Best HALOMD Players Ever

[nil]

No offense but I'm not sure where you've been the last two years.

I don't play the game anymore. I just do occasional maintenance these days. Skilled players are often accused of hacking when they're not, and it's not like the video mentions hacking whatsoever (really, who would upload a video titled as "owning" as being proof of hacking). The video is first off a montage, so only good shots tend to be recorded, and secondly some of the shots are a little strange (just 0:32-0:40) but it's also a strange mod/server with some kind of extension . Clients can't tell the server to have a far away shot register like that unless the server or mod itself is doing something unordinary; that's not how the game's network model works. That version recorded is likely the odd version Nash was talking about with upgrades 'n all, also.

I find it pretty amusing competitive play is associated with bigass, a very non-halo map =). But I'm just out of touch.

[Newt]

This is the first time I've ever posted in this site. I guess as someone who's played a lot of HaloMD, I must guiltily admit that was drawn to it initially with some ridiculous self-centred, ego engulfing wish to be somewhere, anywhere, on someone's list. No good can come of thinking like that - but I would really like to comment this thread, as a way of express my gratitude to some players.

There are a lot of very skilled players who you find on the maps (I mostly play on Bigass and Blood Gulch). Some are amazing at a particular weapon or method, or style of play; others are great all rounders. But as to what constitute them being the "Best Players ever" - personally, I think that's a little harder to define by just kill counts, kdrs and the fear that their name instills when you see it pop up on joining a game.

For me, I think the reason why I like playing this game so much is a lot to do with the character of some of the players on here. Call me a wuss, but I like playing games the nice folks. Granted - it's hard to get a real idea of someone's character from short, in game chats - but I think you can tell from their gameplay too. Some regular players out there will play a team game - they might take on a defensive or supportive role, sitting at the back, missing much of the action; some will swap sides to even teams out. They usually don't brag nor call foul, and don't whine much either. And, for the most part, their kill count comes secondary to enjoying the game, and seeing everyone else enjoy it too. They don't see much point in just wracking up kills in an unfair game.

Now I love getting a high kill count and flatulently awesome kdr as much as the next player; but it's just a number. The best games I've played, or enjoyed the most - they didn't require either. And I don't mind getting killed much - I quite like a challeneg. But I've seen a lot of skilled players who are obsessed with their stats; they only seem to be on stacked teams, and won't join the game on weaker teams, or quit when it becomes too intense - they do this just to preserve their kill counts. Ironically they're the players who cry "noob" the most. And, good Lord, do they hate flaggers (that's a whole other kettle of worms..)

A kill is a kill is a kill. If you're a good player, and don't like the way someone killed you; whether it be in a falcon, sniper, rocket hog or mortar goose - perhaps you should adapt your game play. Better still - work with your team.

Really great players, at least for me, are team players. Good at comms, as much as getting kills. And more often than not - my favourite players are funny. You wouldn't mind playing against them either - yeah, it'd be a challenge, but a good one. When trying to define these players in a single sentence - I guess the best I can come up with is: I'd be happy to grab a pint with them. They're nice folks in real life, and nice in game too - and that for me is the largest constitute of who makes a short list of "Best Players ever."

With that being the case - he's a somewhat incomplete, non-sequential list of my favourite players I've encountered on HaloMd. I'd consider all of them worthy of "Best ever," and I'll normally jump on a game just on the basis of seeing their name pop up. It's a list way longer than 5 too, and I'm sure I've forgotten some other great players too. Sorry about that!

Jumbo - HaloMD legend, incredible defender & all rounder. Great flag runner. Just a nice guy to have on your team, or fight against.
A Lost Fool - amazing all rounder, good comms, likes a fair fight, gracious on the rare occasion he's killed. We've had some epic duels.
Mad Cossack - incredible comms, a real team leader, wouldn't want to let him down, but love to see him go Mad and save the day.
tricksquad - amazing sniper, and great at boxing in and frustrating strong players on the opposite team. Seems to always be on foot!
Coworkers - great all rounder, almost impossible to flag when he's defending. Uses vehicle guns in the smartest way I've seen.
atomical - Am I alone in punching the air when I've managed to kill this guy? server is named after him for a reason. Legendary.
love - Makes ever game he's on seem 10x more fun, even for beginners. Incredible player - heaps of praise.
stAr - When I first started playing HaloMD, I never thought I'd ever be able to kill stAr in a sniper duel. I still feel that way now.
CrlWeathers - I always seems to get killed by Crl, and have no idea where from. Knows the terrain, and is an amazing sniper.

