There are a couple of important news items over at MLGPro.com for folks who play in their tournaments. The first points out that having the MLG Online League actually start competition the night the auto-update comes out might cause some headaches… so they’ve pushed the leagues back a week for folks to get used to the changes. (Thanks, Clan Fire When Ready.) The second warns anyone heading to MLG Orlando next week to NOT allow the Auto Update onto their Xbox, since the update will NOT be supported at the tournament. (All SUBSEQUENT tourneys will use it – but this one is so close that it seemed unreasonable to expect folks to change their playstyle overnight.) For practicing between Monday and the 23rd, they suggest XBox Connect. Wow… makes me glad I’m not organizing this stuff!

Wow… this is a little weird, I think. ManKitten found an ad in American Funeral Director, a publication for the mortuary industry, promoting a product to help you remember your loved one for the important things in their life… and the example they put together involves Halo 2. Go check out the picture.

Team Tabula Rasa has a new ‘Making of a Spartan‘ column – this one is called ‘The Art of Controller Tossing’. (Well, it’s really about goals, and managing your anger in ways that don’t involve destruction of property… but the subtitle is funnier.) This is all about what the author did to move away from a plateau he’d reached in online play. Thanks to crazyc33 for pointing it out on our forum.

Team GAG created a documentary-type vid called ‘Sex, Drugs, and Halo Pros, Part 1’, an 8-minute condensed view of the team’s road trip from Chicago to Houston to participate in the MLG tournament that took place there in March. Three guys, a car, a video camera, and a pro Halo tourney… it’s a lot of fun to watch. Heads-up for those just looking for gameplay footage; part one covers getting to the tourney itself; there’s very little gameplay at all.) If you visit their website, you’ll find download links for hi-res (640×480, 73.3 mb) and low-res (320×240, 30.6 mb) WMP9 versions of this video. ConorOberst has mirrored the hi-res version – and to that we add our own mirrors (hi-res WMP9, mythica.org | bungie.org, low-res WMP9, bungie.org | mythica.org) and a QuickTime version, as well (hi-res, 59 mb, bungie.org | mythica.org, and low-res, 29 mb, mythica.org | bungie.org). This puppy’s pretty big; if you have bandwidth to spare, put up a copy, and send us a link; we’ll add it to this post! Update: Thanks to Feenix, who’s added all four versions to the collection at That Weasel Television. Update 2: trigger119 writes to say that the two hi-res versions can be found on HaloMachinima.com.

We have two different montages for you today; both are in QuickTime format, both are very high-quality, video-wise, and both are nicely timed by their creators. Both are available (for now) only via BitTorrent. The first is from pushbak, and is called ‘Defense‘. It’s 500×300, 4:08 long, and weighs in at 35.1 mb. The second is from FuzzySmurf, and is called ‘Savior‘. It’s 640×480, 5:07 long, and weighs in at 62.2 mb. That’s 100 MB of montage goodness. If you like montages, check these two out!

3Suns uncovered an article posted a few months ago at HaloMods – it’s a piece on ‘Game-environment creation’, and contains some of the thoughts that should go into level development; it’s a good read for anyone interested in the idea of building a playable level. If someone asks you “why is there a catwalk up there?” and you can’t answer them… maybe it doesn’t belong.

If you’re feeling withdrawal symptoms from One One Se7en because it’s the weekend (yeah, like it’s good enough to be ADDICTED to), you can swing by Stuntmutt’s blog; he’s posted a series of guest strips that have been building up. I’m sort of glad I don’t play online with the Helljumpers… And while we’re talking about comics – Mr Kippling posted Bye-stander 8, and Über-Chief 69 posted Resolute 9 (and redid his website). And Red Leader posted “This Island Earth” 6. Wonga!

Gravity has uploaded HALOader, his stats-tracking app, to 1.1.04b – new features include a full internal messaging system. More details (and a link) in the forum post.

He mentioned this via email a few days ago… but I forgot to follow up. Mintz08 has posted a link to a discounted four-pack of Halo 2 action figures (Series 2) for about 25% less than the four figures would cost individually. The site it’s on (BigBadToyStore) also takes Paypal, a plus. If you’re in the market, go look!

HymnToNinkasi pointed out a new movie by the Praetoria Guard yesterday – it’s a blooper reel for Video 2.5. You can find it on thier Downloads page (follow ‘Downloads from their main site). 20.4 mb, WMP9 format.

I’m not supposed to be here, but I’m trying to save my inbox from the assault it would receive if I left this until morning; Shishka has posted another way-cool 3d screenshot over at Bungie.net, this one of Containment. You wanna see what those new land mines can do? Check this out. (You’d think, given that today is agdTinman’s last day at Bungie, that Shishka would have let this flag capture go… but no. Guy’s a monster. Go tell him what you think of his heartlessness.)

Oops, almost missed this (because it morphed to its final form from a less news-worthy origin), but there’s also a Tourney roundup at Bungie.net – see what’s happening in your area!

Weekly What’s Update – it’s big. Real big. The REAL news? The Autoupdate – the fix that will handle cheats, bugs, the like – is coming on Monday. Yes, THIS Monday. What else is in it? Well… that’s what the WWU is all about. Go read.

Insert25.com posted ‘Twenty-Two Halo 2 Rules of Etiquette‘ – some are common sense, some are funny, some are… well, go read. Thanks, orion 12. (He likes rule 21.)

Stuntmutt continues the MD gag in today’s One One Se7en. Yeah, he’s a lightweight.

Another video has made it through our Movie Peer Review Rating System – this one comes from TWIXMIX and Stones174 (with a little help from Bob), and gives you some ideas about what to do, and not do, in Halo 2. Astoundingly small video for the length. It’s over 7 minutes long, and weighs in at 8.5 mb in WMP9 format, or 9.3 mb in QuickTime format.

Overswarm has put together Volume 1 of a video series he calls ‘Advanced Combat Techniques – you can find the video (about 11 mb, depending on flavor) in the Movies section of his Not So Common Sense guide. There are some fantastic tricks in here – you might have died at the hands of a better player because of some of them, and now you can exact your revenge! Go watch.

Dennis Powers points out that QuickTime versions of all episodes of the Halo CE Chronicles are now online, in large and small sizes. If you’ve been waiting for a non-Flash, non-WMP9 format of these files… wait no more.

Eep – meant to post this last night… forgot. 🙁 Sketch wrote up the Halo Humpday Challenge at Bungie.net this week – Frankie was locked out of not just the writeup, but the game itself. Ouch! There’s an interesting tidbit at the bottom of the writeup… looks like we might get to hear about new maps next week!

New content at Halo Babies today – the second half of the Spam comic series is up (hehe – made ME chuckle), and there’s some non-Halo-related material from Gruntsbane, showing off what he does when he’s NOT drawing the Babies. Go see!