Wowza. Last night I hosted 7 Big Team Battle Training games as GSadmin5 as part of GameSpot's Community Game Night, and I must say, it was the most fun gaming I've had in a good long while. Don't get me wrong fellas, I love Kart Kall, but in Halo 3 I can actually, you know, WIN sometimes. It's a good feeling.

Before I get in to fun anecdotes and restrained boasting, I have to say that one of the best things about Game Night was the company. My party was almost always filled to the brim, and sometimes overflowing (thanks to the guy who patiently tried to help me set the Max Party Size!) with good-natured folks. In my extensive Halo 2 playing, I would often have games ruined by [mean-spirited jerks], a phenomenon we're all too familiar with. Everyone I played with last night was sportsmanlike, most downright friendly, and that totally made it for me A big thank you to all y'all, and much respect.

Now, I'm on Bungie.net peeping the postgame reports and loving it. My teams ended up winning 3 and losing 4. We lost both Slayer matches, thanks to the vigorous efforts of Xelloss101 and EPIC xX Fate Xx. Those seemed to be two names that throughout the night kept coming up with a lot of kills. I looked through to see if I ever actually ended up on a team with both, and the answer didn't surprise me - the lopsided Territories game. Good times.

To be fair, the other team was a man down. However, that man would have been GameSpot's own Aaron Thomas, to whom I, and mah bulletz, seemed inexplicably drawn to the entire evening. Many a postgame lobby was witness to Aaron's dismay as I continuously managed to, to paraphrase his own words, " put bullets in his eye, and other places he prefers not to talk about." Ouch.

Got a message today from Spartan 117 xx recounting his noob combo slaying of me, the VIP, to tally his team's lone point in the last game of the night. I was totally caught off guard by the plasma thingy, as I hadn't really seen it used much that night. Well met, sir, well met. My favorite moment of that particular match was when, VIP again and abandoned in my own base, I clocked a double kill to save my own Very Important Ass. Close one.

Also memorable was the CTF game in which, judging from one of our more vocal participants whose name escapes me, our team had successfully stolen the flag, gotten into the warthog, and driven away from the base only to have the flag carrier DROP THE FLAG! Shouts of "Oh! Em! Gee! How do you DROP THE FLAG?! We HAD it!" mingled with laughter in the lobby as we lamented our fate. As the old saying goes, a flag in the base is better than two in the 'hog... I guess. That one didn't translate too well, but you get it.

Shout outs to Steek, DmnLink, Kevi2684, Crunchman2600, The ruso, PAST EXP, xxDrAiNxx, Flamechu, MECHAN1ZED, xWH1T3 SH4D0Wx (hard to type, man!), and all the other fine folks who played last night. Good times. Keep an eye here and when the real deal lands in September, perhaps we can take the field again. Cheers!