Pros vs Joes was...

[forefront]

the best MLG experience I've ever had, and the best thing TLN has done yet by far. I met some of the coolest people on the planet, and made some good friends. I confirmed that I suck at Halo in front of a live audience and don't care at all because LANing at that house was an experience unlike any I've ever had before. I can assure you that no one had a bad time, and all of us would go again in a heartbeat. THANKS SO MUCH to the Pennacchios for being one of, if not the most amazing family on the face of the planet. You deserve so much more thanks than the community could hope to give you. I know that Itchy and myself were both impressed and greatly appreciative of your hospitality and generosity.

To all the pros, I want to say thanks for the good times, and for being down to earth (and patient with some of us in game).

To my fellow joes, you should all know that I consider it a privilege to have met all of you. I hope that I get to see you guys again soon at events or LANs, or whatever.

Now, attendees, and viewers alike... what was it to you?

[DYNASTYBLUE2]

it was a great time viewing it all and wish i had the money to go and i do that Pennacchios for everything u all have done for this community thanks alot and great job to all the joes that were there

[HavkinKnight]

Yeah Itchy stopped by my house when he was driving home to pick up his mix amp and tell me about Forfront and we got to chatting about how amazing it was lol i got so jealous lol but ITCHY is a super chill dude and the stories i heard made me just wanna be there even more!!!! so please post photos and stories of your fav games so i can be jealous even more.

[chris_cr33p]

i am so freaking jealous holy shit

[KRILLIN]

I'm curious forefront. Did you have to pay the full $600 since you are part of the forum staff? Also, how much did the winning team get back?

I liked seeing the house and how intense the pros got at times. T2 is a trip. So like me it's scary lol. I definitely didn't enjoy the stream as much as I do when the pros are playing each other but that's to be expected. It was entertaining for sure.

[Kamikazeewoks]

I am pretty dang jealous of you! Glad you had a great time!

[HavkinKnight]

yeah i was Crazy jealous i mean ToTz and T2 and Shelly n itchy and FF! JEALOUS!

[forefront]

The winning team didn't get any money back. The money went directly to the pros for their time I guess. TLN didn't keep any. Also, I payed full price.

[Jewjitsu]

it looked incredible. i have to go to one of these, whatever it takes

[KRILLIN]

The winning team didn't get any money back. The money went directly to the pros for their time I guess. TLN didn't keep any. Also, I payed full price.

Gotcha. Thanks!

[Fierce]

Now, attendees, and viewers alike... what was it to you?

Painful to watch.

Made for a very funny chat though.

[HavkinKnight]

lol Fear wins congrats to all the teams and thats a nice pay check if you ask me lol

[Makin]

I hope TLN does this again!!! Next time I will be free, just plan it out for a college student!!

[Kamikazeewoks]

I hope TLN does this again!!! Next time I will be free, just plan it out for a college student!!

Agreed! I would love to have the chance to stay at the Gaming House with some of my Favorite Pros!

[HavkinKnight]

6 team Pro Vs. Joe would be sick and get Puckett n Shibby

[JaySeph]

That would be nuts a six team lan, But I think it would require more then the three days to pull off. -.-

[forefront]

That would be nuts a six team lan, But I think it would require more then the three days to pull off. -.-

This. Series were taking longer than 3 hrs to play because of ties and stuff. We were going all day.

[MichaelMongrel]

Painful to watch.

Made for a very funny chat though.

Very immature chat I should say. Not singling myself out from that either.

[MidKnight]

glad you had fun man! i wish i had the money to go! guess LANing with my little brothers will do though!

[Araneatrox]

I'm Torn! I was planning a trip to Sweden soon. But after all the stories im thinking of splashing out the �1000 for flights/ticket to go there.

�200 to goto Swe or �1000 to play awesome halo for a weekend ARGH!?!?!

[ITCHY]

To anyone on the fence about attending future TLN Fantasy Camps, I'd hope that after hearing some personal testaments you would change your mind. It was by far one of the best times I've had playing Halo and hanging out with good people. I'll be the first to say that LAN'ing Reach was a lot more different than I expected it to be, and I didn't play near to the standard I expect myself to play at either, however it was one HELL of a learning experience that I know will change the way I view/play the game. As Forefront said, the Pennachio's are absolutely amazing. Mr. and Mrs. P, you hold the record for best host and hostess of all time...and Anthony has one of the best attitudes/all around fun personalities to be around which made the weekend that much more entertaining.

