The Final Countdown…

Cue your cheesy 80’s fight music. 

So after I had taken some time to internalize exactly how close I came to being in the final 2 of the Omegathon, I traveled back to the Main Theatre to watch Ben and Ryan duke it out for Omega-glory. 

All the ‘nauts and their +1’s were allowed into a special VIP section right up in the front left nook of the stage.  The curtains were closed, and Travis our Chief Omegatech was literally holding them closed. 

After a moment, all went dark, and then the Final Countdown  played–it’s the traditional theme song for the last round of the ‘Thon.  Gabe and Tycho came up and did their usual spiel, and introduced a still shot look back at the Omegathon, which was very cool (hope it’s on the DVD!)

From there, the lights went out and Epic-ness ensued:

I mean seriously. All to introduce Halo 3 as the final game. Ben and Ryan came out and grabbed some bean bag chairs in front of LCD’s and got to it. I knew that Ben had finished 8th in Quake, and Ryan had finished above my sixth place in the same game, so that told me that Ryan had the advantage in first person shooters. But PC FPS’s are another animal compared to Halo. I was also rooting for Ben because he had done a great job at Puzzle Quest and had eliminated me after it going to three games.

Although neither of them were Halo experts, they put on a great show–it was supremely entertaining. The vibe at PAX is so electric–there were shouts and screams every time someone picked up a weapon! I was so close to Ben that I could see his T.V. and his perspective, but not Ryan’s, so that made the suspense that much more interesting. Here’s some footage:

Highlights of the 1st match:

Highlights of Round 2–both this one and the above one are from Ryan’s perspective:

And if you want to cut to a real low quality shot of my favorite moment, look no further than the following:

classic.

These vids can’t even do it justice, because you can’t hear the insane reactions of the crowd too well. It was amazing, and though it was a close match, Ryan pulled it out and won a trip to TGS and $5000. Grats man, you deserved it. Ben, we’ll see you again next year.