Other equally amazing players, in my mind:

aimbot
evie
fill
Killer
New001
Nash
Doc
Eragon
Blue Wombat
Big Kahuna
Psychophile
Ni¢e
Nasty Nas
Nukum
Mr Reaper

There's a few more greats I know I've forgotten now. Yes, I've written more for the players listed further up, but these names are just as venerable; I just see them on games less often maybe. Plus I'd be here all day writing up their skills, and this has already become an essay..

Finally - it's worth pointing out I started out fairly late in HaloMD, so I think I missed the likes of some older renowned names like NYC Phog (played him only once: was practically un-killable), so this list is vaguely recent, though some names I've mentioned I've not seen for a while. If you're reading this folks, I hope you're well.

Thanks to all the servers admins and players - those listed here and those not - for making HaloMD so much fun to play.

My finest regards,

Newt

[Pepe4SocialJustice]

This is the first time I've ever posted in this site. I guess as someone who's played a lot of HaloMD, I must guiltily admit that was drawn to it initially with some ridiculous self-centred, ego engulfing wish to be somewhere, anywhere, on someone's list. No good can come of thinking like that - but I would really like to comment this thread, as a way of express my gratitude to some players.

There are a lot of very skilled players who you find on the maps (I mostly play on Bigass and Blood Gulch). Some are amazing at a particular weapon or method, or style of play; others are great all rounders. But as to what constitute them being the "Best Players ever" - personally, I think that's a little harder to define by just kill counts, kdrs and the fear that their name instills when you see it pop up on joining a game.

For me, I think the reason why I like playing this game so much is a lot to do with the character of some of the players on here. Call me a wuss, but I like playing games the nice folks. Granted - it's hard to get a real idea of someone's character from short, in game chats - but I think you can tell from their gameplay too. Some regular players out there will play a team game - they might take on a defensive or supportive role, sitting at the back, missing much of the action; some will swap sides to even teams out. They usually don't brag nor call foul, and don't whine much either. And, for the most part, their kill count comes secondary to enjoying the game, and seeing everyone else enjoy it too. They don't see much point in just wracking up kills in an unfair game.

Now I love getting a high kill count and flatulently awesome kdr as much as the next player; but it's just a number. The best games I've played, or enjoyed the most - they didn't require either. And I don't mind getting killed much - I quite like a challeneg. But I've seen a lot of skilled players who are obsessed with their stats; they only seem to be on stacked teams, and won't join the game on weaker teams, or quit when it becomes too intense - they do this just to preserve their kill counts. Ironically they're the players who cry "noob" the most. And, good Lord, do they hate flaggers (that's a whole other kettle of worms..)

A kill is a kill is a kill. If you're a good player, and don't like the way someone killed you; whether it be in a falcon, sniper, rocket hog or mortar goose - perhaps you should adapt your game play. Better still - work with your team.

Really great players, at least for me, are team players. Good at comms, as much as getting kills. And more often than not - my favourite players are funny. You wouldn't mind playing against them either - yeah, it'd be a challenge, but a good one. When trying to define these players in a single sentence - I guess the best I can come up with is: I'd be happy to grab a pint with them. They're nice folks in real life, and nice in game too - and that for me is the largest constitute of who makes a short list of "Best Players ever."

With that being the case - he's a somewhat incomplete, non-sequential list of my favourite players I've encountered on HaloMd. I'd consider all of them worthy of "Best ever," and I'll normally jump on a game just on the basis of seeing their name pop up. It's a list way longer than 5 too, and I'm sure I've forgotten some other great players too. Sorry about that!

