I've played videogames or computer games my whole life. But I have never been as good (nor will ever be as good again) at any game as Halo 1. Back in highschool we would play 4 boxes linked up in my friend's basement for hours. We would play all night. The games lasted 2-4 hours because of the slow pace of Halo 1 for CTF (we played warthogs only, no bullshit ghosts etc). The kill counts would be over 100 sometimes over 200. Since I was the best of my highschool friends my team was always filled with the misfits. I would get to pick one decent guy and the rest of my team was crap. I usually also got stuck with a man down.

There is one game on the gulch that I will never forget. It was 3am. The game had been going on for almost 3 and a half hours. It was 7 vs. 6 CTF. My team was a man down. I had my one decent friend who was a dedicated defender and the rest of my team was crap. The other team had everyone else who was decent of my group of friends. There was no way we could control the middle of the map. In fact- the only way to prevent them from raping us was for me to have my entire team on defense and to rely on James-bond style single-man flag caps (of course in Halo 1 you could hold the flag and drive a wart-hog so this was do-able).

Three and a half hours in the game was tied 2-2 and we were in deadlock. My solo runs were keeping a couple of their members hunkered down in the base and I would be in combat in the center of the gulch off and on. They finally got their act together and did a giant rush on on our base. They had one guy come in with the rocket/invis and kill my good player who was defending. From there their got the flag into a wart-hog and were driving back to their base.

My team started to apologize to me (because I am a huge fucking asshole when I lose). I didn't react though. The other team was cheering. But I knew this wasn't over. I had the pistol and a shotgun. They were the blue base and I was headed in from the cliff to the right. I had half of an overshield left and I was in the zone. I came into the base whacking one of their shitty players in the back. I then shot-gunned the other defender in the face and grabbed their flag. I ran out back and sure enough - their hog was there.

Ok... great. I have their flag and a hog - but they were about to cap our flag for the win. I start heading towards the center because I know I need to get our flag or we will lose. It is then I see their flag carrier roll up to the front of their base in the other hog. He gets out to cap - he was so elated and high on the thought of victory he didn't notice my approach. I crushed his bitch ass between the two hogs - got out - and returned our flag. At this point It was already a huge win to snatch that cap back from them and not lose. It was then I realized I had to get my shit together. Their team was still half high on what they thought was going to be the victory - and I had their flag still. When their carrier SLAMMED his controller on the table and yelled as I crushed him - their team realized shit was going wrong. Their team in the middle was being assaulted by my team pouring out from my base as we had nothing to defend at that time. They started to re-spawn behind me in the blue base so time was short. I got back into the hog and put the pedal to the floor.

I still had a tiny bit of that overshield and thank god. I as drove for my life pistol shots pinged the hog and my shields - and soon health - drained. My health drained to one red blip left and I thought I was done. It was just then I crested the center hill and my team pouring out met their team in the center in glorious combat. With that one red blip I made it back to the base - getting the 3rd cap (after also having gotten the first 2) for my team for the win. I have played a lot of video games. I have also played a lot of sports. That 4 hour long game on blood gulch was the greatest victory of any competative activity I have ever participated in and I will never forget.

Also fuck the blue team - ya'll my bitches.