A challenge thought nigh-impossible to beat finally has its victor. On July 14, 2022, YouTuber MoistCr1tiKal (penguinz0) announced a Halo 2 gaming challenge worth 20 thousand USD, known by Halo fans as the The Halo 2 LASO challenge. This fan-made challenge can be traced all the way back to Halo 2‘s original release in 2004, and ever since then it was considered almost impossible to beat.
On August 3, 2022, Twitch streamer Jervalin completed the challenge. He, like many other players when they heard the challenge’s announcement, practiced his heart out in hopes of getting that perfect run. It certainly wasn’t a walk in the park considering that the LASO challenge is considered by many to be one of the most difficult challenges in gaming history.
In order to complete the challenge players had to finish Halo 2 solo, on legendary difficulty, without any deaths, and with every skull enabled with the exception of Envy. For those unaware Skulls within Halo are modifiers that can either modify game-play experience or difficulty. So, enabling every Skull except Envy increases the game’s difficulty by a large margin.
Jervalin practiced for forty days to get it right. According to Cr1tiKal, his estimated hours spent on practice alone was between 350 and 400 hours. It seemed that his efforts paid off, because he completed the challenge on his first run on August 3rd, igniting celebration from viewers watching his stream and his supportive family. Cr1tiKal expressed his happiness not only for Jervalin’s win but for the positive impact this challenge had on his community towards the streamers that participated.
Around 2,000 streamers had actively participated in the challenge since day one and every single one of them gave it their all. Cr1tiKal noted that this challenge wasn’t solely concerned about the cash prize, though that is a large factor, it was about offering an opportunity for small streamers to shine. He noted that by the end of the challenge, almost everyone came out with higher subscribers and view counts than when they had started.
With how well received this challenge was, Cr1tiKal confirmed that he would want to host one again, “something equally as challenging and equally as entertaining.”