Jumbo - HaloMD legend, incredible defender & all rounder. Great flag runner. Just a nice guy to have on your team, or fight against.
A Lost Fool - amazing all rounder, good comms, likes a fair fight, gracious on the rare occasion he's killed. We've had some epic duels.
Mad Cossack - incredible comms, a real team leader, wouldn't want to let him down, but love to see him go Mad and save the day.
tricksquad - amazing sniper, and great at boxing in and frustrating strong players on the opposite team. Seems to always be on foot!
Coworkers - great all rounder, almost impossible to flag when he's defending. Uses vehicle guns in the smartest way I've seen.
atomical - Am I alone in punching the air when I've managed to kill this guy? server is named after him for a reason. Legendary.
love - Makes ever game he's on seem 10x more fun, even for beginners. Incredible player - heaps of praise.
stAr - When I first started playing HaloMD, I never thought I'd ever be able to kill stAr in a sniper duel. I still feel that way now.
CrlWeathers - I always seems to get killed by Crl, and have no idea where from. Knows the terrain, and is an amazing sniper.

Other equally amazing players, in my mind:

aimbot
evie
fill
Killer
New001
Nash
Doc
Eragon
Blue Wombat
Big Kahuna
Psychophile
Ni¢e
Nasty Nas
Nukum
Mr Reaper

There's a few more greats I know I've forgotten now. Yes, I've written more for the players listed further up, but these names are just as venerable; I just see them on games less often maybe. Plus I'd be here all day writing up their skills, and this has already become an essay..

Finally - it's worth pointing out I started out fairly late in HaloMD, so I think I missed the likes of some older renowned names like NYC Phog (played him only once: was practically un-killable), so this list is vaguely recent, though some names I've mentioned I've not seen for a while. If you're reading this folks, I hope you're well.

Thanks to all the servers admins and players - those listed here and those not - for making HaloMD so much fun to play.

My finest regards,

Newt

Here's the problem I have with this whole conception of "team players", people who may not get great kdr's but are fun to play with, good at scoring w/flags, use vehicles, & work as a team...that's not what's being asked in the original post. I understand that people have different ideas of what makes a good team player but I'm talking about INDIVIDUAL talent-players who would be great regardless of what team they're on or whether they're playing CTF, Slayer, Team Slayer-players who are just straight up good. So with that criteria in play, it would seem kdr is the most important aspect when judging talent-now there are also other considerations, such as the strength of the players that person plays against (are they playing on tough servers like Bigass/Sniper CTF or just racking up kills on noob slayer maps), the fear they instill into their opponents with their playing style, their sniping accuracy, and a host of other considerations. But capturing flags, being good with vehicles, working as a team player...while admirable traits don't define individual talent.
Also I do think flag noobing is a legitimate complaint. Sure getting flags is part of the game, but you also have to be conscientous of who you're playing with-if everyone else has implicitly decided to ignore flags and just focus on killing each other, being the one new guy that just gets in a hog and goes and gets the flag makes you look out of place and kind of goes against unwritten HaloMD etiquette. I'm not the only one who thinks this either-plenty of Bigass vets hate it when noobs join and get flags when no one else is interested. You have to feel it out-if people are going for flags, it's cool but don't be the only one.

[nil]

I'm surprised any discussion happened here at all to be honest. I wouldn't be over strict on your specific definition of best player. I personally don't want to talk about anyone regardless of skill if I highly dislike them (e.g. boner who was banned here for multiple offensives).

I for one am pretty surprised (positively so) that people factor in being fun/nice to play with, which is one real improvement compared to the older more competitive days.

I find the whole "flag noobing" thing to be a fundamental game design issue where the intended goal is a lesser fun way of playing (to some people), so I tend not to put blame on individual players. Competitive & organized non-pub matches of course don't have this problem; if it's CTF your team tries to cap.

[edit]:

And while we're on the topic of skill, I am just curious if the concepts like lack of lag compensation (aka lead) and host advantage have been forgotten by modern 'skilled' players. Some dedicated servers (e.g. atomical's but not eternal sniper) have a mod that negates lead.

