NFL stars Arian Foster, 6’-1” running back for the Houston Texans, and Maurice Jones-Drew, 5’-7” running back for the Jacksonville Jaguars took part in a virtual Grudge Match to celebrate the release of the First Strike map pack for the Call of Duty: Black Ops video game.
The two players are keen video game players and would lead teams of game industry writers and bloggers in head-to-head battles to both discover the new maps and earn bragging rights. We managed to sneak into this private event and take part in the action.
During the event we joined Maurice’s team and are happy to say we won all our games, finishing second in points behind the big man himself in both Team Deathmatch and Capture The Flag.
Both players were regularly at the top of the kill charts, rivaling some of Treyarch’s own programmers and developers in points scoring. Clearly, both Arian and Maurice spend downtime between NFL games improving their hand/eye coordination on the Xbox360 and Call of Duty.
Arian talked about how he likes to conduct his Black Ops games “on the ground using guerilla tactics.” He claimed to “have respect for snipers,” suggesting “you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do,” but clearly he’s all about the running game, both on the field and in the game.
Maurice also favored the running game and was a little more disparaging about snipers, feel the essence of the Black Ops was in the quick-draw head shots.
He also talked about playing with other, unnamed NFL players, but told us they weren’t as skilled. He also claimed to be the best player “west of China” during comments to the game’s makers.
Both players talked about how they’re not allowed to bring their Xbox on the road with them, but that they play on a daily basis at home, with football practice ending early, giving them plenty of time to pick up the video controllers.
The Grudge Match to place in Treyarch’s bunker in their Los Angeles offices. Outfitted with concrete walls and computer towers to resemble scenes from the Black Ops game, it creates the right atmosphere for some first person shooting.
You can read our review of the First Strike maps in another blog at www.eurotuner.com