Big shout out to Distopia, Shred Gain, BradSears, Coby, and all the other Joes I met and now plan on playing with more on live, you guys were freakin' awesome. Huge thanks to Jason (Lunchbox) for carrying our team :) and it was nice meeting and hanging out with T2, FiS, ROY, and ToTz. Can't say enough about each one of these pros as they were all super nice guys.

I can promise you I'll be attending the next PvJ with more practice under my belt and in the impression of T2 shouting "LETS, FU**ING, GO!" (*while hitting my chest) hahaha.

[MichaelMongrel]

To anyone on the fence about attending future TLN Fantasy Camps, I'd hope that after hearing some personal testaments you would change your mind. It was by far one of the best times I've had playing Halo and hanging out with good people. I'll be the first to say that LAN'ing Reach was a lot more different than I expected it to be, and I didn't play near to the standard I expect myself to play at either, however it was one HELL of a learning experience that I know will change the way I view/play the game. As Forefront said, the Pennachio's are absolutely amazing. Mr. and Mrs. P, you hold the record for best host and hostess of all time...and Anthony has one of the best attitudes/all around fun personalities to be around which made the weekend that much more entertaining.

Big shout out to Distopia, Shred Gain, BradSears, Coby, and all the other Joes I met and now plan on playing with more on live, you guys were freakin' awesome. Huge thanks to Jason (Lunchbox) for carrying our team :) and it was nice meeting and hanging out with T2, FiS, ROY, and ToTz. Can't say enough about each one of these pros as they were all super nice guys.

I can promise you I'll be attending the next PvJ with more practice under my belt and in the impression of T2 shouting "LETS, FU**ING, GO!" (*while hitting my chest) hahaha.

I can't imagine a more beastly Itchy... haha.

[Havoc]

How often are these held? Or was it a one time thing?

[heuer89]

How often are these held? Or was it a one time thing?

This was the first time it was held. I imagine due to the turnout they received from this one that more are in store as time goes on! It sounded like everyone had an awesome time and learned a lot. If you do go to one of these just remember to always have fun even if you are doing bad and it will be worth every penny! ;)

[Kwame]

What a fun weekend...I think i might have to turn the whole weekend into a blog...some awfully interesting stories!

also...keep your eye out for a Mrs. P blog that she's asked me to help her with, its going to be awesome!

[SullyVan]

What a fun weekend...I think i might have to turn the whole weekend into a blog...some awfully interesting stories!

also...keep your eye out for a Mrs. P blog that she's asked me to help her with, its going to be awesome!

sounds good!

[Jewjitsu]

hopefully v3 or even v4 will have come out by the next one, and hopefully i'll be able to go. maybe it'll even be cheaper next time? lol

[HavkinKnight]

all i know is im saving up now lol

[Havoc]

Hm, man it sounds REALLY fun. I've been practicing real hard but I need more clutch players to scrim. The best way to get better is to get owned until you realize what you're doing wrong. >.<

[MS eMeRaLd]

i didnt see too much of it but what i saw looked great, glad u all seemed to have fun

[JaySeph]

It was awesome to watch. Glad Shelly's team got the win. :)

[KRILLIN]

It was good to see FiS's team win. He looks pretty damn good to me.

[shrEd Gein]

Yes so much happened, I will get a blog started tomorrow to put everything that happened into prespective. But I really really need some sleep. Huge shout outs to Bradsears, Distopia, Mayhem, Itchy, (I literally gave you the shirt off my back lol) and I can not wait to start gaming with you guys more!

[bradsears]

Start saving your money right now if you enjoy your thrills mixed one of a kind instruction, home made delicious food and genuine real people. This experience is a winner hands down, even for the lowliest *hint* of players.

While I'm down, can I give a crawling hand raised thanks to the tireless P family. Mr, Mrs. and co. are truly rare people. It's getting cliche to compliment the P's but like most cliches it's all true. Incredible people attract incredible people and that is what they have done.

