NEWS - Thursday, January 8, 2004
Halo Shooting Grounds
In a tense battle on the stage of a glitzy Tokyo nightspot, Team Himawari (Sunflower) captured Japan’s Halo crown over the holidays. The Xbox Championship was just one part of the holiday party Xbox Japan organized to thank Xbox Live users. Playing the Oddball mode on the Battle Creek board against another three-man team, the members of Himawari used prearranged strategies effectively to keep possession of the ball for the two minutes needed to win the match. When the match was over, Himawari’s opponent, Koroshiai no Saiten (Slaughterfest), had held the ball for less than one minute, but the loss didn’t cause too many hard feelings. The members of both teams were already friends--comrades in arms in Japan’s small Xbox user community. Team Himawari had a good holiday season: one of its members also won Japan’s individual Halo championship. Yasuhiro, the 17-year old Webmaster for ASE, Japan’s largest Xbox Live clan, won the individual title just a few minutes before the team match began. After both matches and the awards ceremony were over, Yasuhiro and his teammates Uribo and Magus (all three asked to be identified by their screen names) sat down and answered a few questions.Source: http://www.gamespot.com/