The sound from the crowd at Florida State University’s 80,000 seat Doak Campell Stadium is deafening. The Seminoles are up by 30 points and are about to score again with 25 seconds left in the fourth quarter. The offense lines up and executes a direct snap trick play to perfection that ends in a 45-yard touchdown run, and Ben Petit, a Nicholls State freshman, is controlling it all from his small off-campus apartment.Petit is a video football legend. When opponents see his handle, NINJA0286, appear on their television screen they know they are dealing with a professional.

“I am good at NCAA Football, but I am even better at Halo 2,” the LaPlace native says as he puts down his Xbox Online controller.

Petit plays Xbox Online five to six hours every night. “On the weekends, I wake up, eat, shower and play.”

Xbox Online, for those who do not know, is a video game system that allows players to compete online against challengers from around the world. With 60,000 users registered for NCAA Football, made by EA Sports, Petit is ranked in the top 100.

Petit learned many of the tactics he uses while playing football at Riverside Academy in LaPlace. “I love defense,” the former all-district left tackle says. “I can read an offense easily, so it is hard to get a yard on me. I play just like I did in high school.”

Petit says he has thought about transferring his video football skill over to real life, but he plans on finishing school. “I think I could be a good coach, but it would be different because I would have to have patience with the players in real life,” Petit comments. “But not on Xbox.”

“I was ranked No. 2 from July (the month NCAA Football 2005 was released) until November,” Petit says. “That is when I stopped playing it. I stopped when Halo 2 came out.”

Halo 2 is another Xbox Online game. Petit’s online team, which is referred to as a clan on Halo 2, has a ranking of 43 and is climbing.

“The name of our clan is Vigilantez and we are at Level 19, which is really good,” Petit says sitting in the front room of his apartment while his friends play Halo 2 and yell out commands and locations to each other.

“Back up. No, no, back up.”

“Pick up the rocket launcher. It is on your left.”

Petit throws in a few himself, “Go to the middle of the board. He is going respawn over there.”

Vigilantez is composed of players Petit has met online and some high school friends.

“After football practice in high school, we would all go home and play video games all day,” Petit says. “We would play nothing but football during the season, and we would learn all the tricks and stuff just by playing so much.”

NCAA Football was not online when Petit was in high school.

“I thought I was real good, the best around here,” Petit says. “So when it came out online, I just destroyed everybody. So then I knew I was good.”

Rankings on Xbox Live are determined by a complicated point system. There are points for winning, winning while away, winning against a ranked team, winning on a comeback and so on.

“A player starts off unranked, just one of 60,000 registered players,” Petit explains. “You just keep playing, and every time you win you get more points. But once you are ranked No. 2 it gets harder to get points, because everyone you are playing are underdogs.”

“I had my own style when I started playing, but then I started using all the plays that would work against me on everyone else,” Petit explains. “Now every play I use works.”

There is no single profile for an Xbox Online player. Young. Old. From the United States to Timbuktu. In a single afternoon, Petit has the opportunity to beat opponents from several different continents and still have time to study afterward.

“It is amazing how many different people you can play from so many different places,” Petit remarks. “I used to play a lot against a guy from Georgia. “

Although he rarely plays NCAA Football online anymore, Petit still likes to play against friends. His friends usually lose, but Petit offers advice while slaughtering them and enjoys teaching his friends the little tricks he has learned.

Petit hones his skills and learns new tricks by what he calls practicing.

“I will set up a game where I play as a weak team, like Stanford or Yale, against a ranked team,” Petit explains. “It is hard to get a yard so you have to learn to strategize. You got to break tackles, and it will only give you two seconds to pass the ball. It helps you learn; it is all about adjusting.”

The popularity that Petit has gained as a result of his gaming has made it difficult for him to find challengers that aren’t just trash talkers. “I will play anyone,” Petit says with conviction. “Some people will tell me, right off the bat, I will destroy you. Then when the score is 42-0 at halftime I tell them it is my first time playing.”

Petit’s obsessiveness about playing has negatives.

“I failed two classes last semester because of Xbox,” the computer science major boasts. “They were early morning classes, and I never went because I would be up playing until five or six in the morning the night before.”

Petit explains how it even keeps him away from his family. “I keep an Xbox at my mom’s house in LaPlace, but I don’t like to go home to visit because I can’t play online. My mom will call and ask if I am coming home for the holidays, but I just say no because I want to play.