To the joes: just look back at the weekend. Closer... That's right you're awesome. Even your snoring was gentle, fun and respectful.

I'll be back with more of this soon as I have so much to say. Tentative title leaders are '"below bottom" and "the only stat you need to track is fist bumps".

[KRILLIN]

Start saving your money right now if you enjoy your thrills mixed one of a kind instruction, home made delicious food and genuine real people. This experience is a winner hands down, even for the lowliest *hint* of players.

While I'm down, can I give a crawling hand raised thanks to the tireless P family. Mr, Mrs. and co. are truly rare people. It's getting cliche to compliment the P's but like most cliches it's all true. Incredible people attract incredible people and that is what they have done.

To the joes: just look back at the weekend. Closer... That's right you're awesome. Even your snoring was gentle, fun and respectful.

I'll be back with more of this soon as I have so much to say. Tentative title leaders are '"below bottom" and "the only stat you need to track is fist bumps".

Can't wait to hear it. Do you think you improved?

[bradsears]

I did improve, mostly in awareness and strategy. Shot wise I am working my tendency to spam. Objective wise I learned a great deal from Roy T2 and the other pros. There are a few stupid things I do that seemingly are easily corrected after having them pointed out.

One example of many is when I hide after losing shields I stare at the rock or wall I am behind. That is just plain dumb and Roy pointed it out. I can be looking at angles and calling out. It is an easy fix. There are many leaks like that I can plug while I struggle with my shot. Roy is a great leader, calm and assertive, and even though my slaying is a disaster we found ways for me to contribute and my play improved.

Even though I was producing consistent -17ish kd my team placed 2nd in the pool play after 44 games. All the while not saying a single negative thing to me. That says a lot about how much I was carried and the class of my team mates but also about how well the team play was going. Our collapse in tournament play is another story but the villain is still Brad.

On another note, word to the joes about the shirts we got. I'm familiar with that kind of printing and it does not hold up well to washing and especially drying. I suggest hand washing with woolite and hanging to dry if you want to keep that awesome keepsake in good shape.

[forefront]

AHH!!!!! I just realized that I left mine there!!!! That makes me so sad. Ken put such thought into those. I'll have to convince Mr. P to let me come back next weekend so I can get it.

I guess I never really said anything about what I learned. Well, I don't think that I learned a whole lot I didn't know already, but there were some important things that were reiterated to me. Rushing, teamwork issues, etc. The most important Halo related thing I took out of it is a renewed desire to play and get better. I don't wanna go pro, but get good enough to play with all my friends online, and keep up would be nice. Overall, this experience has made Halo fun again.

[KRILLIN]

I did improve, mostly in awareness and strategy. Shot wise I am working my tendency to spam. Objective wise I learned a great deal from Roy T2 and the other pros. There are a few stupid things I do that seemingly are easily corrected after having them pointed out.

One example of many is when I hide after losing shields I stare at the rock or wall I am behind. That is just plain dumb and Roy pointed it out. I can be looking at angles and calling out. It is an easy fix. There are many leaks like that I can plug while I struggle with my shot. Roy is a great leader, calm and assertive, and even though my slaying is a disaster we found ways for me to contribute and my play improved.

Even though I was producing consistent -17ish kd my team placed 2nd in the pool play after 44 games. All the while not saying a single negative thing to me. That says a lot about how much I was carried and the class of my team mates but also about how well the team play was going. Our collapse in tournament play is another story but the villain is still Brad.

On another note, word to the joes about the shirts we got. I'm familiar with that kind of printing and it does not hold up well to washing and especially drying. I suggest hand washing with woolite and hanging to dry if you want to keep that awesome keepsake in good shape.

That's cool man. I could really use some feedback.

[Lunchbox]

I just wanted to give a HUGE shoutout to all of the Joes that came out to the camp! I do not have a single negative thing to say about any of the Joes, all of you were incredibly nice and genuine. We could not have asked for a better group of people.

[Smallz08]

man I hope that I get to go to the next one. I am really glad to hear that everything went really well and I hope that it continues and it improves each and every time.

[Kamikazeewoks]

I just wanted to give a HUGE shoutout to all of the Joes that came out to the camp! I do not have a single negative thing to say about any of the Joes, all of you were incredibly nice and genuine. We could not have asked for a better group of people.

