On Saturday October 20 (Time TBA), the NGA SML 12 All-Stars will meet up to determine who was the best of the best from the last season. These players proved through their stats that they were true forces to be reckoned with. First, let me introduce your NGA SML 12 All-Stars!

Runners

Ezy08 - "Fatal Four"
BossTycoon x - "Blunts of Fury"

Hybrids

Godlxss - "Vibrating Ron Di's"
Crusader0102 - "On The Fence"

Tanks

A Winter Moose - "Vibrating Ron Di's"
Halfbreed105 - "Blunts of Fury"
ixGingy - "The Thundercats"
S1lentNdeadly1 - "A Righteous Kill"

Alternates
Runner/Hybrid: KID TONGA 1 - "A Righteous kil"
Tanks: iSnipeUd0wn- "Orderly Chaos" & Glockshine - "Vibrating Ron Di's"

This season's All-Star game will feature players who had a standout season. Here is a little background information on your NGA SML12 All-Stars. Starting with our runners, we have Ezy08 and myself (BossTycoon x) who have quite a history together, as both teammates and rivals. Ezy08 is representing the "Fatal Four" tonight. He has had quite the grifball career so far, with an AGLA Ammy 'ship and 2 GGL Championships (Vanilla & Dash). I will be representing "Blunts of Fury" who is currently in the SML12 championship game. I'm a 2 time AGLA All-Star, I have a UGL Championship (lulz) and I also have 2 GGL Championships (Vanilla & Dash). Both of us are known to be aggressive runners so expect a lot of position changes.

As for the Hybrids, we have Crusader0102 and Godlxss. Both put up the goals and + K/D to be at the top ranks of the Hybrid position for these games. Crusader0102, a member of the AGLA/NGA/GGL team "4G1B" will be representing "On The Fence," which is in the NGA SML12 Championship game. Crusader0102 has really stepped his game up the last couple seasons, and 4G1B just won the GGL SML12 Dash Championship. The other Hybrid will be Godlxss from "Vibrating Ron Di's". He really had a break out season leading the league in goals scored at the end of the regular season. Godlxss also just won his 1st Championship in the GGL, winning the Vanilla 'ship. With these two in the game, you never know what can happen.

The tanks chosen are some of the top and up and coming players in grifball, starting with halfbreed105 who will be representing "Blunts of Fury". Halfbreed105 is a 4x AGLA champion and a GGL champion, so be sure to tune in and watch one of the greats play. Next we have S1lentNdeadly1, who will be out there representing "A Righteous kill". S1lentNdeadly1 sure does live up to his name - the kid doesn't talk much but his hammer is sure deadly. The third tank to be elected is A Winter Moose, who will be representing "Vibrating Ron Di's". A Winter Moose has been one of the top tanks in grifball the last couple seasons, and is just coming off a GGL Vanilla Championship. He is known to go positive 99% of the time, and it will be interesting to see if he can go positive against the top players in the league. Finally, we have ixGingy, who will be representing "The Thundercats". The Thundercats ended up being a forfeit team but before his team bailed on him he put up pretty good numbers, and who knows how positive this kid could have gone if his team didn't quit out on him. ixGingy is sure proving that he can hang with the vets, recently putting up ICE like numbers against the "GOD SQUAD" in the GGL World Cup.

Finally, I'd like to introduce our Alternates. These 3 players just missed making the starting squad but if someone doesn't show be sure that they are going to be ready to play. We have KID TONGA 1 who will be the runner/hybrid alt. He is the runner for "A Righteous Kill" who has a Tank starting in the game(S1lentNdeadly1). If KID TONGA 1 ends up playing, be sure to watch out, he also is a aggressive runner who isn't afraid to punch you in the face. The tank alternates will be iSnipeUd0wn and GlockShine. iSnipeUd0wn is the captain of "Orderly Chaos" and made a pretty good playoff run this last season. He hasn't been in the league for too long but he sure is one of the top tanks. GlockShine, also known as 'Blue Blazes' will be representing "Vibrating Ron Di's". He is coming off a GGL Vanilla Championship and has been on fire the last couple seasons.

I hope all you tune in to watch the NGA SML12 ALL-STAR Game on Saturday, October 20. (Time TBA) Be sure to follow our twitter account (twitter.com/grifballnet) and our official Twitch channel (twitch.tv/ngagrifball) for the latest updates on this special game in addition to our regular league and playoff streams.

Congratulations to On the Fence, its Captain four to oh, and all of its players: Crusader0102, Cutthroat912, iHoncho316, L1ght5aber, NEJI HYUGA240, and x Sabceef x for winning the very first NGA Championship title for Summer League 2012 after defeating Blunts of Fury in the finals. Hopefully in the next week or so we'll be able to get the team together and do an interview about the ups and down of this past season, and how it translated into victory at the end. Stay tuned!

It was a long, hard-fought road just to get to the finals, and both teams deserve a great deal of respect for their accomplishments. We would also like to thank all of those who have helped us out immensely this season by streaming and neutral hosting games - as well as the entire community for helping to make the NGA's first season such a success!

As a sign of gratitude from the NGA for their dedication and in recognition of what an accomplishment it is to win the championship, each of the players from On the Fence will receive a personalized NGA SEASON 1 CHAMPS trophy engraved with their gamertag and team name!  Their player profiles will of course get some champion awards - and perhaps they'll get some other website perks as well. 

Also, all players who participated in Playoffs this season will receive a special award on their player profile here at Grifball.net as well as at HaloUNITY.com.

With SML12 finally in the record books, we're looking forward to our next (not to mention the last in Reach) Championship, which will be held in just a few weeks. Season two's playoffs begin tommorrow night, so be sure to swing by grifball.net Monday morning for all the details. With Halo 4's release just around the corner, we're only able to allow exactly one week for each of the two rounds of Playoffs. Save the date - the Championship games will be held on Friday, November 2nd and Saturday, November 3rd (if a second day is necessary) as part of our 'Farewell to Reach!' activities and events.

At long last, after a grueling 5 weeks and an immense double elimination playoff bracket, the NGA's first season will come to its conclusion tomorrow (Friday) at 9pm Eastern as we stream our very first league Championship LIVE. On the Fence will take on Blunts of Fury one last time in what should be a truly epic battle! After meeting in the top bracket, On the Fence came out on top, but Blunts of Fury refused to throw in the towel and has returned as strong as ever from the lower bracket. Having already won one series of Finals games, Blunts of Fury will be bringing everything they've got to complete the upset over On the Fence. However, On the Fence is a strong team itself, and with pride on the line, anything could happen. We hope you'll all be able to join us, as we'll also be making some special league announcements during the stream.

Check back right here tomorrow at 9pm for a link to the stream! You can also follow our Twitter account (twitter.com/grifballnet) or our official Twitch stream (twitch.tv/ngagrifball) for instant updates and the most access to all the best the grifball community has to offer.

Earlier tonight On The Fence faced off against Blunts of Fury in the first half of the NGA Season 1 Championship.  Blunts of Fury won both games, the first one a decisive 8-1 victory, and the second game a much closer 5-4.

The second half of the championship will be played and streamed LIVE tomorrow night sometime around 8pm, if all goes well.  Check back here for updates!

On The Fence - four to oh, Crusader0102, Cutthroat912, iHoncho316, L1ght5aber, NEJI HYUGA240, x Sabceef x

Blunts of Fury - Yo DrGreenthumb, BossTycoon x, halfbreed105, NOPLEX, RDG NHL

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.