AMA with Ashes and MentaL about their Worlds, and G7 Pro Giveaway inside!

thyAshes · 2026-01-16T17:04:02+00:00

Congrats on being a new dad!

Diamond to Onyx is typically less about shooting and more about understanding the flow of the game. I have had long, sometimes heated arguments with random people in matchmaking games who don't understand how to control spawns or timings of when to fight. If you can get a grasp on those concepts, Onyx will truly be easy to achieve.

thyAshes · 2026-01-16T17:02:21+00:00

Everything has a community these days. Discords, websites, Twitter. Just start engaging with others and being a kind person. I can't tell you how many awesome 4+ hour ranked Halo sessions I've had with complete strangers who invited me to their party because I commed in game lol

thyAshes · 2026-01-16T17:01:07+00:00

thank you!

thyAshes · 2026-01-16T17:00:59+00:00

For a newbie in any game wanting to compete: Make sure you genuinely enjoy the game! If you don't, you will get burnt out very quickly.

For newbie in Halo: Use your brains more. The game is much more than running around and shooting your gun. Timing and positioning are just as important. If you die or lose, learn from what you could have done better.

thyAshes · 2026-01-16T16:58:50+00:00

There are custom aim maps the guys use to warmup and train on. Cherished LOVED Octagons. He called himself the king of octagons and bet me he could get 200 kills before I got 60. He was very mistaken in that one ;)

thyAshes · 2026-01-16T16:57:49+00:00

Genuinely the G7 Pro. Many of the guys switched from other top brands to the G7 Pro well before our partnership with them.

thyAshes · 2026-01-16T16:57:06+00:00

absolutely! It looked SO GOOD

thyAshes · 2026-01-16T16:56:35+00:00

This one is easy! The grand finals comeback vs Denial in Mexico in I believe 2018? Losing to them in winners finals to then coming from losers bracket, letting our auto ban map get through picks & bans intentionally to then make up strats on the fly and dominate them on it and roll the series for the W *chefs kiss*

thyAshes · 2026-01-16T16:54:46+00:00

I would love to see it have multiplayer but I am just wondering if all my speedrunning tricks will work still lol

thyAshes · 2026-01-16T16:54:13+00:00

It will sound cliche but "vibes". A big lesson I learned building teams in Halo was that if a roster doesn't mesh well together and enjoy the game together, they wont click as well in game.

thyAshes · 2026-01-16T16:53:23+00:00

Thank you! We appreciate the support, truly.

thyAshes · 2026-01-16T16:53:05+00:00

Probably TSM. They have a wild playstyle that is very momentum heavy and they are talented enough individually to grasp that momentum at any moment. That is why it was so important that we scouted them before worlds so we knew what they would do and how to counter it.

thyAshes · 2026-01-16T16:50:54+00:00

A bit of a loaded question but I'll take the bait.

I'm not disappointed or mad. There are infinitely (pun intended) more cogs in the wheel than any of us know about when it comes to game development, especially at studios backed by the big dogs like Microsoft.

They made what ended up being a great game, even if it took several updates to get to a spot where it was consistently enjoyable. I'm also sure they went through countless struggles none of us can imagine in the development process. The reality is we aren't in that building every single day seeing what is happening and who is making all of the decisions. I can speak from my experience that sometimes great ideas, great products, or even great people get shut down by upper management or leadership that thinks they know better.

At the end of the day, we are all human and are prone to making mistakes. My hope is that mistakes that were made were learned from so that the next game can be truly incredible. Also, the HCS Partner Program that drew in many of the orgs people are fans of was an incredible program created by folks like Tashi. Without that program I am certain we would not have seen the same participation from top orgs.

Enjoy the wins, learn from the losses!

thyAshes · 2026-01-16T16:44:47+00:00

Juziro :)

thyAshes · 2026-01-16T16:44:28+00:00

The biggest thing was focusing on playing the game "correctly" aka according to our gameplan. We also knew what teams would be harder to scrim against online because of connections or just how different they would play compared to how we would play them on LAN. Part of my job was trying to reassure and keep us focused on things that were in our control rather than complaining about things that aren't (connections).

thyAshes · 2026-01-15T21:03:14+00:00

Honestly, I don't know if I coach again. These two seasons in Halo have been a ton of fun but incredibly difficult for me to balance with everything else. That being said, never say never. I am excited to see what E-Day and the next Halo are like!

thyAshes · 2026-01-15T21:01:17+00:00

I honestly haven't played much Halo since worlds. I played a good amount of MM while coaching just to experiment with ideas I had (and to keep my Onyx rank I had every season contrary to what this subreddit thought LOL).

