A light crackle fills the air, raising the hair on their necks. Fire and fury pumps in their blood. Twenty-eight communities will charge into battle. Only one will reign supreme.

On the other side of the river, a large commotion rings in the air. Smoke, pops and laughter rise from the jubilant crowd, cheering on their favorite teams and enjoying the company of others.

Tonight, from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. EST, the Halo Community Tournament will bring together groups from all corners of the Internet for one night of cavorting and celebration. For almost 10 years, these stat-trackers, news-rakers and mapmakers have built this community into what it is. We’re expecting more than 430 people to participate in all.

If for some reason you can’t join in the fun, Tashi0106 will be livestreaming NeoGAF’s run in the tournament. The stream can be found here.

I’d like to give a special thanks to Daniel Duncan (ncsuDuncan), without whom none of this would be possible, and a very special thanks to David Ellis and Jessica Shea (bsangel). I think the Halo franchise is in good hands.

Good luck everyone, but more importantly, have fun! (Hitmonchan 21:50:08 UTC)

Back from Wu’s epic LAN party, munky-058 made a behind-the-scenes documentary on what might be the last ever Halo LAN from the big man. It’s a 200 MB download, clocking in at nearly 15 minutes, but it’s certainly worth the watch! Update: Quicktime version here. (Hitmonchan 21:46:10 UTC)

The writeups from the All’s Well LAN last weekend have begun to roll in – I guess it took folks the week to recover. I already mentioned nof’s paean in the post mentioning the photo galleries – but you absolutely MUST watch Mig’s dramatic reading of it. It’s amazing. Also, hellmitre dropped in with a heartfelt reminiscence – definitely worth a read (Update: or a watch). If you’re moved to respond with eloquence, please don’t forget The Age of Gratitude, GrimBrother One’s collection of Halo memories! (Louis Wu 01:42:13 UTC)

FyreWulff continues to document the Super Jackpot Weekends – this week, it’s Team Classic. If you hang out in the playlist on Friday, Saturday and/or Sunday, you’ve got a chance at a 15k jackpot each day. Not too shabby! If you missed any so far, He’s got the entire set archived at his site. (Louis Wu 01:39:26 UTC)

RVideo sent us a link to BAKSMAK and Dater’s SWAT dualtage – five and a half minutes of headshot madness. It’s not surprising that the targeting control is seriously precise – after all, getting Killtastrophes is unusual, even in SWAT – but what struck me was how quickly these players could home in on the biggest threat after spinning around. It is this skill, I think, that allows these multikills to flow with such ease, more than anything else. After all, if you can eliminate the menace attacking you, you stay alive longer. A pretty fun watch.(Louis Wu 01:36:06 UTC)

Spawn.com has information about upcoming series of Halo Action Figures – this fall will bring three new groups. Go read about ’em!(Louis Wu 01:35:05 UTC)

urk’s back in town, which means the Bungie Weekly Update is back in business. Ridiculing of Firefight idlers, displays of vehicle awesomeness, and complaints about man musk abound. Go read. (It’s in our Weekly Update Archive, as well.)(Louis Wu 00:14:48 UTC)

We will show thee things which must be hereafter.

Rockslider likes to blow things up. Big things, little things, doesn’t matter. They just need to go boom. Latest article on Bad Cyborg is a how-to on lighting Grunts up spectacularly. Go read!(Louis Wu 19:51:44 UTC)

Co-Optimus’ DjinniMan writes about Halo as a kid-friendly game, for the latest Co-Op Casual Friday column. Interesting piece! (For the record, my sons began playing Halo at ages 5 and 6, back in 2001.)(Louis Wu 19:22:19 UTC)

Fails of the Weak Volume 36 is live now (thanks, ZZoMBiE13) – I laughed. More than once.(Louis Wu 18:48:49 UTC)

Like a mythical creature, the sighting of Marty O’Donnell is a rare treat to behold. With the help of the ESA and E3, Video Games Live has managed to capture the wild beast for your meeting and greeting pleasure. If you’re going to L.A. for E3, or if you live in the area, the action takes place June 8. Tickets to the show start at $25 apiece. (Hitmonchan 18:12:45 UTC)

Last weekend, a rather large LAN event was held at HBO HQ – 33 people participated. Some of them were Bungie employees. There haven’t been any text writeups yet (I’m still planning on doing one), but a huge number of photographs were taken over the weekend, and we’ve put up a gallery page for some of these. Swing by and check out the festivities! Update: nof steps up to the plate and serves up the first actual writeup. Nice one, nof. (The Subaru story is a lie. I would never drive and watch a video above, say, 60mph.)(Louis Wu 17:52:47 UTC)

It’s not in Stephen Loftus’ Signs of Halo collection, but this message, painted on the interior wall of a C130 Hercules and photographed by MasterPIE (closeup here), may look familiar to some players…(Louis Wu 17:44:42 UTC)

Just a couple of new pieces this week in the Fan Fiction section – go see!(Louis Wu 15:08:40 UTC)

Halo Reach Fails, Wins, and WTF Moments Episode 20 has been posted (thanks to NeoGAF’s Pnut for pointing it out) – it’s the season finale, so all of these clips have appeared elsewhere… but I’ve only caught a couple of episodes, so most were new to me. Definitely some funny stuff in there!(Louis Wu 14:42:48 UTC)

GhaleonEB delved deep into the Challenges system – go read the article at Forward Unto Dawn for information on how this system works!(Louis Wu 14:03:48 UTC)

Juliet never saw Romeo like this…

CruelLEGACEY let us know that he’s decided to put together a 4-part machinima mini-series – he’s even launched a new domain for it. There’s a trailer up at PlaytimeShow.com. Go see!(Louis Wu 21:32:18 UTC)