An Interview With Mint Blitz, The Most Epic Halo Player Alive
Mint Blitz. Art by Tanzanian Wojak
In the year 2552, when the alien Covenant invade Earth, jettisoning their troops into New Mombasa—events foretold in Halo 2—there will be one man uniquely equipped to deal with the threat, and his name is not Master Chief. It is Mint Blitz.
Mint Blitz has become famous on YouTube in the last few months. Although he stands atop a healthy pile of “Killionare” trophies (given for killing 10 opponents within seconds of each other in multiplayer), he specializes in a particular type of video: epic Halo campaign plays. Which means he stomps through the Halo single-player campaign and performs incredible feats, like getting in a Warthog, blowing the Warthog across the map, getting out of the Warthog at the exact right moment, and breaking the fall with an Elite’s neck. Mint Blitz is the master of Halo trickshots, which take an insane combination of skill, knowledge, luck, and what has to be a mind-numbing number of attempts.
It is these plays with cheeky titles—“Literally Masterchief in the books,” “What 10000 hours of Halo 2 REALLY looks like”—that have gained Mint Blitz a large fanbase who fawn over him in Youtube comments: “In this timeline the entire Covenant just immediately surrendered after seeing this,” “There’s Master Chief in the games, Master Chief in the books and then there is Mint Chief.” He’s spawned imitators, memes, and even a few haters.
From our view, Mint Blitz is the most trending Halo Youtuber in the world. We got in touch with the 26-year-old Australian, who told us how he comes up with fresh Halo content every day, as well as his favorite weapons, levels, enemies, and the challenges of playing multiplayer now that he’s famous in the Haloverse. Enjoy Countere’s first pro gamer interview.
Mint, thanks for talking to Countere. Let’s get right into it. Tell us about your childhood playing Halo.
I started playing Halo in 2001 when I was about 7. Everyone in the neighborhood used to come over. We liked to play “King of the Hill” on “Prisoner” (a Halo game map), which was literally a one hill mosh pit with Assault rifles. Noobie stuff, but we were young kids.
From that, I slowly started to improve. In Australia, we didn't have very good Internet so I played campaign a lot. But when Halo 3 arrived, it really started to take off. I took my Xbox to my best friend's house down the street. He updated my Xbox and I jumped into Lone Wolves (a game mode) and [killed] a level 44 [player], which for me at the time was amazing. And that was the first 10 years of me playing Halo.
Around 2011, you started a YouTube channel. What made you want to do that?
There was a guy named Kampy who posted montages of multikills. And he released his biggest video ever—to this day, if you say his name in the community, everyone remembers his video. I also found a guy named Anoj who did a “Top 10” series: Top 10 multikills, Top 10 lucky kills, Top 10 sticks, etc.
It made me want to get into [Halo Youtubing]. I can’t say I was completely trash when I started, but I just did gameplay in a vehicle and stuff. Lots of multiplayer.
You posted for years but last year, your Youtube channel really started blowing up—the same time you started doing these epic campaign plays.
[Smiles] I found my niche.
Exactly. How did that come about?
Well let me go back a bit. YouTube’s algorithm, for the longest time, was that you need videos over 10 minutes. And that’s when you’ll get recommended. Then TikTok blew up. TikTok’s short videos were taking a lot of money from YouTube. So Youtube was like, “We want a slice of this piece too, so we’re going to change our algorithm from longer videos to favor videos under one minute.”
So I did one random short upload from multiplayer. The one where I sent a guy’s bubble shield up in the air and then sniped him (video below). And it did well, and I was like—”Wow, this is more than I usually get.” So I did a longer video and then another shorter video. And the [shorter video] got 25,000 views immediately. Once I saw that the algorithm was favoring shorter videos, I had probably 10 to 15 years of incredible short clips that I had saved up that wouldn’t have worked in a longer video.