I want to be able to go next one TLN Hosts! Glad to hear that it went well!

[HavkinKnight]

im still so freakin jealous bros lol i cant wait for the next one

[Benjak]

So I got picked up at the airport at 11:30 AM by Mr. P. We went around looking for power packs for the 360's. Then we went to the Gaming House where all the fun began.

Day 1 (Friday): I get to the gaming house and meet Lunchbox and Kwame. We started right away gaming online, waiting for others to come. Next i think EvaduR came and Alumnite. Then after that the rest of the Joes came. We played some FFA and then 4v4's so we could be drafted onto a team. After the games, I was teamed up with my already teammate Evadur and Roy and Brad. I think we ate dinner before we started to play. The food was AMAZING! (thanks Mrs.P!). We played 9 out of the 11 first games of the series and got off because all of us only had a couple hours of sleep the night before. We played all night until about 4 am.

Day 2: Woke up around 8:30 am and was just chilling with Alumnite in the kitchen waiting for everybody to get up. There were still a couple of people playing when I woke up. We all were just hanging around the house and started to game again. We were all just having fun drinking Red Bull, chugging water, and eating all the candy in the snack room :) after we got warmed up we finished the series. (If you want to see the scores, look at the JvP score thread.) We played 3 more series that day/night which literally took about 3-4 hours per 11 game series. Dinner the second day was AMAZING as well! We played until about 4 or 5 in the morning then crashed somewhere in the house (i don't remember I was too out of it).

Day 3:Same as the day before, woke up around 9 and hung with Fear and Alumnite in the kitchen. Mrs. P cooked some delicious waffles and brought over some Dunkin Donuts. Once people got up, we gamed all day! We started the tournament around 4 and played all night until it was over. My team placed last but, we had the best time as a team! Brad has the best jokes and is an awesome guy. Roy helped me out with a few things which made me a lot better of a player, and EvaduR and I were having a BLAST! Fear's team won the tournament (congrats to that team).

Day 4: Woke up to a door bell right, EvaduR had an early pickup which was kind of a buzz kill because I was planning on Lanning with him all day. I gamed all day and pretty much all night. A few peoples flights got canceled because of all of the bad weather. So we all had an extra night together to have fun and game. Had fun lanning that night and playing online. Monday night came and Totz and I were watching Curb Your Enthusiasm until about 5 in the morning and then I had to wake up at 6:30 to catch my flight out of Chicago.

Day 5 (not at TLN anymore): Mr.P drops me off at O'Hare and I head out to my plane. I get to my first stop in Philly at 1 pm and find out my flight was canceled to Burlington. So I ended up switching flights to a different airport but that flight was delayed until 8:30 pm. iPod was dead, phone was on last bar, and there were no outlets anywhere :( Anyways, I got to the airport around 11 and fell asleep around 12. I had to wake up at 5 the next morning to take 3 exams at school which was 2 hrs away.

Overall I had the best time of my life! Everybody was nice! The Pennacchio family are the nicest people you will ever meet! They did an amazing job for the first JvP with all the food, hospitality, transportation, and more! If you ever have a chance to go, take it! You will have the most fun 4 days of your life. Hanging with all of the Pros was awesome and this will be a lifelong memorable experience. Thanks too all the Pros, Joes, Burt and Courtney, Towey, and the Pennacchio family for the best four days ever!

[Kwame]

AHH!!!!! I just realized that I left mine there!!!! That makes me so sad. Ken put such thought into those. I'll have to convince Mr. P to let me come back next weekend so I can get it.

I guess I never really said anything about what I learned. Well, I don't think that I learned a whole lot I didn't know already, but there were some important things that were reiterated to me. Rushing, teamwork issues, etc. The most important Halo related thing I took out of it is a renewed desire to play and get better. I don't wanna go pro, but get good enough to play with all my friends online, and keep up would be nice. Overall, this experience has made Halo fun again.

Amen Sister

[Mrs P]

To those of you who had experienced the Pro's V. Joe's, Thanks guys for all the kind words. For those of you who are interested in
coming to the next one, well there is going to be another one! Dates to be announced TONIGHT!