On Saturday, August 11, 35 players came together from all over the United States to battle it out and determine a regional Grifball champion. Check out the distribution on our Player Map. The teams were broken up into groups based on the geographical proximity of those who signed up, and six teams were created: Manifest Destiny, a group of West Coast players extending as far east as the Rocky Mountains; Points North, a team centered around the north Midwest; Greater Lakes, where players hailed from both sides of the Great Lakes; Old Man River,  which consisted of players close to the Mississippi River from the Gulf Coast to the central Midwest; Colonial America, with players spanning the Eastern states from New York to North Carolina; and Cradle of Liberty, made up of players from New England and New York state.

While some teams consisted of players who were already friends or teammates, other groupings threw players together from all corners of the Grifball world. The event featured seasoned league pros and champions, newer league players, and some players stepping into competitive Grifball for the first time. In the six team Round Robin, 14 of 15 games were played over the course of four hours, with one game sacrificed to make up week league obligations. With player registration open for several days, teams consisted of 6-7 players which became frustrating to some players when nearly everyone who signed up showed up on time and ready to play - and we thank you all for it! That's a good problem to have, and if the current amazing attendance record continues, expect to see similar tournaments set up in the future with smaller squads and more playing time.

At the end of the night, a champion was crowned, and Colonial America, captained by OVERweightGOAT and made up of KidQuantum, Ezy08, Packfan010, ghetto KoolAid9, and ColonialPie took home the regional title for the night. But other competitors were close on their heels, especially when the missed game is considered. New friendships were forged over the course of the night as well, which feels like a victory for all of us. A big thank you to NetsPride15 for suggesting the event to the NGA, and thank you to all players who participated, as well as the team captains who helped get everyone some playing time and made sure the event was  enjoyed by all. Awards have been given out on Grifball.net as well as HaloUNITY, so be sure to check your player pages for new swag. And if you have any game film from last night you'd like to share and have uploaded to our YouTube channel, put the film in your file share with the tag NGA, and let RageMoreNerd  know you've got a film for him.

As our league players know, the NGA Summer League 2012 Playoffs are under way, and we now have several streamers you can catch on Grifball.net throughout the bracket. If you are interested in getting your game streamed or your stream featured, please let us know, we'd love to get you on the site if possible.

Our next event will be the already infamous Stat Padding Derby on August 22 - more details coming soon. Also, check in with us over the next few weeks for signups for the final Halo Reach Grifball season as well as several planned community mixers and other fun happenings.  Finally, if you've got a great Grifball event idea, please let us know - we'd love to help make it happen.

View Bracket and Results

Congratulations to the winners of last night's NGA GrifPile BOMB - ICECARDZ and S1lentNdeadly1!  For winning, they each received a code for 1600 Microsoft Points - great job guys!

Other notable achievements - Master Sundown got two Killing Frenzies, a Running Riot, two Dreamcrushers and a Wrecking Crew - awesome!  Also, shadowrain44 got a Killing Frenzy and a Dreamcrusher, and Godlxss got a Yoink.  Not bad.  As we build the stats system out, I'll be able to find and share even more of your amazing accomplishments.

Everybody seemed to have a great time - in fact reaction was so positive we'll be sure to hold another GrifPile event sometime in the near future.  We also received a number of suggestions for how to improve the gametype - if anybody else has feedback let us know.

Thank you all for your participation, we hope you all had fun!  Our next event will be another BOMB - NGA's Battle of the Regions on Saturday, August 11th.  Registration for our second season will also be opening in the next few weeks.  And finally, keep checking Grifball.net for the latest NGA news as our first season comes to a close.

Congratulations go out to Do the Sandusky Shuffle, captained by Rage More Nerd with teammates NOPLEX and Priest XYZ for winning last weekend's NGA ScoreFest after beating runners up The Dylanimals (Godlxss, A Winter Moose, Glockshine, MEGATRIXX and PAPA x VIPER) twice!