So I started uploading all of my multiplayer highlights from the last 10 years. Back from Halo 3, Reach, The Master Chief Collection, you name it. And people were like, “Wow, how are you getting all these clips every day, this is incredible!” That started to get my name out there.
The YouTube algorithm is a momentum based thing. Basically I had to do a high-quality upload every single day for it to build up to the momentum that I’m at now, which is kind of exhausting...how many good clips from the last 10 years could I upload before I ran out? I always played the campaign as a kid because I didn't have good internet. So I knew all the levels off the top of my head: how the AI (artificial intelligence) moves, how the vehicles launch, everything about it. So what if for shits and giggles, I got a Hunter to punch me across the map, and I sniped him while going across the sky? I thought it was pretty mundane because after getting “Killionaire” medals in multiplayer, which take months to get, I doubted people were going to enjoy this particular thing. It was quite the opposite! Now they prefer the campaign stuff over the multiplayer. So it's funny how things work out.
Although it is getting harder to do single clips every day because they’re old games and there’s only so many things you can do. But whatever gets me to Halo Infinite in the strongest possible way.
Yeah, I don't think someone had really capitalized on campaign clips before in a big way. What's the process of creating one of those?
First of all, like I said, I know the missions off the top of my head. So to come up with the clips, I'll play through the entire mission in my head: what enemies are in this place? There’s Hunters in this spot, this spot, and this spot. What can I do with them? Is it a wide open space?
[The Countere Guide to Spotting NPCs]
I’ll give an example. I did a Hunters video the other day. I’m thinking: can I get them to punch me across the map? Is there anything I can kill when they punch me across the map. Well, there’s Banshees flying across the map. As I’m flying towards them, I could stick one [with a plasma grenade]. Well, the Banshee doesn’t die from the grenade. So then I have to lure the Banshees all the way out to the edge of the map, weaken them, fly all the way back in, get a checkpoint, and try the launch again. I’s a lot of trial and error. I have a whiteboard and it’s got every Halo game and it's got my potential ideas that I do use.
Mint Blitz’s whiteboard. Source: Mint Blitz
A lot of people ask if I use skulls and mods. When I started, I didn’t use skulls, but after I exhausted every option, I started using them. Then I exhausted those and now I’m having to do modded stuff where I change the values of the physics...but that’s mostly making stuff lighter or removing [fall damage], otherwise the majority of stuff I do you’d die right after falling.
What's the most amount of attempts you've done to try and get a campaign clip?
There’s one from Halo 3, it’s called “What if you miss?” You launch yourself from deployable cover all the way across the map and hijack a Banshee. And you have to be very precise to launch yourself, and the Banshees won’t fly into you every time you watn to hijack them. It took probably 12,000 resets. It made my tendonitis [act] up and I was really stubborn because I didn’t want to quit before I got it. Those 12,000 attempts took probably 12-15 hours over the course of two days.
What’s your daily schedule like right now?
I wake up and do Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Youtube community—all my social media posts for today and tomorrow. Then I jump into matchmaking for two or three hours and just play Team Snipers because I want to stay at a really high level for Infinite. Practice, more or less. If I get multikills, great—every couple of weeks I’ll compile all them into a longer video. The short videos have made my long videos do amazing, which is relieving because I’m not just here to do the short stuff.
Then I'll probably go eat something and work out. Training is a huge part of my life, I have to keep that balance. It’s the thing away from Halo that I enjoy. Mondays are chest and triceps, Tuesdays are thighs and back, Wednesday is legs...I don’t usually take a day break, I physically train six or seven times a week.
Once it starts to hit the later part of the day, I look at the whiteboard: what can I pull off today? Do I feel like doing something elaborate or something a little bit cruisy (easy)? I'll figure out my plan for that. I like to have the clip done by 8 pm, and then 8 to 12, I’ll just spend editing.
Let’s talk about some of your favorites from the Halo series. What’s your favorite weapon of all time?
The sniper from Halo 3. It’s the most rewarding and the hardest to use.
What’s your favorite campaign level of all time?
