Pegasi
03-15-2011, 12:37 AM
I like the look of Joe's intro format so I'mma go ahead and steal it ;).
Name: Hamish Edmondson (most people online just call me Peg)
Age: 22
Lives in: Norwich, UK
Favorite Games: Halo: CE, Halo 3, Halo Reach, Golden Sun, FF VIII, Goldeneye, anything Zelda
Hobbies: Music/playing guitar, messing around with computers, trying out video editing as well
If anyone here knows me from other forums then they'll testify as to my disturbingly long intro threads/posts in general, so I'll try to keep this a little shorter than usual. I live and work in Norwich, England. I just finished a BA in English Literature at UEA and got a 2:1, making good use of my qualification with a job stacking shelves at my local supermarket :P. However, I hope to get a job as a teaching assistant, probably at a primary school, when the next academic year rolls around. My essay writing background and lack of a solid writing outlet are my main excuses for the mammoth posts I tend to spew out.
I found TLN ages ago back when it was a JTV channel called LansNow (which, for some reason, I always read as Lan Snow, true story) and was interested immediately. I popped in for a look once in a while as it grew, but I only found out about the new site and these fine forums last October and signed up immediately. The friendly atmosphere and tight knit community really grabbed me straight away, and as I'm sure you've all heard countless times already this place is a really refreshing break from the bustling MLG forums. I've lurked somewhat since registering, my measly 11 posts being testament to that, but most of those were in the last few weeks and the other day I received my first friend request over here from good ol' KRILLIN who I couldn't help but recognise from the MLG forums as well as here. That, along with getting in to more discussions, spurred me in to posting this intro and trying to make some friends amongst the community.
As for my Halo history: I started back with CE after being introduced to it by my 3 friends who used to do FFAs after school. I sucked really bad at first, couldn't make a kill, but 2 weeks in a house in rainy Scotland on a family holiday with nothing but an Xbox and my brand new copy of Halo saw me blitz the campaign over and over on all difficulties. I came back and could suddenly hold my own against my friends, and then settled in to a solid routine of FFAs and 1v1s on Hang em' High. One friend in particular (Jack) stuck with me and we continued to 1v1 pretty much solely on this map, chucking on Rat Race once in a blue moon, for years tbh. We tried out Halo 2 a little on release, but after firing it up and realising that our precious Pistols had been castrated beyond belief, we thought 'screw that' and put CE back in the disk try for another couple of years. In hindsight this is something I regret, as it meant that I totally missed out on the phenomenon that was XBL H2 and was way behind when H3 rolled around. None of us had any idea about the competitive community, MLG or XBC and suchlike either, so we just continued on with out splitscreen games until around 2007.
I started uni in September of 2007, a couple of weeks before H3 was released. When I was moving in my dorms I noticed that the guy in the room next to me was unpacking an Xbox, so I keenly asked him if he played Halo at all. He smiled this smug little smile and proceeded to 15-0 me on Ivory Tower. I protested that H2 sucked, called for a CE 1v1, and got beat on that as well, though not by nearly as much. Suffice it to say, though, this was the moment where I saw that there was more to Halo than my 1v1s and FFAs with a couple of friends. We thought we were pretty good, but I realised then that we were very small fish in a very big pond. The same Jack of 1v1 fame had also come up to the same university with me, so him, the new room mate (Stefan, who I still live with to this day) and I proceeded to blitz H3 upon release, Jack and I in particular working hard to make up our lost BR practice having skipped Halo 2.
Over the next 3 years I improved massively, mostly because Stefan had introduced me to MLG and the whole competitive scene. I took a little while to get in to it properly and didn't start visiting the site regularly until the '08/'09 off-season, at which point I began soaking up all the pro circuit archive videos from '08. This was key in helping me get better, just looking at the way the pros moved and controlled their reticle made me realise what I had to do to improve, and slowly my individual skill started improving. Then I started clicking with the idea of strategy and second to second team work. Eventually I was able to perform well in team settings and went from a legit Staff Captain to a 44 in Dubs with Stefan in a couple of weeks. Having gotten thoroughly level locked on that tag, I started a new one and tried to warrior my way on my own in TS. I eventually realised the error of my ways and got Stefan and his old H2 Dubs partner Steve together and we rolled as a 3 in TS. Getting a 45 may not sound like much of an achievement, but it felt so good the night we did as my level lock had us almost in despair. It took us 50 games, 45 of which were wins, to get me from a 43 to a 45, and that was with Steve on his booster account. I gave up on ever getting a 50, but it didn't matter to me, I knew we were good and I'd gone from a Staff Captain to the designated Sniper of our 3 amongst two Halo 2 vets.
