Halo 4 launches in just over 24 hours now, immediately at the conclusion of November 5th.  We here at the NGA are ready for what might be the biggest midnight release day in all of video game history... are you?

Keeping that in mind, we haven't forgotten about you either - expect to hear a huge announcement from us this Sunday during the live stream of our second season Championship games!

Also of great importance, I feel it's our duty to remind all of you (at least those who are 18 and older) not to let Halo 4 release interfere with the Presidential elections which are being held the same day (Tuesday, November 6th - usually between 8am and 8pm).  Remember, voting is not just a right, it is an obligation we all have to make this society work...  Those who do not vote should also not complain!

Finally, let us all wish Halo Reach a happy retirement :).

Playoffs time! There are some new rules going into effect this postseason, designed to keep playoffs moving and increase accountability as well as making them more accessible to the community at large. In no particular order, here's what's up:

How we determined seeding/teams:

-At 12:01am Pacific this morning, we added all submitted forfeits into the system.
-We ranked teams by W/L record, including forfeit wins
-In ties the following rules apply:
-the first tie breaker is number of forfeit wins; if two teams have identical records and one has played more, they will get the higher seed. (This does not apply however if it is deciding which team(s) advance to playoffs. This only applies for seeding when involved teams are all 'safely' in playoffs.)
-the second tie breaker (and in some cases the first) is GPG
-the final tiebreaker, if necessary, is overall team K/D

Scheduling:

Given the time constraints upon us, we need to ensure all games are played in a timely manner, even in spite of ourselves and our community's tendency to do things at the last minute whenever possible. For this reason, we're going to try something new. For each week of playoffs, a number of 2 hour blocks of time will be offered as official game times. You can find the first week time slots here. Each of these time blocks comes with its own streamer, so you will only need to find a neutral host. When two captains decide on a time to play, reserve that slot by clicking on it in the FL12 Playoff Calendar and filling out the form. The game will then be scheduled in our main NGA Events calendar. Before you start worrying about your unique schedule, take a look. You'll see that we're offering multiple time slots every day through Monday, with varied times each day. There are also 16 spots open for 4 series that need to be played, so there are plenty to go around. Please give us as much notice as possible so we can advertise your game. If one or both teams do not show up to a scheduled game time (we will check with both captains when the time is reserved) we reserve the right to issue a forfeit(s).

Neutral Host:

Teams may play without a host if both captains agree and no adverse network conditions are seen in the game. However, we strongly recommend having a Neutral host, and it is always required if a captain requests it. Both teams should have potential NHs ready at their scheduled game time, and in the end, if it is a one sided request, the requesting captain is ultimately responsible for fulfilling this requirement. However - in cases where we have to do something extreme to get a game played - ie benching a player who is pulling or playing 3v3 - favor will fall to the team(s) who can prove they tried to get the game neutral hosted. This might be the one thing the NGA wishes you weren't going to be a douche about.

Streaming:

If you haven't been watching our recent streams, you've been missing out. We have a great core audience who always shows up in force to see games played and mingle with the community. While some folks might be shy or otherwise against streaming, we strongly feel all playoff games should be streamed. Not only does it preserve them for the ages, it helps strengthen and add new blood to the community. So be a star! Mute the streamer if you don't want to be heard. If a streamer ever conclusively hurts a game's connection or otherwise interrupts normal play, this may be waived. You'll be told who your streamer will be when we confirm your gametime request.

Dates:

1st round games must be completed by Monday, October 22

2nd round games must be completed by Monday, October 29

For the finals, we request the games be played on the final weekend so they can be included in our lineup of events saying goodbye to Reach - Nov 2-3 - but if this is absolutely impossible, we will work with the final two teams as long as the game is played by Sunday, November 4.

Any questions, please ask, and we look forward to seeing everyone fight it out for the title!

One final reminder: Rosters were locked at the end of makeup week. Keep this in mind when you schedule to avoid a 3v4 situation.

View the FL12 Playoff Bracket

CAPTAINS: PLEASE READ THIS!

In order to have some form of accountability, we decided last season to implement the following policy for make-up week and will continue to use it this season.

If you have unplayed games, it is important that you check the Make-Up Week Schedule, contact your opponents, and get those games played immediately. Any game submitted after the end of Sunday, October 14th (at 11:59:59pm Pacific time) will not be accepted.

