News Site Update: [Insert Exciting Title Here]

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Greetings, friends. It's been quite some time since our last big site update which went live shortly after the release of everyone's favorite game; Halo: The Munster Cheese Collection. A few of us weren't terribly thrilled with the game's launch. Some of us even argued that bundling four games we had already paid for together and breaking all of them in the process wasn't worth another 60 wing-wangs from our limited stash of hard-earned moolah.

I'm not here to complain about the game's faults, though. This community proved its resilience during Halo 4's disappointing lifespan, and we'll prove it again. What we need now are some fun events that play to the Collection's strengths to tide us over until Halo 5's release when the game finally works as intended. So, we whipped something up in the HaloCustoms kitchen for you to enjoy.

Staff & Community vs Random Matchmaking Scrubs
Customs aren't stable enough just yet to begin hosting staff vs community events, but we have come up with an elegantly-named event to fill that void. As the name suggests (yes, you may suggest better names below), these events will involve groups of HaloCustoms staff and community members partying up and venturing into matchmaking together to prove to the world that we probably all suck at Halo. More concrete details will be released soon, but you can find a brief synopsis of how the events will function below.

On a given weekend, the staff will organize a few lobbies to go into matchmaking. We'll make sure to account for as wide a variety of time zones as possible. So, SOLIDSNAKEee and adderrson might host the Bad Kids of Europe lobby in what us Americans think is the middle of the afternoon and Flying Shoe ILR and myself might host the Team America lobby a few hours later. The goal is to create parties pairing a few staff members with a bunch of you blue folk to play some fun games of matchmaking and actually enjoy playing Halo together. The Big Team Battle playlist will likely be the focus of these lobbies as it allows us to get as many people into the events as possible. If we have multiple parties going into matchmaking simultaneously, there's a good chance we'll be playing against one another too! To make the events a bit more exciting, my esteemed colleague lemon Adderrs and I will be recording these lobbies and editing them into exciting recap videos similar to what we did for THFE Throwback Weekends in Halo 4.

We aren't quite ready to announce the dates of the first event just yet, as we're actually waiting on some equipment which is necessary to record these lobbies. We'll keep you posted on when the first event will be as it draws a bit nearer. We hope you guys are as excited about this as we are!

Apples and Oranges
When I was in the HaloCustoms kitchen whipping up the event detailed above, I noticed strange noises emanating from the legendary fruit transformation machine. Upon taking a closer look, I noticed that Auburn's thick orange peel had been replaced with a shiny red skin. He'll be taking a more active role in the leadership of the staff team in the future and will also be able to aid in some of the technical endeavors undertaken by the admin team. The machine wasn't finished, though. After spitting out a new apple, it also grabbed a hold of an older one (it was getting kind of mushy anyway) and returned it to its prior orange state. Master Debaytes has rejoined his orange brethren until further notice. An artist's interpretation can be found below.

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These staff changes shouldn't be too noticeable, but we hope that they help us keep the site as active and fun a place to be as possible. We look forward to getting some fun events as well as the usual map spotlights out to you guys as time goes on. In the meantime, don't let Debbie's color change distract you from the fact that today is his birthday!

The Button that Everyone Likes
Yesterday, we finally fixed the like button. This unfortunately comes at the cost of the host ratings system in the short run, but we think the change was necessary given that the rating system is not yet functioning the way we intend. It turns out that getting that system operational proved less plausible and worthwhile than originally expected given the state of custom games in the Master Chief Collection. We'll be sure to get that all sorted for the next big Halo launch. Until then, don't forget to fucking destroy that like button!

#FixMccCustoms
I'm not sure why all of the kids are calling the pound sign a "hashtag" these days, but I do know that this one is pretty darned important. Given the continued lack of custom game support in the Master Chief Collection, J decided to take matters into his own hands and make a statement in the hopes that our plight becomes better understood by the devs. With help from a few others from around the community, Shore compiled an exhaustive list of bugs plaguing custom games in MCC. The first step to creating a solution is being aware of the problem, after all. Be sure to check out this thread or just watch his video below. Sharing this video on a large scale will go a long way towards restoring this site's namesake to its former glory.

