Halo 3 Tournament Showcases Mad Skills

The clicks of reloading guns and rapid firing echoed in the Quincy Dining Hall. Halo 3, the popular Xbox 360 game, flashed from every screen as it captivated the 60 humanoids present. The room was dim, the tension palpable, and the human faces unmoving.

Saturday night’s Halo 3 tournament, hosted by the Harvard Interactive Media Group (HIMG) and the Harvard Distribution of Technology (HDot), welcomed novices and seasoned gamers hoping to display their simulated shooting prowess.

“I came here because I wanted to see Master Chief ‘pwn’ everybody,” Joshua D. Abram ’10 said, adding, “and to win all the stuff.”

The student groups coordinated the event with the event sponsor, Microsoft, said Kevin Shee ’10, director of the HIMG Harvard Gaming Initiative. The software giant provided prizes, some gaming equipment, and even plastic drinking cups.

“We’re here to try to create a gaming environment in which anyone, no matter what video game background one comes from, will have a good time and have fun,” said Shee, who was also declared the tournament winner and awarded $400.

The event offered unorganized gameplay all throughout the night. Five projector screens offered Halo 3 and a fifth screen offered the music video game Guitar Hero, where most of the females congregated.

Groups of four huddled around each console as the soft glow of the screens illuminated facial expressions ranging from heavy concentration to mouths agape.

“I like computer games better than Xbox,” one attendee, Nicholas J. Ward ’09, said. “I’m bad with my thumbs.”

The tournament featured games for groups of 12. Each group’s top six players progressed to the next round.

Regularly throughout the night, tickets were drawn for prizes, which included Microsoft bottles and thermoses, copies of Windows Vista Ultimate, Microsoft Zune media players, Xbox 360s, and giftcards to Starbucks, Bertucci’s, and Felipe’s.

Clutching free slices of Pinocchio’s pizza, the attendees weaved through scattered inflatable couches. The grease would later decorate the shared controllers.

As Brian T. Ru ’11 took a break after the first round, he said, “It’s like an adrenaline rush.”

Meanwhile, a Microsoft employee, dressed in a green suit in the style of the Halo protagonist Master Chief, stood solemnly behind players and posed for pictures.

“The suit is extremely heavy and hot, especially since the fan system inside stopped working,” he said. “I recommend it as a weight-loss system.”