GGL Wire

Rooster Teeth, makers of Red vs. Blue, saw an opportunity when the new Halo 3 map pack was released to finally create a real version of a joke. In episode 59, the action started off with the Red team taking potshots with their snipe rifles at their teammate Grif, who was depressed at being back at Blood Gulch after spending a whole season away from it. The Red Team leader, sarge, who hates Grif, states that “this is the best game since Grifball.”With one of the new maps in Halo 3, Foundry, being made with a lot of movable objects, it allowed Rooster Teeth to create a room full of nothing but flat ground, some spawn points, a bomb target, and a bomb spawn. Using a new game variant that they made, they finally found a way to create Grifball, based off the neutral bomb assault game mode.

The game is very simple but extremely fun. It is a 4 vs 4 game with the objective being to win the most rounds, with the round ending only when the bomb has been armed and exploded. The twist is that it’s only energy swords and gravity hammers, weapons do 200% damage, and the bomb carrier turns orange, in homage to the sport’s name. The carrier also has 150% speed, 3x over shield, with every other player having no shields.

What makes this game fun is the craziness and ongoing game play throughout. A round can last from for as short as 10 seconds, to potentially, forever should both teams be good enough. Friendly fire is off, so you can fire a bomb carrier right over your head and into the goal with your gravity hammer. I’m the sorta player who can find the goal in 10 seconds of the game starting or find a hole developed by my blocking. I can also do very well up in the air.

However, if you all try to pick up the ball instantly, your whole team can be wiped out in one well placed hammer assault, so you’ve got to be tactical. There is a lot of communication required. You need to organize who goes for the ball, arrange blocking, arrange the defense, let people know where the bomb is, where the bomb carrier is, and of course, celebrate a fantastic goal, which I’ve scored a few of.

Bungie have taken notice of this new game and put it in an article on their website, with an interview with Burnie Burns, creator of Red Vs Blue, where he talks about the game. Bungie are even thinking about trying to implement the game into one of the social matchmaking games. The Rooster Teeth crew are even trying to create a few leagues so that more people can play, and have a bit of fun.

On Sunday, Dec. 16, Rooster Teeth held a tournament of the game using 8 teams. The tournament was won by Team SG1, by beating Team Cannon Ball 2 games to 1.

This, however, signalled the popularity of the game. Since the game was announced, fans have created teams, and have played several games, and are trying to improve the game.

There is now a winter league all set up with 99 teams split up into 9 divisions. There are two games a week unless it’s a bye week, which has only one game that week. The winners of each division, and the teams with the best record (or win to loss ratio) being the wild cards, enter a knock off playoff stage, until a champion is crowned.

The league has started but players who missed out in the chance to play are preparing to form teams in-time for the next season, which should take place in spring.

To play Grifball, all you need is a copy of Halo 3, the new map pack, and download the new game variant and map, found at the Grifball file share.

There is always a chance to play Grifball so if anyone is interested in playing they should visit rvb.roosterteeth.com or http://www.grifball.com and try and find a team if your interested and take part in the best sport since shooting at Grif.