Classical Studies met a classic video game at the weekend when a group of students held a tournament based on the popular Xbox 360 game.
The Otago University Classics Society attracted more than 50 gamers for the Halo 3 tournament at comic book store Pop Fiction in Dunedin.
Split into "legendary" and "casual" pools, the gamers battled each other on six screens through two long, intense days of knockout competition, pausing only when necessary for a swig of energy drink or a discussion on the finer points of the Corinthian order.
Organiser Charles Gibson said the Classics Society arranged the tournament to raise funds for its annual ball.
The Classics Society is not, as you might be forgiven for assuming, a collection of earnest corduroy-clad young men debating Pythagoreanism.
Gibson points out more than half the group are women.
The society, which has been revived after going into recession, gathers anyone who has an interest in the classics.
Gibson said members normally gathered for movie nights or coffee mornings but had also discovered a link to Halo 3, which has sold more than six million copies worldwide.
"We worked out about halfway through last year that the main character of Halo 3 is actually a Spartan, so we started having some casual Halo nights.
"We ended up having so many of them that we thought it would be good to run a tournament."
Gibson scouted around for a venue, sponsors and available television screens, sold registrations at $10 a pop and the event was scheduled.
He said he hoped to make the tournament an annual event.
The major winners were: Legendary, Oliver Forsyth 1, Amara Rosamunde 2, Chris Divers 3; casual, Jo McKay 1, Ryan Fuller 2, Tim Campbell 3.
Awards were also presented to David Starret (best medal legendary), Jeremy Price (best medal casual), Thalia Ferguson (most splatter), Jo McKay (most assassinations) and Tina Enghardt (least kills in round).
•Got a gaming event happening in Dunedin? Tell us about it. Email gaming writer Hayden Meikle (hayden.meikle@odt.co.nz) or call 479-3524.
