By F13ND

At MLG - Orlando, TsK took fourth place. This finish was a surprise to everyone in the competitive Halo 2 scene, including fans, fellow pros, and even to the foursome of TheMightyZion, TsK xXx, TsK Rid and Poison. They did the unthinkable.

“We were expecting top five,” Zion said over Xbox Live. “We were hoping for top four. We practiced enough for top four, not top three. We didn’t get enough practice in on those final gametypes.”

TsK stands for three shot kill, a Halo CE term referring to the number of perfect pistol shots it takes to kill. This is somewhat anachronistic in that it currently takes four battle rifle bursts to kill, but FSK is lame.

A TsK team has attended many MLG tournaments, dating back into 50k1. Orlando was the first MLG where Zion, xXx, and Rid teamed with Poison. However, the three typical teammates are self-described “fat kids,” who in all honestly look pretty normal, despite what they say.

The Long Island, New York-based squad had any number of “issues” heading into Orlando, which kept them from practicing together. At first, it even seemed doubtful that TsK could compete.

CaddE was TsK’s original fourth member. It was with CaddE that TsK had taken fifth in MLG DC. That finish seemed inevitable with Team 3D, Check Six, IGS, and Straight Rippin all but guaranteed to place one through four.

For a few weeks CaddE dropped off the radar. About five weeks before the tournament, TsK Boo forwarded them CaddE’s news: he was not going to Orlando. He was, in fact, quitting Halo 2. So, the team picked Poison.

Seventeen-year-old Poison is Sic Vic’s brother, X-Tournament’s director, and "father" to seven-year-old gaming prodigy Lil Poison. His skills are well known to the Halo community, and he turned out to be a great fit for TsK. They all agree that “Gabby is much better than CaddE.” This foursome practiced for a solid three weeks after the latest edition of TsK formed.

Two weeks before the tournament, however, TheMightyZion left for a school trip and was unable to practice with the team. Right as he returned, Chef Triple-X had to go to upstate New York to cater a Passover.

“We all felt really rusty before Orlando,” Rid noted. The team did not have their typical teamwork going on. Even though they seeded fifth in the FFA they were disgusted with their performances, according to Zion: “FFA had a lot of teamwork going on against us. It was melee-shoot-nade and kill each other.”

They performed to their previous expectations and wound up winning all their games in the Winners Bracket. They were about to play Check Six, and felt like it was just about time to go home, until a strange promise arose from xXx.

“With the Check Six thing I was like, ‘Guys I’ll buy you Red Lobster,’” xXx said. “I figured there was no chance we’d beat them. Like, ‘I’ll buy you guys new cars if you beat them.' Truthfully, for new cars they wouldn’t even have cared. But Red Lobster, it made their hearts melt.”

Zion remembered feeling similarly, thinking, “Let’s just get this over with, guys; let’s eat.”

TSK Rid added, “The only reason we won is because xXx promised to buy us Red Lobster, all the fat kids. And Poison was like, ‘Whatever.’”

TsK played horribly against Check Six on Xbox Live. They blamed Zyos’ “dial-up connection, which he insists we play on.” They never play well online, though, and this was the real thing. Plus, Red Lobster was on the line.

They lost their first game, Lockout King of the Hill. On Team Slayer Colossus, or “Sniper’s Colossus” as they call it, TsK’s teamwork paved the way to an easy victory.
The series was tied one to one.

In Beaver Creek Capture The Flag Classic, they were winning two to zero, with the flag in their base, when Killer N’s box shut off. TupaC flipped out, and was screaming that the game should be restarted. Because the game was pretty much decided, MLG allowed the game to continue, despite Killer N’s malfunctioning box.

Check Six stormed back, winning Midship Oddball. TheMightyZion conceded, “That was the only game they were really good at. We pretty much gave it to them.” The series was tied at two.

After they won, they screamed. “My personal reaction was, ‘Red Lobster,’” Zion recalled. “We were as happy as can be. I couldn’t stop smiling. Now, we are notorious for trash talk. We talked trash the whole time. But after we won we tried to say good game.”

“Zyos, TupaC, and Sergio all walked out of the place, they didn’t even shake our hands,” he recalls. “Killer N showed sportsmanship; he said, ‘You guys played a good game.’”

This is quite a different Killer N than from their Xbox Live experience: “We played with Killer N online. He screamed something like, ‘Screw you, TsK noobs.’ So I took him off my Friends List. At the tournament, he was the coolest kid there.”

After their fantastic victory over Check Six, they were deflated by Straight Rippin’s play. “We were competing with Str8 Rippin online and thought they’d be a pushover, a joke,” says Triple-X. “But they were on fire. I really underestimated them.”

“They played incredibly well,” Rid agrees. “All we heard was flag-taken, flag-taken, flag scored. Flag-taken, flag-taken, flag scored. It was Midship CTF. We went over it once or twice, but we didn’t worry about it, because we wanted to get top 4 and that’s what we did.”

Now that they have placed fourth and beaten Check Six, they can look for sponsorship. It cost them around 1,800 dollars to compete in MLG Orlando. They essentially had to use earnings from an X-Tournament’s victory to pay to compete.

“I’ve been trying to get a sponsor since DC,” Zion notes. “Nothing really materialized since beating Check Six. But, Sundance from MLG is going to help us out.”

TsK will be attending MLG Philly because of its proximity to New York, and some are planning on MLG Las Vegas, “because it’s Vegas.” For now, they will have to wait for their sponsorship to come through, and take pride in the fact that they “broke up Check Six.” These “trash-talking fat kids,” and Poison, are looking for a third place finish next time. However, one thing is certain; no one will underestimate them again.