9:13:2010, Midnight, time for one of the biggest shooters of the year to be released, Halo: Reach.

I was invited to the launch party at Best Buy in Burlington, NC by the GM of the store Gerald Wilkie. As some of you already know, I was once an employee of Best buy and Gerald is my former manager. Shortly after coming to NC I applied at Best Buy, Gerald interviewed me and I got the job. Having this job really helped me connect to the gaming community and see it through the retailer’s eyes.

The night started, first, with an hour plus drive from Raleigh, NC to Burlington, NC at around 9:30 PM. So, I arrived at Best Buy at around 10:45 and walk in to the sounds of explosions, gunshots and laughter, the story of my life J. The store is setup with 3 Xboxes, one on a 3D TV and the other 2 setup back to back for the tournament. With the surround sound blaring and everyone intense into their games, the atmosphere was perfect for a launch! After coming in, I briefly spoke with a few of my previous coworkers and soaked it all in.

At this Best Buy, as with hundreds of different stores and locations across the nation, they had a tournament setup and the winner got a free copy of Halo: Reach. Of course, I am not and never have been a Halo expert, but I had to enter the tournament. The tournament was bracketed in a 4 man Free for all style with the winners of each round advancing.

With “Lowered Expectations” I was first up and greatly expected to get completely humiliated. I am not sure what happened in this tournament but I seemed to find myself in the Finals at the end of the night. With all the luck apparently on my side, I was having a blast but that luck was short lived. In the finals I didn’t win but was very ok with the results.  xi nubs ix won the tournament , a real Halo fan and a little different than the rest of us. xi nubs ix only has one hand. Learning to use his abilities he has mastered the dual analog and was just as natural and fluid as everyone else, actually better.

Congratulations xi nubs ix! Thank you for the invitation Gerald, I had a blast! P.S. there are no pictures of Gerald because he left early, who does that?!