to my readers (and anyone who knows me online) that I used to play baseball. That's right, this Lilliputian blogger and habitual nerd used to actually play a physical sport. And despite my stature, I was pretty good at it.

You may offer any explanation you want as to what led to my ability in the game, but I will always respond to one thing that heavily influenced my skill: Practice.

Practice is one of the most important aspects of improving your skill level at anything. Whether it be playing sports, playing an instrument, doing math, cooking, or any other activity where one can be "good" or "bad," practicing the activity will display improvements in one's ability.

My dad hammered one phrase into my brain, and the brains of any of my teammates whenever I played (he was usually one of the assistant coaches) -- you've probably heard this before, but: "You play like you practice."

When it comes to the competitive side of things, the attitude you exhibit in your practices carries over to the attitude you'll likely exhibit during games. Players who go through practice with a haughty attitude tend to leave themselves open to overlooking their opponents, or sometimes their own mistakes. Those who show no will to practice tend to likewise fail to show up (at least mentally) when it comes game time. Those who tend to goof off during practices tend to goof up in games. You see my picture.

Since this blog is most related to Halo, I'll use a recent example from MLG to demonstrate my point -- MLG Columbus. The winners of MLG Dallas, Status Quo, seemed a bit complacent between events. Despite two multiple team LANs being held at the LAN Network famed "Basement," Status Quo attended neither. Prior to Dallas, they LAN'd hard and prepared for the event they were fan favorites to come in and finish Top 3. Prior to Columbus, however, some of their players focused a bit more on other activities and the team did not LAN (although they did set up a LAN with their new sponsor, Red Bull, to take place prior to the third event of the season).

Status Quo finished a disappointing SEVENTH place in Columbus.

Now, I'll admit there are external factors (such as the formation of the fan-acclaimed "Godsquad"), but the fact remains that Status Quo went into Columbus with less quality of practice than they had for Dallas.

Skills need to be used in order to remain sharp. A skill that goes long periods of time without proper use is much like a car that sits in a driveway without being turned on. Eventually, when it comes time to use it, it simply won't work like it used to. (Trust me, I've had a car sit for months and then when it came time to drive it, the battery was dead.)

Keep your skills sharp by maintaining their use. Practice whatever it is you do.

Now, I mentioned "quality" of practice up there. Did you see it? I'm sure you saw it. I'll say it again just to be sure. You need to make sure the quality of your practice is rather high as well.

So what is quality practice? You're probably (I hope not) thinking "Audley, if I want to be a competitive Halo player, I should just search MLG with my team all day and expect to be the best, right?!"

No, shut up, you're wrong. In fact, I'm of the opinion that by just playing the game over and over, your improvements will be miniscule at best. I mean, how many Reclaimers and Inheritors do you see in Halo Reach that just outright suck?

I'll reference physical sports again, to demonstrate my point: in the off-season, how often do teams just play each other over and over as their method of practice? Compared to the other activities they do, it's a very small amount, right?

Baseball, most teams take batting and fielding practice in very stripped down circumstances.
Basketball, players will run up and down the court stopping at a farther line each time. Prior to a game, they take practice shots.
Football, the quarterbacks practice throws. Wide receivers practice routes. Linesmen push dummies around.

Everything gets dumbed down into what we call "drills." Elements of practice designed to improve a player's abilities.

I'll admit this next part comes slightly from something I picked up from Wikipedia (their source: Roberto Moretti) while researching for this Audley Enough article, but it is also something I've stressed to my own teammates when designing practice gametypes throughout Halo 3 and Halo Reach.

There are five processes in ensuring you are practicing quality...well...practice.

First, Identification. Learn what it is you are practicing, to make sure you know how to do it. You have to know what you are looking for in order to find it.

Next, Isolation. Isolation is identifying a single piece of the whole act. Then you move into stage 3, Repetition. You repeat this one process over and over until it becomes second nature. As an example, these two stages could be demonstrated by a beginning piano player playing scales. Once these scales become mindless dances of the fingers, the learner is ready to move on to more complex stages.

Step four, you Integrate your different individual actions together until you they work seamlessly together. This leads to the ability to perform more difficult tasks within your actions.