[Nash]

Okay, I’ll chime back in. First I absolutely agree with Newt’s list, and not because I’m on it, but because it’s spot on in its selection. When I had my motorcycle crash a little more than a year ago, many on the list gave me well wishes of genuine concern.

Now, some people believe it or not -- get ready for it -- don’t care about killing. Killing doesn’t interest me. Big deal. You shot me, or I shot you. Yawn. Outsmarting, out playing my opponent --- now THAT’S where the fun begins. That’s why I like to go for the flag. And it’s not easy. If you’ve gone against Atomical (who will make you suffer) or Jumbo (who will hunt you down to the ends of the map and more) then you know what I mean. When you see what’s ahead of you - the competition, then flagging is a mission orientated challenge,

How to get to the enemy base undetected
How to soften then up so they can’t pursue (Taking out their Falcon, laying mines, waiting for a lull in base activity)
How to set up your vehicle for a clean escape posture
How to enter their base undetected, or unexpectedly
How to escape and evade pursuit
How to use numerous tactics for flag security, including deception and feints.
How to communicate with your team
How to return to your base and score if it’s under siege.

If you do all that, especially against players who are way better than you -- then that’s the RUSH for me, and the reason why I play.

Some people like to tackle in Football (American) and some like to score touchdowns.

I do like to kill, but I get more enjoyment killing tanks, Falcons, and snipers (usually with an orbital drop) than gun play. If I pick a target it’s because it’s a high priority target -- a rocket Hog, a sniper, a mortar Goose, a Falcon. If someone on my team has the flag I quickly switch tactics to support them. This could be serving as an escort, blocking pursuit from the enemy base. Attack a pursuing Falcon, or even giving them my vehicle if it means they have a better chance of escaping. Helping my team win is a better thrill than personal kill stats.

The above are many of the reasons I love playing in Bigass. The large terrain allows for the employment of numerous real world military tactics. The unwritten rule in CTF is confusing, because it’s ... CTF. If people want to kill, that’s fine, but don’t cry foul if others play the game as it’s intended.
It’s CTF.

Last, if on person cries foul over someone flagging, I tend not to listen to them (unless they actually ask nicely). Who made that person in charge of the game and why do they get to give orders? Because they have the high kills? Meh. If the group makes the request, I will gladly abide by their wishes.

That’s all it takes. Being nice is better than being a dick.

[Guest]

Personally, I think a lot of the players mentioned above are overrated. They are good, but not dominant and should be better given the time they have put into the game. A lot of these players I have been able to compete with and even outplay significantly despite not playing for a long time, which I think should not be the case for a top 5 player. Unfortunately, basically all of the best players (top 10 players) from the v3 and v4 days of bigass who were competitive players attracted to the game by the ranking and upgrades left after the upgrade version.

Here's my list of some of the most dominant players I have played against on the bigass server in the past couple years.....

1. Mr. Goat - This guy was the best sniper I have ever faced. He single handedly could spawn trap a whole team simply with a sniper. It was nearly impossible to kill him without getting cheap vehicle kills. A guy above seems to claim he cheats, but all evidence including the video he posted suggests he was just far better than everyone else and that he did not use an aimbot. A lot of people have accused him of cheating because of his skill, but he does not. He is by the far the best player.

2. stAr - Another very good sniper. Played sparingly, but was dominant despite playing irregularly.

3. Love - Consistently played very well. He was a rare dominant player who didn't just snipe.

4. KnightsofNi - Another balanced player who always posted top stats. He was as good at spawn killing with a shotgun as well as using a sniper. His aggressive play style did not lead to the highest kdr, but did result in him getting a lot of kills.

5. Queen Elsa - A talented sniper just a notch below stAr.

[Guest]

Also, the leaderboard used to be located at samuco.net/spartanx/bigassv4.php but it seems as if Samuco took it down.

[Nash]

Good list, and good players. I’ve gone against many of them as eel,l except for Mr. Goat (some how I’ve managed to not really encounter him).
I think the heart of his discussion is our definition of a single word -- Player. If the thread had been named best HaloMD killers, or snipers I can see a different set of names on the list. I look at the word Player the same way I would look at the word athlete. This seems to suggest that the candidates would have a wide set of skills over a pushed specialty.