HOW TO AVOID A FORFEIT LOSS

All games in Make-Up Week are scheduled for your division's normal day to play (for example the Ninja division plays on Fridays) at 9pm Eastern time. Plan to have your team online and available to play for at least one hour. If your opponents are not available, start a custom game with just your team - it doesn't matter what game or how long you play - then message [url=/help-contact-us.aspx]one of our Admins[/url] (preferrably via PM on XBL) to prove you were online at that time. This will guarantee that the other team can not request a forfeit win against your team.

IF YOU RESCHEDULE...

Even if you can't play on the scheduled day, do your best to work with your opponents and try to get the games played anyway. If you do reschedule, you and the other captain should both send one of our Admins a message with the new day and time you plan to play. You should still follow the procedure mentioned above on that rescheduled day and time if your opponent still doesn't show up.

FILING FOR A FORFEIT WIN

If in the end, you still can not get your opponent to play you, instructions for how to file for a forfeit win are on the Game Submission Form.

Another important announcement for captains this morning...

We have found (and corrected) a few inconsistencies in the Season 2 Stats in the last day.  Please take a moment to look over your team's record and make sure everything looks OK.

To do this, first click on Season 2 Stats above, then on your team's name.  You should check the number of games shown there, the scores, and the players listed for each game.  Also, you should check the Season 2 Team Leaderboard, Tanks Leaderboard and Bomb Carrier Leaderboard to make sure your team's numbers look accurate.

I would also like to note that the Team Leaderboard should be showing 100% accurate numbers based off of each team's games, but the sorting of the list is not perfect yet - it will be updated before Playoffs to be sorted by Win Rate %, then by Goals-per-Game as a tiebreaker, and finally by K/D.

If by chance you do find any errors, please let an Admin know ASAP and we'll do our best to track down and fix the problem right away!

The sun is setting earlier, and it's getting colder - summer is definitely gone. The NGA has you covered though, with plenty of reasons to stay inside. Here's what we have for the rest of September:

Saturday, September 22 - Tomorrow - The Impromptu Halo 3 BOMB 4PM Eastern

With the AGLA running its Halo 3 Grifball League as well as bouts of Halo nostalgia popping up all over the place in anticipation of Halo 4, we decided to throw together a quick BOMB to celebrate the beginnings of Grifball.

Signups are already open - click here to Register - and will remain open until a half hour before the event (3:30PM Eastern tomorrow.) Instead of thinking about a team to sign up, we should probably mention that for this event, we'll be doing individual signups and generating random teams. The point of this event is more fun than fierce competition; if we have a good turnout or hear of other interest, we'll definitely organize another Halo 3 BOMB in the weeks before Halo 4 releases. We'll even give you notice next time!

Wednesday, September 26 - BOMB: Grifpile:Extreme 9PM Eastern

If you've played Grifpile with us already, you know you love it. On a whim, we tried out a 4v4v4v4 version of Grifpile, and the results were, well, extreme. Now we're bringing it to the community to see what you think!

Signups for this event will open a few days earlier, and will be FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED for the first 16 people to sign up in our forums. We will also take signups for four alternates. With enough interest, we'd be more than happy to try and get a second lobby going. Once signups are full, we'll randomly select four captains to participate in a mini-draft to determine teams.

Saturday, September 29 - HaloTracker Staff Showdown 5PM Eastern

Cheer on your admin team as they go head to head with staff from HaloTracker. Details are still being worked out, but as long as it is half grifball, we promise to give them a run for their money!

In other news, we're almost done with the second week of our second season. Shadow has been working tirelessly on our new stats setup, which when done will very quickly clean up the backlog of games to be entered. We promise all stats will be current soon! Thanks for your patience.

Season 1 playoffs are finally finishing up as well. We've got two series left in the bracket, and they should be great matchups. Catch the streaming action on our new official Twitch.tv channel, NGAGrifball (twitch.tv/ngagrifball) and follow us on Twitch or on Twitter (twitter.com/grifballnet) for instant stream updates!

That should do it for now. We'll be back soon with more info on our HaloTracker playdate as well as more upcoming fun. As always, please stop by grifball.net with any suggestions, ideas, or other comments. We're also seeking writers with original ideas to be featured on the site - talk to SquirrelBurrito if you are interested.