Finally, you find more tasks that further your abilities as you work toward mastering your craft, Escalating your abilities..

So for the Halo players out there... the Identification stage: Halo Reach as a whole.

But what do you isolate? Most players will immediately focus on their DMR or Sniper accuracy. This is the most basic skill in the game, and it's something that will constantly be in question. It's also one of the skills that will deteriorate the quickest from being out of practice.

The dexterity that is required to aim in first person shooters is all related to muscle memory and hand-eye coordination. These will simply be learned from maintaining a fairly consistent practice schedule. Players who play a lot will typically have a more steady aim than players who take long breaks, then game hard for a few days, rinse, and repeat.

However, there are several other skills that need to be isolated in order to improve as a whole.

I'd like to hail MLG pro player Naded here for something I saw him doing at Columbus as a warm-up, that I thought to be very clever. While most players play a free for all to warm-up, Naded was in a game alone, on Zealot, running around with Sprint and/or Evade practicing different jumps and escape routes around the map. He displayed a very deep knowledge of the map (despite rarely getting to use any of these in a game). He made sure all of those routes were fresh on his mind prior to beginning a series against an enemy team, while also remembering to look at important sight lines (such as top landing to holograms) and ensure he knew where he could see from where he was.

So, Audley, can you name some of these skills that need to be isolated?

All right, for the MLG fans that may be reading this, here's a brief list of INDIVIDUAL skills: Routes, More Routes, Routes Still, Sight Line Studies, Flag Routes, Slayer Routes, Bomb Routes, Escape Routes, Grenade Angles, Grenade Bounces, A Few More Routes, Strafing, Juking, DMR/Sniper Accuracy, Routes Again But With Evade Instead of Sprint, Now Routes with Jetpacks, One More Routes for Good Measure. If you're wondering why I used that one word (If you missed it, I mean ROUTES) so much, I suggest you go back and read the last few Audley Enoughs from before my hiatus.

Now, for your TEAM skills: Sight Line Studies, Routes That Allow Similar Sight Lines from Different Positions, Communication (again, see an older Audley Enough), DMR/Sniper Accuracy, Set-Ups, Routes to Set-Ups, Routes that Counter Set-Ups, Angles that Annoy Set-Ups, Communication, More Sight-Line Studies, and just in case you have a blind person, a final Sight-Line Study.

By Sight-Line studies, I of course mean knowing where EACH AND EVERY POSSIBLE SPOT ON THE MAP can see and be seen from. In MLG, especially in Halo 3 and Halo Reach, team shooting is way more important than your individual ability to win a one on one battle. Additionally, being able not to BE shot is also important, when attempting to flank or run a flag/bomb to their goal.

A team will build chemistry by playing with each other (although some teams have natural degrees of chemistry based on their individual playing styles -- see Dallas '11 Believe the Hype or Anaheim '09 Carbon). However, a team that studies sight lines and routes that can be taken together will use this practice as a catalyst (yes, pun intended) for a quicker chemical reaction.

For those of you that instead play Big Team, and wonder what kind of skills should be practiced... One of the drill maps I had made for Master Theory back in Halo 3 involved a small team attempting to team shoot a Warthog or Banshee (depending on the map/gametype) to death using only BRs or ARs (again, depending on gametype) in order to practice taking down vehicles. The catch was that the Banshee or Warthog users did not have teammates to clean up -- it was a simple drill designed to improve the ability to shoot at vehicles in order to disable them (as well as improve the vehicle pilot's ability to evade heavy focus). To prevent camping and stand-offs, it was a Territories gametype in which territories were placed at each of the standard set-up points, and the round would end if the vehicle allowed the set-up team to capture each territory.

In Reach, back when Countdown was in Big Team, I had made a very plain, nondescript map to go along with a gametype where players spawned with Armor Lock and had the goal of "Out-Armor Locking" each other as their only way of EFFECTIVELY killing one another. I unfortunately never got to test this to see how well it worked, but it was a minor skill that determined a lot of encounters on the early BTB stages of Countdown.

