From SquirrelBurrito:
Greetings NGA!

One year ago today, grifball.net went live, and the NGA was officially born. To those of you who have been with us since before day one, thank you so much. And to those of you who have joined us along the way, we're so glad you're here! We've definitely had our ups and downs, but we're coming off a pretty sizable vacation and some significant staff changes, and we're ready to go strong for the next year. 

However, we are nothing without all you awesome people who come and play with us. We love making up fun events and offering a league based on fairness and the competitive spirit we all share. By joining in our successes, helping us bounce back from our blunders (Stat Padding Derby, anyone?), helping us help others, and letting us know all of your awesome insights and ideas, you've all helped to make this place a real community. 

Yeah sure, sometimes it's like a high school in here, and it's not always perfect, but it is our home. It's home to anyone who believes in the game the way we do, and anyone who just likes incredible people and having fun. Do we have our huge fights? Chatbox and forum raging? Epic Stream-of-the-Centuries? (Sorry Boss you know I love you though <3) You know we do. But there's something about this site, this group of people, the never-ending controversy that follows us around like a raincloud above our heads, that makes us stronger. Better. And that's all because of you.

Where will the next year take us? Who knows? Anything is possible (and we're not the best at planning too far ahead) but we need input from you. We need to know what you want and what you need from Grifball and our community. (No we can't fix Halo 4. Sorry. But we're gonna work on this gametype until we get it perfect!) We've had a few staff applications come in recently, and we have some exciting things planned. If you're interested in helping, even just a little bit, please PM me and let me know what you're interested in doing. If you have ideas, we want you! :)

So that's about it. I set up a thread with the intent of everyone sharing their favorite memories from this past year with the NGA. So get to it! Let us know what your favorite things are so we can do more of them. Let's smile and celebrate all day :)

Peace, love, and Grifball everyone! And remember...

...we are the NGA. All of us! And we are #GrifballStrong.

Forum Thread

From Gastric Timmy:
Grapeball: Just Let It Happen

Sign your team up for another round of Grapeball festivities tonight (Sunday, May 19th) at 8:00pm Eastern!

The NGA would like to invite everyone of age (just kidding...it totally doesn't matter) to have a few roofie-coladas and sign up for some late night fun. Once the wooziness sets in, we'll be kicking off a whole new variation of Grifball, exploring the rush of holding your victims down and giving them what's coming to them. If you participate in the gang-grape, we totally promise to give you a ride home afterwards. With or without your consent, this will be happening tonight, 8:00pm EST on May 19th.

Hope to see you all tonight!

Registration is for teams of 4-6 players, games are 4v4.
Download the map and gametype from Gastric Timmy's fileshare.
Map: NGA Grape Factory
Game: Grapeball

Team Registration

Forum Thread

It has begun. Can you feel it? The focused anxiety in your gut. The ardent rage and thirst for dominance? That vehement bloodlust boiling inside? Do you know that sinister craving that ignores any rational concern or caution you might have had about your probable annihalation...that sadistic desire that possesses eight warriors and compels them to neglect any and all thought of bodily harm and simply stampede with reckless abandon towards a tiny ball in the middle of the room at first chance?

This is Grifball. We do not concern ourselves with perfectly calibrated guns or tactical packages...we focus on the fight. This is Grifball. We do not burden ourselves with grenades, sidearms, and special upgrades...we have no use for these frivolous trinkets. This is Grifball. We do not operate indestructible vehicles or activate abilities of deception...we have no desire to hide. This is Grifball. The only thing we have to offer the fragile is a brutal bomb blow upside the head. The only thing we have to offer the frail is a seering energy sword through the chest. The only thing we have to offer the delicate is a furious and savage gravity hammer smash in the face. This is Grifball.

The time has come. Now we unite with our friends, align with our allies, and position against our rivals. Our remarkable community will divide, scramble, mix, and meld. Posed against one another in a homicidal brawl, we all strive for the same goal. We see many familiar faces as well as new ones...but we swing at all of them. Anyone that stands in the way is treated the same as we seek glory in the game we all love...

April 15th, 2013 changed the lives of the people of Boston and its surrounding communities. Since the National Grifball Association (a Nonprofit Corporation) is headquartered out of Boston, we felt action should be taken on our behalf to help our fellow citizens in this time of need.  Over the next two weeks, we will be holding multiple "marathon-themed" Grifball events, and we have an open charitable donation campaign on HopeMob.org. Donations are now being accepted, and will continue to be open throughout the events. Please give generously, as every donation will completely go to The One Fund Boston, Inc.

We are pleased to announce that so far, we will be giving away download keys to two great games from Fire Hose Games (@FireHoseGames), which is run out of Cambridge, MA: 10 codes each for Go Home Dinosaurs and Slam Bolt Scrappers. We have also received 26 Boston-themed prize packs from Yawkey Way Report (@YawkeyWayReport), a publication about the Boston Red Sox, and Beantown Collectibles (@BTCHeadquarters), a sports-and-geek memorabilia retailer. Both of these companies are run out of Boston. In addition, the fine folks at Halo Waypoint (@HaloWaypoint) have agreed to donate a Halo-themed XBox Live download to each donor in our drive. This includes themes, Avatar armor, props, and picture packs.  If you are reading this, and would like to help us in the way of sponsorship, please send an email to SquirrelBurrito. Our most sincere thanks to our generous donors so far!

EVENTS

May 4th 6:00PM Eastern - May 5th 8:20PM Eastern - live 26.2 hour Grifball stream. We are asking interested community leaders and Halo personalities to join us on the stream on the NGA Grifball Twitch.tv channel for half-hour blocks of Grifball. We are maintaining a Google document with all available time slots. Please contact us in any of the ways listed on the document if you are interested in participating.

May 6th - May 12th: We will be encouraging the community to commit to playing 26 games of Grifball during this week. Players who report their games through a form on our site will be eligible to win prizes when the week is over. We will also give a prize to the player who gets the most sponsorships for this event. More details, including how to donate or sponsor your favorite Grifballer, can be found here, and will continue to be updated as the event nears.

In addition, we are strongly considering holding a pay-to-play Grifball tournament, to be held on or around May 18th, depending on the amount of interest from the community at large. 80% of the fees for the tournament will be donated to charity, and 20% will go to the winning team.  If this is something you and your Grifball team would be interested in, please drop us a line. There will be a cap of 16 teams (with four players) for this event.

To stay up-to-date with this charity drive and our events, be sure to watch the Grifball.net forums, as well as following @Grifballnet, @squirrelburrito, and @MasterSundown on Twitter. Thank you for your time and support!

#BostonStrong
#GrifballStrong
#SpartanStrong

How to Donate

From Gastric Timmy:

Come get a sneak peak at the possible game and map variants for the upcoming season! Two nights ago we tested a no-shields gametype and map - both were very well received by almost every participant! Tonight we'll be focusing on a shields variant that's up for consideration, played on what I think may becone one of most iconic and memorable maps. The NGA is looking for participants for full test runs tonight (April 26th), from 10pm-Midnight EST. Simply jump into the NGA chat, where game host names will be posted-open and ready for joining - you can also pre-register as a team or individual player. Feedback will be welcomed from participants throughout this period in NGA chat. Don't miss out on this opportunity to be a part of the decision making process as we all eagerly await the best NGA season ever!

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