Reactions to the event, which was based off a new variant of Grifball we've named ScoreFest, were mostly positive. A few people had some great suggestions which we will try to work in for ScoreFest 2 (expect to see this in a few months). The idea here was to plant as many bombs as possible in a single, 15-minute round of Grifball. Next time we'll remove the health packs and have ties handled by a 5-minute Overtime game, to try and change things up a bit.

In the winners bracket, most teams had a close battle in the first round, while in the second round, every game was a big-margin victory. The third round was more balanced with Clutch Betrayal going 13-7 over White teen booty shake compilation #1, while Do the Sandusky Shuffle narrowly defeated Three Guys One Ball 3-2, then overtaking Clutch Betrayal 10-6 as well.

Meanwhile, over in the losers bracket, the first round was mostly forfeit games, while the second, third and fourth rounds narrowed things down to A Righteous Kill and The Dylanimals, where Dylanimals won 4-0 only to face Clutch Betrayal and beat them in a 20-2 game. This took them to their final match where they lost the championship in a very close 9-8 battle to Do the Sandusky Shuffle after putting up a last-minute push to come back, nearly forcing a third game.

Other notable teams include Clutch Betrayal (3rd place), A Righteous Kill (4th place), and Three Guys One Ball and White teen booty shake compilation #1 who tied for 5th place. Top tanks included shadowrain44 (Tig Ol' Bitties, 1.35 K/D), l0 Dolla Bagel (Iron Fox, 1.28 K/D), Glockshine (The Dylanimals, 1.22 K/D), DYNAMIC JAZZ (A Righteous Kill, 1.22 K/D) and A Winter Moose (The Dylanimals, 1.22 K/D). Among the top bomb carriers were Glockshine (The Dylanimals, 50 points), Godlxss (The Dylanimals, 49 points), KID TONGA 1 (A Righteous Kill, 40 points), Crusader0102 (Three Guys One Ball, 25 points) and Priest XYZ (Do the Sandusky Shuffle, 23 points).

Other notable stats: l0 Dolla Bagel pulled off the NGA's first Killing Frenzy-Dreamcrusher, and there were a total of 420 bomb plants (amounting to 700 explosion deaths). There were 15 teams, 58 players, 25 games played plus 3 tie-breaker games and a total of over 34 hours of playtime - leading to a total of almost 7,000 kills. Last but not least, A Winter Moose had the highest multikill - a single Killamanjaro.

All players have a shiny new award for participating in the ScoreFest, which can be found both on grifball.net and at HaloUnity. Finally, thanks again to our stellar cartographers, Master Sundown and Rage More Nerd for the great looking court and now-iconic mechanics of the ball falling out of the sky. This event couldn't have happened without you guys!

Our next event is scheduled to be NGA GrifPile on Thursday, August 2nd at 9pm Eastern (signups open a day earlier) - hope to see you there!

NGA ScoreFest Stats - Team Stats - Player Stats - Forum Discussion

Congratulations to the winners of last night's NGA Inaugural BOMB: Shuyamouf!

After an exhaustingly long battle involving five matches, lasting from 9:30pm to almost 3am Eastern, Shuyamouf (ShadowAlch3mi5t, Ezy08, DennymacpotV2, ActiveHate, Packfan010) took a victory over Inebriated Amigos (Master Sundown, GirlHoldMyWeave, MEGATRIXX, xxGOONZxx317xx) in a close 5-4 game.  For taking the championship, they will each receive a code for 800 Microsoft points - nice work guys!

Statistics will be posted at some point tomorrow.  For those players who have not yet registered here at grifball.net, now is the time to do it!  Only registered players will have their detailed stats recorded.

Thank you all for playing tonight, we hope you all had a good time.  This event was for the most part a success, and it wouldn't have happened without your help.  We hope to see you all around for our next tournament, and our first season, both coming up soon.  Check back here at grifball.net for details in a few days.