In addition to the skills required for MLG, Big Team players should practice Vehicle routes, angles to teamshoot vehicles, and a shitload of sightline studies if they wish to improve. If you don't understand why this can't be done in normal gameplay, I ask -- is it easier to find out where all you can see in a game where an enemy Sniper is shooting at you, or in a game where you can stop, look in all 360 degrees around you and all angles above/below you? (Easy question. I won't even answer it for you!)

In addition to all of these individual skills, there is also the necessity to practice the most important part of a game -- the opening. I personally find there to be more gain to gotten out of practicing the first four minutes of a game than any of the remainder, regardless of the game type. (The exception to this would of course be for sequenced versions of King of the Hill, where certain hills are not spawned until much later in the game.)

The initial push for power weapons will often determine the pace -- but beyond that, there is also the set-up for the first respawn of power weapons. Even if you are behind after the opening, securing an enemy's Sniper two minutes into a game, or securing the next set of rockets can turn the tide of a game. If you cannot secure the second set, why should the game drag on to give you a chance at the third set? Rinse off the bad game, and repeat it. Try to adjust what you messed up in the opening, and see if the snowball carries you to your second spawn. Keep making minor adjustments on those first few minutes of the game until you can carry momentum throughout.

Of course, Halo is a bit more dynamic than sports like Baseball or Football, since players are temporarily removed from the game for a short duration -- so a lot of these fundamental practices cannot be executed in-game. Beating up on randoms in playlists is a fine way to ensure you all know your roles from the start, but it will rarely reveal chinks in an otherwise fine suit of armor. Scrimmaging other teams -IS- necessary to see how practical what you've practiced can be outside of practice.

Some situations may not ever repeat themselves, some may reveal themselves deep into a game's growth and become commonplace. But the more you expose yourself to the potential of these situations occurring (once your fundamentals are flawless, of course ;) ) the more you can prepare yourself for meeting them a second or third time.

Film review is an important part of practice in competitive gaming as well -- although I'll save that more in-depth subject for a future Audley Enough, I'd like to point out its relevance. Whether you're watching film of opponents or watching film of yourself, you are improving your abilities. I'll even (probably mis)quote Sun Tzu here, "Know your enemy and yourself, find victory in a hundred battles. Know yourself, but not your enemy, find victory and defeat in equal measure. Know neither your enemy or yourself, find defeat in every battle."

It's a lot easier to learn from your mistakes if you are able to see your mistakes played back to you. It's a lot easier to find weaknesses in an opponent's playstyle if you are able to take a break and see your opponent's playstyle up close.

I'll save anything further for a future Audley Enough, going more in-depth on what to look for out of film review, or at least what I personally look for, but I still felt the need to highlight it here.

I've covered so far that practice can improve competency, and it can improve chemistry. However, there is one more C-word that should be the goal of your practices. Confidence.

If your practices aren't building confidence, something needs to be re-done. A practice that destroys confidence is a poor practice. I'll admit I've made mistakes that caused confidence to drop after a practice. The leadership of a practice should be sure participants stay focused on the goals of practice -- even in defeat, positive gains are made. If you're practicing against a tougher opponent, find out what it is the opponents are doing right. Or better yet, find out what they're doing wrong. Look for the Achilles' heel and attempt to exploit it. If that doesn't work, then you know next time what NOT to do. If it does work, then you've... well, I was going to say you have your opponents on their heels, but I doubt Achilles really stood on his heels when he got shot there. Regardless, you've found a way to force the opponents out of their comfort zone.

In the case that these opponents happen to be your practice partners (everyone in StarCraft 2 has a practice partner, why don't Halo teams?), you've likely found mutual benefit for both teams in the process. You've exposed a way to break a set-up, while they've discovered a hole in the hull of the Titanic.

However, if practices are absolutely not working out to build confidence in the players involved, it is imperative that the practice set-up be shifted in order to find a better way for the waning side to benefit as well. A confident team is a strong team. A team that doubts themselves or each other is a disaster waiting to happen.

So again, practices should build competency, chemistry, and confidence. Practices should teach both fundamentals (the basics) and situationals (the what-the-fucks). And to avoid being out-of-practice, practice should keep muscle-memory sharp and skills refined.

Audley Enough, you'll find a team that practICEs enough won't be as cold come time to perform. And on that terrible note, I'm going to end this Audley Enough. Good luck getting that one out of your brain.