I teach classical fencing in real life. One of the tactics I teach my students is to enjoy facing an aggressive opponent, one who does nothing but attack. Once you learn to defend and stop any attack they have (and that tends to be on the same line or the same maneuver) then the advantage is yours. Aggressive fencers attack because they have no defense.

In other words, every strength is also a weakness.

Good players know this and will get around an advantage another player has. The downside of any Halo game or map is a good sniper will and can dominate the game, unless they are killed and then spawn camped themselves or attack through team coordination and play. There was a player named TomBrady who was a tank camper. He was killing every one on our team who tried to get out of the base. I suggested to one player to take a vehicle and go one way and I’d go the other. We divided his attention allowing one of us to finally escape and get to the Spartan rifle. No more TomBrady after that.


KnightsofNi was more of an insufferable spawn camper, but once you got by him he wasn’t a threat or a problem. I’ve scored with the enemy flag at our base even when he was sieging it.

[Guest]

Tom Brady is NightsofNi by the way. I was not a fan of his play style, that is noobing for points (eg. using tank and laser), but he was still good without those, so that's why I still regard him as a top player.

You keep mentioning top killer and player as distinctions, but there is such as skill gap difference between being a great killer and a great flag scorer I don't really see the difference. I don't think you realize that any of the top 10 players could easily score 3 flags in the 1st 5 minutes if they wanted to most games. Luckily, most don't or the game would end too fast. For example, When love wants to cap a flag, it was near impossible to stop him. I could easily cap a lot of flags, but I find it more fun shotgunning the enemy base or sniping around the perimeter. I've seen players go 0-15 and cap a flag merely by being lucky and being at the right place at the right time. You don't see players spawn trapping the other teams single handedly through pure luck.

What I am trying to say is being a great killer involves having pinpoint accuracy weapons and constantly out dueling opponents through movement. This takes tons of practice, great reflexes, and a vast knowledge of the game. All capping a flag takes is perseverance from driving a hog down the map a couple times, general map awareness, and some improvisational skills. Since being a great killer takes so much more skill, the top players provide much greater utility spawn trapping the other players and having the other players on the team go for the flag.

I Know you are really big into capping flags, so you greatly value that skill. But the reality is nearly every other player only cares about protecting their flag not capping a flag, so I don't think that can be reliably used as an indicator of a player's skill level.

[HandofGod]

My only problem with these prior comments is that I think you guys are putting too much emphasis on good Bigass players rather than also accounting for play on Bloodgulch classic and other classic maps. I have played with a number of people who do well on Bigass but really are terrible when it comes to classic Halo (Bloodgulch as that is the only classic map we can play). I personally think that the best HaloMD players ever should be good at both Bigass and other mods as well as classic Halo... but then again that's just me.

[Nash]

I agree, Hand. I first learned to play on Blood Gulch classic. At some point the map began to feel too small, especially with a full number of players. I can snipe better in Blood Gulch than in Bigass due to the difference in the game mechanics of the gun, but I like the addition of mines in Bigass.

The added benefit of Bigass (or even Phoenix 3) is the dimension of fuller maneuverability that could be used tactically.

My last post wasn’t a plead to consider flagging as a valid skill. I only meant that there’s more to it than just grab and dash. Some are good at it, while others aren’t. Keep in mind that with the flag you are the most vulnerable unless in a firing vehicle -- Falcon, tank, mortar goose, or back of a hog. The few times I’ve killed NYC Pho was when he was trying to escape with the flag -- not when he just grabbed it, but in mid-field. If flagging was really that easy every game would be over within moments. Flagging in Bigass is actually easy (escape, and flag security is another thing) compared to Blood Gulch or Phoenix 3, where one player can hold a base against another team.

There are a few maps I wish they’d play more often -- Dark Aether, or Battle Islands to name a few.

[nil]

I'm still curious if anyone here knows what lead is and how knowing what it is drastically affects your skill in servers that have it (e.g. Eternal, most hosted games by md players).

