It’s not Slayer, doofus! Even at the top level of Halo play, you will see games where a team wins an Oddball game even though they were out-slayed. Learning to control the objective is one of the most difficult aspects to master in Halo. While it is ultimately an art, requiring a sense of when to hold the objective and when to step back and kill the opponent, there are many things that will help you learn to know what to do in most situations:

* How many players are down? Did you kill three or four members of the opposing team and yet you’re not amassing any objective time or grabbing the flag? In general, if you’re consistently knocking down three or four players, you should be in a position to grab the ball right away.

* Does chasing that last guy do any good? Sometimes it’s best to let someone run away. If you knock down a few enemies and the other two are damaged and/or out of sight, step into the hill or grab that ball! You’d be amazed at some of the oddball runs you can have just by grabbing the ball and heading for the hills.

* Experiment. If you find yourself dying over and over again, try just slaying for an entire game to practice. Likewise, if you find yourself going +25 but losing the game, see what you can do by going for the hill or grabbing the ball more often. As you play more objective games you will begin to get a feel for what needs to be done.

Remember that you’re playing to win the game, not kill the most enemies. Veteran teams even suffer from the killing dilemma. It’s hard to end your own killing frenzy in order to get those extra objective points. But remember, Halo is a game of seconds!