STOB: One Opponent Down

Brinstar and I squared off in our first (and maybe the first, since I haven't seen any other matches played yet) battle in the Spring Tournament of Bloggers. We had some odd setup problems, namely that my connection didn't want to seem to host or something, which was resolved when Brin hosted the game. We went for a random arena and ended up with the desert one with the small rock spire in the middle (I can never remember the names of these maps because I actually play random most of the time).

The map is medium sized, but that actually worked out fairly well because it entailed a lot of stalking and the occasionally sniping rather than the all out deathmatch of smaller maps like Combat Hall. This was one of those times that sound really came into play during a match, because I could listen for Kanden's altform to see how close I was to Brin. It also allowed for evasion and escape, so the match went the whole seven minutes. The more I play Hunters, the more I find little details like this (for instance, you're warned that an opponent is powering up a shot because you can see their gun gathering energy) that makes me think it's simply a great title and easily the best handheld shooter I've seen.

I won, although I freely admit that it's partially because I just got used to Sylux's power coil usage and for a change didn't have to rely on getting in close and using his alt form for a (hopefully quick) kill. Since Sylux regens off the power coil, it kept me from having to run for health all the time and allowed me to keep the hunt on.

It was a lot of fun and a great reminder that 1v1 games can actually be pretty tense. I've gotten so used to large team style games like Onslaught or 8v8 CTF that I forgot how much work it was to track someone around a map.

So, gg Brin. We should continue some practice matches. I'll need them to go up against Thomas :)