Getting Fragged, Losing Big at the Lost Planet 2 Celebrity Bash

HOLLYWOOD — Capcom threw a pre-release shindig for Lost Planet 2 at the Roosevelt in Hollywood on Thursday. Celebrities, fans and the press turned out to play Skee-Ball, drink and mingle. Lost Planet 2 is an action-packed third-person shooter that Capcom will release tomorrow on Xbox 360, PC and PlayStation 3. I was invited to […]
My teammate actor Scott Porter.
Actor Scott Porter was one of my teammates in the Lost Planet charity tournament.
Photos: Kevin Parry/WireImage.com

oliviamunn

HOLLYWOOD – Capcom threw a pre-release shindig for Lost Planet 2 at the Roosevelt in Hollywood on Thursday. Celebrities, fans and the press turned out to play Skee-Ball, drink and mingle.

Lost Planet 2 is an action-packed third-person shooter that Capcom will release tomorrow on Xbox 360, PC and PlayStation 3. I was invited to participate in the Kill Big For Charity Tournament, a contest hosted by Attack of the Show! hostess Oliva Munn (pictured top) that pitted celebrities, the press and community members against each other in the game's multiplayer battle mode.

The winning team earned the right to choose which Music For Relief cause would get a $25,000 donation from Capcom.

I found myself on a team with two television actors, Scott Porter from Friday Night Lights and Robbie Amell of the Nickelodeon series True Jackson, VP. Our four-person team was rounded out by Abbie Heppe from G4TV, one of the most skilled shooter players I know.

Because I frequently play co-op games like Left 4 Dead with Abbie, I went into the contest overconfident. I'd practiced playing the Lost Planet multiplayer demo, but that free download only took place on one map.

The Lost Planet 2 tournament went down on a handful of new maps I'd never seen – an offshore complex, a snowy pirate fortress, a massive space station, and a dark, seaside cove crammed full of overpowered, mechanized "Vital Suits."

I could make excuses. Just before the contest, Olivia Munn commented twice that she liked my hair, pausing once to gingerly touch the back of my noggin. That moment alone would be enough to throw any man's game. But the fact is that I went into the tourney under-prepared and outclassed.

Rather than wander around the Roosevelt lobby drinking beer and scanning for celebrities (the only one I recognized was Rich Sommer from Mad Men), I should have been practicing, learning the new maps and getting the hang of Vital Suit battle.

Our team won the first round by a single kill in a deathmatch that could have gone either way.

But the final round, we were outclassed by the superior firepower of Joystiq reporter Kevin Kelly, Robert Hoffman of Step Up 2: The Streets, and fans Charles Kukman and Will Stanley.

We took the first of three final matches – a capture-the-flag bout that called for stealing and running eggs to our home base. Our celebrity talent handled the scoring while Abbie and I harried the enemy with gunfire. We won by a single point.

Then things started to go downhill. Our opponents cut us to pieces in a king-of-the-hill match. They took the goal early and held the high ground for nearly the entire bout. It was a massacre.

In the deciding match, superior firepower won out: Our opponents made good use of Vital Suits, slaughtering us every time we set foot on the sprawling outer space platform where the battle took place. One of our enemies hunkered down in a mounted gun and cut us up from above.

I had the great dishonor of being the tenth and final kill. Cornered by two Suits, I found myself mechless. I tried to juke my way around their attacks, but couldn't evade them. I bit the dust and they won the day.

The $25,000 went towards water and sanitation projects run by the Music For Relief charity – a very good cause.

I'll admit I was bummed to have come so close to winning only to choke. I can't say I've ever won anything that momentous before.

I left the Roosevelt just shy of midnight and walked along Hollywood Boulevard to catch the subway home. There, on the Walk of Fame, around Wayne Newton and the Bee Gees, I saw a crumpled up five dollar bill skittering across the sidewalk. I quickly bent and grabbed the money and stuffed it in my pocket.

Easy come, easy go.

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