High school Halo 2 tournament quashed by school officials

Hey, that's only like a half hour from where I live.

I coulda gone.

He deserves to lose his money. Halo 2 blows.

oooohhh nooooos! Protect the poor innocents.

My high school put on a Halo 2 tournament a little over a year ago, with prizes and local EB sponsorship. The top prize was a couple hundred dollar gift certificate to EB and a variety of other prizes. About 150 students attended, including myself, and it was an excellent tournament, there was a small presence by the local coppers, but this was a school funded tournament, sponsored by the TSA (Technology Student Association). So I don't know what's different about this situation and mine, but it worked out well for us!

From 10th to 12th grade, I organized and ran as head moderator FIVE tournaments. The first two had 5 games, one of which was Halo 1. The third had Halo 2 (and four other games), and the last two had Halo 2 and six other games.

During the first two tournaments, there were no concerns about M-rated games. Before the third tournament, the school got nervous due to one administrator seeing some reactionary report on TV, and submitted an investigation to the guy who approved events.

The solution that I came up with?

Parental consent forms for those 16 years and younger, and IDs for proof of age (or consent forms) for those 17 years or older.

We simply promised to check attendees' ages and showed them a few forms, in which we detailed the rating systems and what content ratings the ESRB had given Halo 2 (and Mortal Kombat). Simple.

The attendees were fine with the solution, and if people forgot, we were lax enough to just let them in. We barely checked their age anyways. The school was happy, and we were happy. Over five tournaments, we made first $300, then $400, then $500, then $700, then $750 in fundraising money.

I ask this school: why would parental consent forms not have worked? From the sound of it, police were just trying to intimidate the school.

I teach at a middle school where I was floored to learn that they were holding a Halo 2 tournament. While I'm not opposed to the idea, I am shocked that school officials would entirely overlook the Mature rating, especially when confronted with a student body of 11-13 year olds.

http://blog.myspace.com/nohithair

They won't let people play a game depicting violence, however unrealistic it may be, but they are perfectly fine with letting kids tackle each other on the football fields or participate in real violence such as wrestling; you know the sports that involve taking out aggression on people for real.

25. Oh, the tournament's off. I guess we'll have to buy some booze and go smoke drugs and have unprotected sex tonight instead.
Posted at 11:46AM on Apr 2nd 2007 by Jake


This needs to be reiterated again. If kids are prevented from having "legitimate" outlets for their frustrations/hormones/emotions they will find the easiest way to do so. And now not only do they have nothing to do but you have 300 kids that hate the police force even more.

*heres hoping for an update where the school system reconsiders and the cops bring pizza for 300...

thats fucked they better not do that at our schools tournament

I really dont understand why they cancelled this event. The CALL OF DUTY series has just is much or more blood (moded server) as Halo 2 and it is rated T. I think halo2 should also be a T game as-well, therefore this tournament should not have been cancelled!!