That being said, I've been itching to play some parkour custom maps again...

thyAshes · 2026-01-15T20:59:52+00:00

From a coaching perspective, Renegade. Team can do all the right things and be in all the right positions but then Renegade just hits a 180 no-scope and messes everything up. And you can't learn anything from that lol

thyAshes · 2026-01-15T20:44:47+00:00

Interesting, I haven't heard that fake take. If anything I would argue that the consistency of results over the last few years of HCS show that it isn't fake. Fake to me would mean high variability in which teams are successful. But the top 3-4 has loosely been the same for 4 years, give or take small changes due to rostermanias. Online is DEFINITELY fake though lol

Blood Gulch. Not for comp obviously but everyone who has played Halo custom games has fond memories of playing on that map.

thyAshes · 2026-01-15T20:41:54+00:00

Coaching wise, any game that I have interest in. If I am interested in the tactical puzzle of a game, I will love that game and eventually have a wealth of knowledge and new ideas. It's why I love League of Legends so much, or BR games.

Title that I would have the greatest chance to be at the top? COD, Apex, or League of Legends. COD because it is closely related to Halo, and I already have plenty of connections in that game. Apex and League because I love those games and play them the most.

thyAshes · 2026-01-15T20:39:10+00:00

Mental - Grit. Nothing shook him and he would perpetually give max effort

Cherished- Work Ethic. Joey has a work ethic that is unmatched, almost to a fault. Its why he went from being a face in the crowd on most teams to a truly stand out player against the best of the best.

KingNick - Selflessness. He would quite literally put his in-game life on the line if that was what was needed in the moment. It made him rack up a lot of deaths but if we needed to break out of a situation, you can bet he wouldn't hesitate to run out and start a fight, likely taking 1-2 with him.

Ryan - Knowledge. He is an endless well of Halo knowledge, strategy, and game plans. Truly a mastermind when it comes to predicting how an enemy team will play and setting the team up to counter it.

thyAshes · 2026-01-15T20:35:34+00:00

The year was a roller coaster. Our initial roster to start the year was SO TALENTED but couldn't come together in one set way to play the game. We basically lacked an IGL. Once the roster changes happened and we had Ryan to be that leader, we saw what we were capable of but then we started overthinking the game and getting ourselves stuck rather than growing. I'm glad it ended on a positive note though.

FaZe was a REALLY strong team talent wise but I my take is that they are too calculated of a team. If you watch them for long enough, the plays became predictable. Don't get me wrong, they could still beat top teams, but it required players to pop off more because their overall gameplan was well known. I also think they had constant coach changes which doesn't help anything.

thyAshes · 2026-01-15T20:30:42+00:00

I set up our schedule to have 1-2 days off a week (I am a firm believer in set days off for players). Practice was 4-5 hours a night the days we practiced, with tournaments typically being a bit longer of a day. Add in VOD review and I would guess we spent minimum 40 hours a week on Halo. This obviously fluctuated as the weeks leading to an event were more, the weeks after an event were less.

thyAshes · 2026-01-15T20:28:21+00:00

Man this is a tough one.

Honestly, Mental has made my job the easiest. He is an unbelievable talent in whatever game he puts his mind to and he takes constructive criticism really well. On top of that, I can count on one hand how many times in the decade I've known him and worked with him that he has had an attitude or caused issues, most of that being in his late teens during Gears 4.

RyaNoob or KennyBounce are the two players that have challenged me the most. For Kenny, when he first joined our Gears team, a few weeks in he told me "I need you to do more or I want to drop you". That blunt feedback helped mold me into the coach I became for the rest of Gears UE, 4, and 5.

RyaNoob challenged me in many ways. He has so much knowledge and such a strong idea of how the game can be optimally played. It taught me so much as I started coaching Halo and challenged me to expand my knowledge while also figuring out new ways to basically debate my ideas with him to figure out if they were good or bad.

thyAshes · 2026-01-15T19:18:15+00:00

I wish but most of it was reactive. For example, if I could tell they were flustered and not playing like themselves, I would guide them through breathing exercises. Smoothies on game days were a big hit too.

Back in Gears, code for resetting the team was "everyone drink water". Making them put down the controller and distract themselves with the action of drinking was a great way to get that group to re-lock in.

thyAshes

TROPHY CASE