I'm one of those old classic players that cares more about skill involved in traditional halo gameplay (i.e. not big ass or Phoenix but I think crossing or barrier is close enough to classic) :\. I also think public games don't matter a whole lot skill wise (individual or team) which is why players tend to play however they want rather than all going for the finished victory.

[Nash]

This is the first I’ve heard of ... lead? Can’t say what it is.

Does the idea of a multi-player match emphasize individual play, or team work? Some games are formatted for solo conflicts - slayer, obviously. But others have teams. Does that mean the game is best served if players work together, or does it differ from map to map?

Multi-player formats where players are anonymous can also bring out the worst in people (or just serve to magnify their base personality). We’ve seen them as racist troll, 1-dimensional unapologetic campers, or hackers. For me, action reveals characters. The people that we like to play with are favored because of how they play, and play with others. Playing against Jumbo, Atomical, or even Mad is tough, but they don’t berate you if you kill them, or score. If you manage to gain respect in the game, it’s better (for me) than any stat.

[Guest]

I think you make a good point Hand. Unfortunately, Bigass seems to be the only server that consistently draws the same players every day, so it is hard to compare players on bloodgulch when not many people play it regularly. Furthermore, the sniper server, the only really popular non bigass sever, has pc players that don't really qualify as MD players and if there is a great player it always seems more likely the person is cheating given the number of times cheaters have been caught on that server.


I agree with a lot of what you said Nash.

To answer Nil's question, I don't know the exact definition of lead, and I would really appreciate if you could elaborate on what it is and why it is there, but I know when there is lead and I know it does impact my game. It's tough for me on the sniper server to aim in front and even above the player I'm trying to hit. Too often I am 99% sure my shot hit the player and can't believe it did not register. Some times if a player is super laggy I have to aim a hog's length in front of them and just spray and pray. The unpredictability of how much I have to shoot in front of an enemy really throws me off, my brain doesn't function that way. Every once in a while, I get a really good feel for the lead and go on a streak where I feel like I cannot miss, but more often than not I feel as if it is more of a guessing game where to aim. I consider myself a much better sniper on bigass than the sniper server became I can actually aim at the player's body and I can always aim for the same spot without worrying about varying how far I aim in front of the person.

[nil]

To answer Nil's question, I don't know the exact definition of lead, and I would really appreciate if you could elaborate on what it is and why it is there..

Yeah, you seem to be familiar with it. It's very related to lag. Using an image from Valve's source engine:



You can see the client fires their gun and sends a message to the server that the player should fire the weapon (clients never make any decisions on their own like "I hit player X" because the server doesn't trust the client). If the client has a 200 millisecond roundtrip time (or 200 ping), then that message may reach the server in 100 ms. By that time, the player that was being shot at could have already moved elsewhere. Halo simply does nothing to compensate for this. However some dedicated servers that have the SAPP extension installed and a no_lead mod enabled to compensate for this lag, which is what modern games do as well. The server then keeps track of the player's locations for the last few seconds let's say, and rewinds the game state back to see if a shot would have been hit by a client based on their ping, or how long it takes on average for a client's message to reach the server.

So basically if you're playing on non-SAPP servers and you aren't the server host, you have to lead your shots such that you have to predict where the opponent is going to be. An experienced player will know what amount of ping maps to what kind of lead, and how the lead may differ based on how far away the player is from you or how fast they are moving. This applies to firing pistol or sniper shots, rockets, melee, to just about everything.

"Host advantage" refers to a server host that has no lag and 0 ping. This is especially true when there isn't any no_lead mod available. Thus you should know that if you want to for example 1v1 a MD player, and one of you is hosting, that it won't be very fair. There's also a distinction between "home" and "professional" (normally paid) dedicated servers. If i'm running the halo dedicated server software on my machine or on a machine in my local network and join the server, I may not have 0 ping but I'd have very low amount of latency and could have a significant advantage (lesser so if no lead mod was on though).

No-lead servers are definitely more fair and logical, otherwise some players would have more of an advantage than others based on their connection to the server and where they're located. It's not hard to imagine that some old players grew attached to having lead though. Useful to know about in any case.