Path of the Omegathon - Round Six
Posted by DoverAnd so, the journey would come to the end. The finals officially began around 4:30, but I was told to show up at 3:00. No one was allowed into the theater except the final two Omeganauts. We were not allowed to even allow our VIP in either. Before I was allowed to enter, I had to give up my cell phone and my DS, due to its Pictochat. There would be no spoiling the final round for anyone.
As Ryan and I walked in, we saw the game being played on the big side monitors. I walked towards the stage, looked up and saw what appeared to be Halo.
"Oh man, we gotta play Halo 2?" I exclaimed aloud.
To which Travis replied, "Close"
Halo 3, the crowning achievement in the famous series, was not what I was expecting at all. Having never played a single Halo game before, I knew that I was in some serious trouble. I had sworn off the series after having worked at a popular video game store for several years. I was there for the launches of the Dreamcast, Gameboy Advance, N-Gage (yeah, that was an easy day), Playstation 2, Xbox, Gamecube, and the Nintendo DS. I was there for all of the biggest games for each system as well.
In particular, I was there for Halo 2. Think back to that time and try and remember the unending hype that was consuming the world at that time. The commercials on TV and in theaters, the ads on all the popular internet sites, the ads in the game magazines, the standee’s in the stores, the posters, the t-shirts, and the trailers. No one was safe from the advertising dollars that were spent that year. I had the distinct honor of opening my new store location at midnight to distribute the game to the teaming masses. The weeks that followed were extremely tiring and after it was over, I cursed the Gaming Gods and exclaimed to all that would hear, that I would never have anything to do with Halo ever again. Oh how the Gaming Gods would laugh that day at PAX, oh how they would laugh.
We got sat down and were allowed to set up our control settings and character models. One of the guys from Bungee asked me if I needed to invert my camera stick, to which I answered that I did not. He smiled and said that it’s good that I play normal style. Hence forth, it shall no longer be known as inverting the stick, rather it shall be called setting your stick to the "wrong" position.
After everything was set up properly and the buttons explained, Ryan and I were shuffled away into the back to sit and wait for the impending crowd. It was at this time I got to speak with Gabe, Tycho, Khoo, Travis, and the rest of the head enforcers. As has been mentioned many times before, all of the guys involved with PAX are real down to earth normal kinda guys. We talked about the website, prior PAX events, the future of PAX, and the fan base in general. It should be noted that Gabe and Tycho were pacing to and fro as everyone started to file into the auditorium. I commented to Ryan that they looked more nervous than we did and they weren’t even playing in the finals. Just before they got on stage, Tycho informed us that the winner and loser would both be receiving a sword to fall in line with the Japanese theme of the prize. He stressed, and I mean really stressed, that we were not to unsheathe those babies on stage. To make extra certain, the scabbards were secured with black electrical tape.
Ryan and I both waited backstage for the video montage to finish before being summoned to the stage. Finally, there was an enormous roar of applause as Gabe and Tycho called us up. We pulled out our bean bags, shook hands and prepared for battle. The rules were simple, best out of three, first to fifteen frags. That got changed in the second round to five frags because of time constraints.
There are more than enough videos online to see how the match itself played out, but nothing can capture the feeling of actually being on stage. Every time I picked up a new weapon, threw a grenade, killed or got killed, a huge wave of audio would come crashing down on me. It was a mix of the multiple speakers and subwoofers located around the stage and the screams of the crowd watching intently. I was surprised how easily the crowd could influence me on stage. I knew that I had very little chance of winning, but the crowd seemed to be on my side. It was probably the whole rooting for the underdog routine. I didn’t care, I was just feeding off of the applause. At one point in the second match, I walked by a four wheeler and the crowd got real loud. I moved away and the crowd started to boo and scream forth their disappointment. I ended up going back to it and the crowd got loud again. After climbing onto the four wheeler, I saw a huge jump pad in front of me. With the crowd losing their mind, I hit the accelerator and leapt over the cavern. The screams and cheers were deafening. Almost as deafening as the laughter that followed as I couldn’t figure out how to get out of the damn thing with my opponent tearing into me with gunfire. Total noob move, which I blame on my inability to say no to the crowd. Ah well, it was worth it.
It was all over and I had lost. But, I still ended up winning in the end. I got an automatic invite to next years tournament, a cool sword, and a nice gift card. I also got plenty of advertising for the website and met a bunch of real cool people along the way. I don’t think anyone actually lost in the Omegathon. As cheesy as it sounds, we were all winners, some just actually got prizes along with their victory.
I’ll see you all at next year’s Omegathon, where I plan to win it all!
-Dover