Probably “Assault on the Control Room” from Combat Evolved, since there’s so much you can do it on it. It’s a mission that has a lot of vehicles, a big wide open expanse, and lots of platforms above the map so I can do stuff going up and down. I’ve probably made 30 uploads on that map particularly.
As far as personal favorite, for overall playing and the story behind it, I like “Gravemind” from Halo 2. Or any of the Warthog levels where you’re driving through and everything’s blowing up.
[In Defense of the Space Force]
What’s your favorite enemy AI to troll?
I’ve noticed—because I've spent so much time messing with them—that the Hunter AI from Halo: Combat Evolved to Halo Reach is almost identical. The Hunters move the exact same way, they’re just slightly skinned differently, and in Reach they have a few more punches. But for the most part, if you stand behind a Hunter, they’re going to do the same backwards punch they’ve done for the last four games. It’s funny how Bungie never updated them; I guess no one really noticed.
You’ve spent tens of thousands of hours in Halo. Is there anything about the enemy AI that still surprises you?
That’s actually a really good question. So I was trying to improve on a video I did called “A Sticky Situation.” Basically I throw six plasma grenades in sequence, really high up from the top of the map, and one lands on a Banshee, one lands on another Banshee, a few land on enemies down below, and you watch them all explode in a sequence across the map.
Editor’s note: The “improved” Mint Blitz video is below.
Unfortunately, if the Banshees chase you, it actually breaks their AI. So they’ll start moving in really random spots and running over their own AI. They’ll run the Hunters over, they’ll run the Grunts over. They’ll just splatter everything and ram straight into a wall for absolutely no reason. So the AI can still [act unexpectedly].
Do you ever feel lonely spending so much time in campaign levels, with only the enemy AI to keep you company?
Ah, so I'm an introvert by default anyways. Honestly, during the whole pandemic, I was pretty happy. I was a youth worker so I’m comfortable talking to people and crowds. But I have absolutely no problem grabbing a pizza and just jamming out in the campaign levels for six hours. I’ll be in the Discord chat with my other friends so it’s not like I’m on my own anyways. But even if they’re not around, I’m quite content to work on stuff by myself. I don’t get lonely, which is great. Otherwise, it would be a big problem!
I feel that. On Reddit a lot of people are paying attention to you: saying they killed you once in multiplayer, or that they automatically quit when they see your name. What is multiplayer like now that everyone knows who you are? Do people target you or shit talk you?
Shit talk? Yes. It’s a main group of 25-50 competitive players that go out of their way to be a nightmare...they just want to make [me] suffer. They’ll match me in Free-For-All and just shoot my body the whole time. And I can't quit because if I quit once, then they'll take a picture of me quitting and post it to Reddit.
Every single game I get recognized now, so I’m held to a gold standard. I can't do anything that’s untoward, I can’t teabag…I have to play like a perfect citizen and I have to play to win every game. It kind of restricts me in a way because I used to like messing around and going for unique clips. But now people check where I am in the death cam [after they die] and come right for me. And as long as they [mess up what I’m trying to do], they’ll send me a smiley face in the chat.
You really got a target on your back.
Yeah. I cannot do anything that’s considered bad or unsportsmanlike because it gets blown 20 times out of proportion. Even then, you have to stop caring in a way because people will just blatantly make up stuff [about you] anyway, and then they’ll just upvote each other and it’ll gain traction.
There's nothing you can do about it. I guess that's with a lot of people who have any kind of success—there’s going to be a small vocal minority that are not going to be happy about it. And you just kind of go with it. It’s par for the course.
The last thing I want to ask is for you to free-associate words for a few of the Halo games.
Sure thing.
Halo: Combat Evolved.
Groundbreaking.
Halo 2.
Era-defining.
Halo 3.
The pinnacle.
Halo: Reach.
The beginning of the decline.
Halo 4.
The decline.
Halo 5.
Fun, but misunderstood.
Halo Infinite.
Hopeful.