1v1 Me, Bro!
Though Halo's new developers would have you believe that 3v4 matches are the ideal Halo experience, you shouldn't ignore other player counts. Over the past few months, the forge community has created some incredible 1v1 maps for ForgeHub's Smackdown contest. Out of over 80 submissions, three amazing maps came out on top. Two of these maps were even created by HaloCustoms staff members! Are staffz corrupt or what?

The videos for the top three maps can be seen below, but don't let them trick you into thinking that these were the only submissions worthy of recognition. There were tons of fantastic maps submitted, and I can't wait to give more of them the attention they deserve soon.

Third place: Sycamore by auburnburn

Second place: Fair and Square by Cpt x Craphead


First place: Welkin by Flushed Behemoth

That'll about wrap it up for now. Stay tuned for more details on the matchmaking events in the near future. Until then, we'd like to know what you think of said events as well as your thoughts on the 1v1 contest winners. Share your thoughts below!
 
I for one welcome the return of our 'like' button overlords. As for Debbie joining the orange race with that fruity little shit with that smug look on his face... it does not help the fact that I want to punch it. Anyway, congratulations to all the winners of the 1v1 contest!
You may make your donation to the "Jesus is poor fund" @ www.PlsHelpJesusGetMoarMoneyForDrugs.notlegit

Thanks for the share of #FixMccCustoms and a big thanks to Master Debaytes for putting together the video for THFE and I hope everybody can take part in some way to get our community back to the great place it used to be. Maybe once customs are fixed, us lowly community members can go back to attempting to kick your staff-y asses? And maybe we'll win this time?

As for the community event name, how about "HaloCustoms vs. the World" eh?
 
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Who gives a shit about anything now, the 'Like' button is back baby! Oww and I will remember to fucking destroy the like button (pants) :)
 
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I liked this because we can do that now. Again. Hurrah! Also don't worry gents, I'll kindly see our time to utter failure. It will be glorious!
 
HaloCustoms groups going into MM on a large scale sounds like fun, and I'll try My best to join when that time is here. I hope we don't end up playing "classic" slayer in BTB though. 16 players, no radar or time limit on a map big enough for 32 people? That's two hours I'll never get back. :laugh:
 
HaloCustoms groups going into MM on a large scale sounds like fun, and I'll try My best to join when that time is here. I hope we don't end up playing "classic" slayer in BTB though. 16 players, no radar or time limit on a map big enough for 32 people? That's two hours I'll never get back. :laugh:
Unfortunately, BTB is set to a maximum of 14 players at this time as 343 still cannot properly optimize the matchmaking experience.
 
Unfortunately, BTB is set to a maximum of 14 players at this time as 343 still cannot properly optimize the matchmaking experience.
Two more reasons My statement on the use of oversized maps in MM is valid. Thank you for the correction though, I had thought it was 16.
 
Two more reasons My statement on the use of oversized maps in MM is valid. Thank you for the correction though, I had thought it was 16.
Well with enough of us together chatting in the party, we'll more than likely have a big influence on what maps get chosen in voting. :y:
 
I'm glad to see some excitement about these matchmaking events and about the like button's return! HaloCustoms vs The World is an excellent name for these events, we will absolutely use that! As far as the events go, we'll have parties of seven so voting power will be in our hands, we should have no trouble playing what we all want unless every option in a given voting round turns out to be crap. We'll keep you posted on the status of these events. In the mean time, keep the feedback rolling!

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*sigh* There seems to be no end to the efforts of this site to make the entire world aware of how much I suck at Halo. Curse you HaloCustoms, Curse you

Word up.
srsly though this sounds like super happy fun times. :insane:
 
I'm glad to see some excitement about these matchmaking events and about the like button's return! HaloCustoms vs The World is an excellent name for these events, we will absolutely use that! As far as the events go, we'll have parties of seven so voting power will be in our hands, we should have no trouble playing what we all want unless every option in a given voting round turns out to be crap. We'll keep you posted on the status of these events. In the mean time, keep the feedback rolling!

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The whole voting power thing is only helpful if every member of the party wants to vote for the same option.

What if you guys don't agree with me that we should avoid all but H4?