My-T-Mouse

HAYLO Spartan II Project:  The Rise of Master Chief was a scenario game held at Blackwater Paintball Park near Monticello, FL the weekend of August 4th and 5th, 2007.   When they announced the game, field owners Charles Kincaid and Jeremy Roland knew they had their work cut out for them, since "The Rise of Master Chief" was their first scenario game ever held at their 6-month old field, and their difficulties were further inflamed by the fact that the game was being held in the dead of summer in North Florida.

Despite being told by 'them' that they'd never succeed, Charles and Jeremy pressed on, bringing on game coordinator "Georgia" Joe Hamilton to write and run the game and getting the word out that the game would be free entry and that it was to be run as a "Summer Heat" format.  The Summer Heat format is for every hour and a half of play, game play stops for an hour to make sure players don't overheat.  Blackwater Paintball Park is located just outside of Monticello, Florida on a 490 acre plot of land that is used for growing hay, horse farming, and of course, the 60 playable acres of Blackwater Paintball.  Supporting the event were BNB Designz, which offers laser etching, and Knight's Crossing Paintball.  The event paint was supplied by Archon Paintball, with Spank going for $35 a case, and Proball selling for $52 a case.

Bill Muray

"The Rise of Master Chief" is inspired by the popular HALO video games.  The story for "The Rise of Master Chief" take place earlier in time than the video game series, when the Spartan Super-Soldiers were just coming into widespread use.  The Generals for this game were Jason "My-T-Mouse" Hall playing as Master Chief, and Bill "Templar" Murray playing as the Revenant leader.  The Revenant are a confederation of alien races that have come together in a quasi-religious way.  They see the human race as an infestation and have declared holy war upon them. 

On Saturday morning, players starting gathering at the field, eventually reaching 122 players for this first game at Blackwater Paintball.  Game Coordinator Joe Hamilton explained the rules, which for this game included flamethrower rules, since evil genius Craig Grindle had brought along his paintball flamethrower.  Hamilton also explained how the Summer Heat format worked, and why it was being employed at this game.  Given that the weather was projected to reach the lower 90's, with humidity nearing 100%, everyone agreed it was a wise precaution to take.

"It's hot already!"

At noon, the first segment of the game begun, and 13 minutes into the game, The Black and Blue Crew attacked and destroyed the Revenant base, giving Revenant General Bill Murray and his X.O. Bill Baine a rude awakening.  All over the field vicious firefights erupted as the opposing sides probed each other's defenses looking for a weak spot.  For the first segment of the game, missions took a back seat as the opposing sides figured out how to play the brand new field. 

During the course of the day, mission play ramped up, with the opposing sides completing missions like finding a nuclear weapon.  The 3:30 mission was a 'downed pilot' mission, but in this case some detail was added to the mission to make it more interesting for the players.  A live player was used for this mission, and the opposing sides were treated to a radio conversation between “Echo 419” and his controller as he embarks on an ill-fated mission.  The mission started when Echo 419 crash landed in Revenant territory and started begging the Marine General to send out a rescue party.  Unfortunately for Echo 419, the Revenant was listening in on their frequency, and started out on a mission to kill Echo 419. 

The Marines had to fight their way through a Revenant Kill Team, and when they found Echo 419, they found an extremely paranoid and heavily armed pilot.  In the ensuing confusion, Echo 419 was shot by his rescuers, but the wounds weren't fatal, and the medic was able to stabilize him and take him back to their base, completing the mission.

Game play went on through the rest of the afternoon, and at dinner break the Marines had a commanding lead over the Revenant, 200 points to 85.  Due to the exhaustion caused by the high heat and humidity, it was voted by the players present that night play would be suspended.

Game play resumed at 9AM the next morning, and the Revenant side went on a tear, completing missions and even attempting a base attack on the Marines, which was barely repulsed.  The previous day's action continued all over the field as the mission teams fought their way to and from missions assigned to them by their generals. 

"Georgia" Joe Hamilton

The final battle was held at Blackwater Paintball's Castle, which as far as the game was concerned was the Central HQ for the Spartan Project, which created Master Chief.  The Revenant's main purpose was to learn all they could about the Human Race, including the coordinates for planet earth, the cradle of humanity.  Both sides found FU2 Computers, as well as a disk with artificial intelligence on it.  The Revenant's goal was to break into the headquarters, hook up their FU2 computer and download all of the information stored in the supercomputers in HQ.  The Marines had the same goal, except the idea was for them to download everything into their FU2 computer and then destroy the HQ, preventing the Revenant from gaining any information that could lead to the downfall of the human race.

The Revenant, augmented by team Extreme Behavior(who switched sides to even up the teams after  players left Saturday evening),  got to the headquarters first, but after a nasty assault by the Marines, they were eventually eliminated from HQ and with 10 seconds remaining, regained control of the building.  A last second save by the Marines reverted control back to them, giving them the win for the final battle.

Gangster

As players came off the field, Game Coordinator "Georgia" Joe Hamilton set to recording all of the missions and prop points to decide the winner.  The players decided that they didn't care who won or not, but the score ended up being the Marines having 370 points to the Revenant's 225 points, giving Master Chief the win.  The winners of a benefit raffle for Black Beret player Ray "Rain Man" Smith, who was recently diagnosed with lung cancer.  The benefit raffle raised $510 for Ray.  Next, the generals stepped up to recognize players for their contributions during the game:

For the Marines, Jason "My-T-Mouse" Hall:

X.O.: "The Famous" Billy Smith

Most Valuable Player:  Jack and Leroy
Most Valuable Team:   Extreme Behavior
Most Valuable Medic:  CJ
Sportsmanship:        Brad from Extreme Behavior
Most Outrageous Player:  Fat Boy from Doom Troopers
Most Formidable Opponent: Blackwater Recon
Most Valuable Ref:  Bullethead
Best Young Gun:     Andrew

For the Revenant, Bill Murray:

X.O. Bill Baine

Most Valuable Player: Sangster
Most Valuable Team: Pain Cell
Most Valuable Medic: Nitro
Sportsmanship: Extreme Behavior
Most Outrageous Player: Sebastian Lacombe
Most Formidable Opponent:  Black and Blue Crew
Most Valuable Ref:  Mike Tolnay
Best Young Gun: Jordan Verdino

With that, Charles and Jeremy of Blackwater Paintball gave out the prizes for this game and everyone said their goodbyes.  All present were unanimous in their opinion that Blackwater Paintball has a strong future ahead of it, and look forward to the next game, tentatively scheduled for January 2008.  For more information on playing at Blackwater Paintball, check out www.blackwaterpaintball.com

To see the pictures from the event, click HERE

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