Enter: Reach. Unlike many H2 players, Stefan and Steve both really took to H3, which in retrospect kinda surprised since I started to see what people were talking about with the decreased skill gap, broken levelling system etc. even though I never really got in to H2. But as Reach starts to mature it seems like the inevitable has happened, both of them seem to be drifting away and have fallen back on their old love of Starcraft as SC2 was released and made waves. I still convince Stefan to play once in a while, and now they know that MLG is likely coming to the UK for some kind of regional event in the future I think I may be able to cajole them into trying again, but I don't know how much their hearts are in it. It's sad tbh as my best times in Halo were rolling as a 3 in TS with them. The transition is still frustrating me, and anyone who's seen my post in the Title Update thread will be able to see that I still retain some core issues with the mechanic. But overall I still love the game, and with almost 3500 games under my belt across 2 GTs I can't see myself stopping any time soon, unless my occasional nerd rages see my Xbox fly out the window :P.
Alongside my Halo playing career I've had a keen interest in forging since early in H3's lifespan. I'm a longstanding member of Forge Hub and used to occupy a Journalist position over there, writing stuff for the front page and helping to organise our occasional tournaments amongst other things. I was always keen to see MLG get in a look in and loved to try and get good MLG maps featured on our front page. If anyone from here is a member over there too, hit me up! My username is the same there as it is here.
Looking to the future, I love writing (*glances back up at increasingly towering wall of text* who woulda thunk?) and I love competitive gaming. I enjoy watching MLG almost as much as I enjoy playing, sometimes even more, and I love breaking down strats and gameplay and learning more whilst voicing my own thoughts. Ultimately I'd love to go in to a career as a competitive gaming journalist, but that doesn't even really exist as an established profession right now and I'm more than aware that pipe dreams don't pay the bills. As for the present, I'm looking forward to the start of the 2011 season and seeing how Reach plays out with the best playing it. As I said, I learned most of what I know about H3 from watching pros and better players, so I need to do the same with Reach and pick up my skills since I'd ideally love to compete when MLG eventually gets around to visiting the UK/Europe.
Did I say I'd keep that short? Lol, apologies to anyone who's still with me. I'm really keen to get to know people around here and settle in to what is clearly a great community, having friendly but keen discussion about competitive gaming without the tryhards butting in all the time is truly refreshing. Please add me if you want to get some games, I'm far from great but I'll always give it a shot and try to be a cog in amongst the machine of a team. My GT is iGotUrPegasi (anyone who guesses my favourite pro gets a cookie :P).
Phew! You can all rest your eyes now. See you around the forums :).
Name: Hamish Edmondson (most people online just call me Peg)
Age: 22
Lives in: Norwich, UK
Favorite Games: Halo: CE, Halo 3, Halo Reach, Golden Sun, FF VIII, Goldeneye, anything Zelda
Hobbies: Music/playing guitar, messing around with computers, trying out video editing as well
If anyone here knows me from other forums then they'll testify as to my disturbingly long intro threads/posts in general, so I'll try to keep this a little shorter than usual. I live and work in Norwich, England. I just finished a BA in English Literature at UEA and got a 2:1, making good use of my qualification with a job stacking shelves at my local supermarket :P. However, I hope to get a job as a teaching assistant, probably at a primary school, when the next academic year rolls around. My essay writing background and lack of a solid writing outlet are my main excuses for the mammoth posts I tend to spew out.
I found TLN ages ago back when it was a JTV channel called LansNow (which, for some reason, I always read as Lan Snow, true story) and was interested immediately. I popped in for a look once in a while as it grew, but I only found out about the new site and these fine forums last October and signed up immediately. The friendly atmosphere and tight knit community really grabbed me straight away, and as I'm sure you've all heard countless times already this place is a really refreshing break from the bustling MLG forums. I've lurked somewhat since registering, my measly 11 posts being testament to that, but most of those were in the last few weeks and the other day I received my first friend request over here from good ol' KRILLIN who I couldn't help but recognise from the MLG forums as well as here. That, along with getting in to more discussions, spurred me in to posting this intro and trying to make some friends amongst the community.
As for my Halo history: I started back with CE after being introduced to it by my 3 friends who used to do FFAs after school. I sucked really bad at first, couldn't make a kill, but 2 weeks in a house in rainy Scotland on a family holiday with nothing but an Xbox and my brand new copy of Halo saw me blitz the campaign over and over on all difficulties. I came back and could suddenly hold my own against my friends, and then settled in to a solid routine of FFAs and 1v1s on Hang em' High. One friend in particular (Jack) stuck with me and we continued to 1v1 pretty much solely on this map, chucking on Rat Race once in a blue moon, for years tbh. We tried out Halo 2 a little on release, but after firing it up and realising that our precious Pistols had been castrated beyond belief, we thought 'screw that' and put CE back in the disk try for another couple of years. In hindsight this is something I regret, as it meant that I totally missed out on the phenomenon that was XBL H2 and was way behind when H3 rolled around. None of us had any idea about the competitive community, MLG or XBC and suchlike either, so we just continued on with out splitscreen games until around 2007.
I started uni in September of 2007, a couple of weeks before H3 was released. When I was moving in my dorms I noticed that the guy in the room next to me was unpacking an Xbox, so I keenly asked him if he played Halo at all. He smiled this smug little smile and proceeded to 15-0 me on Ivory Tower. I protested that H2 sucked, called for a CE 1v1, and got beat on that as well, though not by nearly as much. Suffice it to say, though, this was the moment where I saw that there was more to Halo than my 1v1s and FFAs with a couple of friends. We thought we were pretty good, but I realised then that we were very small fish in a very big pond. The same Jack of 1v1 fame had also come up to the same university with me, so him, the new room mate (Stefan, who I still live with to this day) and I proceeded to blitz H3 upon release, Jack and I in particular working hard to make up our lost BR practice having skipped Halo 2.
Over the next 3 years I improved massively, mostly because Stefan had introduced me to MLG and the whole competitive scene. I took a little while to get in to it properly and didn't start visiting the site regularly until the '08/'09 off-season, at which point I began soaking up all the pro circuit archive videos from '08. This was key in helping me get better, just looking at the way the pros moved and controlled their reticle made me realise what I had to do to improve, and slowly my individual skill started improving. Then I started clicking with the idea of strategy and second to second team work. Eventually I was able to perform well in team settings and went from a legit Staff Captain to a 44 in Dubs with Stefan in a couple of weeks. Having gotten thoroughly level locked on that tag, I started a new one and tried to warrior my way on my own in TS. I eventually realised the error of my ways and got Stefan and his old H2 Dubs partner Steve together and we rolled as a 3 in TS. Getting a 45 may not sound like much of an achievement, but it felt so good the night we did as my level lock had us almost in despair. It took us 50 games, 45 of which were wins, to get me from a 43 to a 45, and that was with Steve on his booster account. I gave up on ever getting a 50, but it didn't matter to me, I knew we were good and I'd gone from a Staff Captain to the designated Sniper of our 3 amongst two Halo 2 vets.
Enter: Reach. Unlike many H2 players, Stefan and Steve both really took to H3, which in retrospect kinda surprised since I started to see what people were talking about with the decreased skill gap, broken levelling system etc. even though I never really got in to H2. But as Reach starts to mature it seems like the inevitable has happened, both of them seem to be drifting away and have fallen back on their old love of Starcraft as SC2 was released and made waves. I still convince Stefan to play once in a while, and now they know that MLG is likely coming to the UK for some kind of regional event in the future I think I may be able to cajole them into trying again, but I don't know how much their hearts are in it. It's sad tbh as my best times in Halo were rolling as a 3 in TS with them. The transition is still frustrating me, and anyone who's seen my post in the Title Update thread will be able to see that I still retain some core issues with the mechanic. But overall I still love the game, and with almost 3500 games under my belt across 2 GTs I can't see myself stopping any time soon, unless my occasional nerd rages see my Xbox fly out the window :P.
Alongside my Halo playing career I've had a keen interest in forging since early in H3's lifespan. I'm a longstanding member of Forge Hub and used to occupy a Journalist position over there, writing stuff for the front page and helping to organise our occasional tournaments amongst other things. I was always keen to see MLG get in a look in and loved to try and get good MLG maps featured on our front page. If anyone from here is a member over there too, hit me up! My username is the same there as it is here.
Looking to the future, I love writing (*glances back up at increasingly towering wall of text* who woulda thunk?) and I love competitive gaming. I enjoy watching MLG almost as much as I enjoy playing, sometimes even more, and I love breaking down strats and gameplay and learning more whilst voicing my own thoughts. Ultimately I'd love to go in to a career as a competitive gaming journalist, but that doesn't even really exist as an established profession right now and I'm more than aware that pipe dreams don't pay the bills. As for the present, I'm looking forward to the start of the 2011 season and seeing how Reach plays out with the best playing it. As I said, I learned most of what I know about H3 from watching pros and better players, so I need to do the same with Reach and pick up my skills since I'd ideally love to compete when MLG eventually gets around to visiting the UK/Europe.
Did I say I'd keep that short? Lol, apologies to anyone who's still with me. I'm really keen to get to know people around here and settle in to what is clearly a great community, having friendly but keen discussion about competitive gaming without the tryhards butting in all the time is truly refreshing. Please add me if you want to get some games, I'm far from great but I'll always give it a shot and try to be a cog in amongst the machine of a team. My GT is iGotUrPegasi (anyone who guesses my favourite pro gets a cookie :P).
Phew! You can all rest your eyes now. See you around the forums :).