In The Heat Of Battle

"Whew, got a ton of pillars up. That took me a lightyear!"

- Socky

About
In The Heat Of Battle is the third episode of the first season of Objects At Gaming. It was released on December 23rd, 2020, just one day before Christmas Eve.

Story
Lampy gets excited when he reaches his goal for last episode's Get Blueprint Limbs Campaign. Later, Blueprint walks in with his newly added limbs, along with his electric guitar! He asks the team what he thinks of his new appearance. Lampy, Cardy, Socky, and Orangey praise it, Sombrero and Medaly definitely notice his difference, but Grapey and Wrenchy criticize it.

The elimination begins. Red continued the clap after the end of the intro. Shovels are at stake for the elimination, to Watery's curiosity. Wrenchy, because of his immunity, is safe first, but breaks his shovel. Mustache being scared about that. Lampy and Sombrero are initially announced safe first. Mustache, Blueprint, Watery (to Lampy's dismay), Cardy, Socky, and Orangey are also safe. The three cheaters from last episode are in the bottom 3. Grapey is safe, although she didn't think she would be. Between Medaly and Blender, Medaly is declared safe and Blender is eliminated. Wrenchy is quite happy, although if he continues his mean acts, he might be out next. Wrenchy assumes he'll stay for a long time, though Orangey ultimately disagrees.

Pink Sunglasses and Pinata are happy about the result of the last elimination, but Spaghetti is worried. Snowflake tries to check in on him, but Spaghetti won't reveal what's going on. Red gathers the contestants for the next challenge. Thankfully, it's not going to be difficult, as Illuminati asked him immediately. The next challenge will take place at the High Score Shore, which the contestants will ride in a double decker bus to get there. Cookie and Shelfy are excited, while Lampy feels forced to go because Watery wanted him to come with.

Plant talks about the view from the top of the bus. Spaghetti is wondering why Dead Football has his strange appearance on his head. He explains that there is a backstory. DF was known as Football back then. His dad was a professional knife thrower and took him to his contests from time to time. One day, his opponent threw a knife at Football's head by accident. The doctor told him that he can't remove or touch it because his foot would kick out unpredictably, although it looked like a nice tattoo job eventually. If the knife were to be removed, which is difficult, DF would die. Even so, none of the contestants, even his own alliance, knows about this. Spaghetti agrees to be aware of the situation. Wrenchy overhears and comes up with a scheme. On the lower level, Blueprint ROCKS his guitar tunes. Orangey is envious about his limbs, wishing he could climb to Mt. Scam Ad. Socky gets worried about the concept, claiming he's seen safer in fairy tales. Grapey gets annoyed by his childlike behavior.

The bus arrived. The next challenge is to build a giant, and sturdy sand castle. The stronger team's sandcastle wins. The alliance is already confident, but Medaly is confused about the rules, angering Grapey and Cardy.

Team Birthday Party plans to make a castle twice Pinata's height. Snowflake is unsure about the plan, but Dead Football states that they can go with it, but later on add stronger touch ups. Team Fix-It is struggling due to Wrenchy's poor leadership and namecalling. Grapey exaggerates a plan, but Sombrero comes up with a clever strategy to make pillars to add more support. Socky goes to collect the sand. Watery is excited to see his "family" beyond the reef. Lampy is angry since he knows it's just the sea! Mustache gets scared that the team will do a lot worse if they keep fighting. Lampy tries to bond with him more, even saying he's a superhero for him.

Pinata is happy with the team's current progress, but is surprised to see a drawbridge that Snowflake added for style points. Later, Illuminati calls Pink Sunglasses to shore to check out an underwater base he found. Originally bored, he was interested about the fact that it was ancient and was made of a special rock discovered thousands of years ago. But, it's a risk to dive down there, as an eel would come out and attack if it's the wrong time.

Socky gets the pillars up. Grapey is very pessimistic all of a sudden. Medaly gets very upset with how negative she's been lately and how she might not care about her anymore. Grapey snaps at Medaly for being more "annoying" than friendly, ending the friendship. Grapey reflects on her actions however and tries to develop a change in heart. Sombrero and Blueprint get tired after a long challenge, but Orangey brings hope.

DF gets very tired after the challenge. Pinata and Cookie give their support. Shelfy hears something coming in. It was Wrenchy! He snuck to Team Birthday Party's side to toy with the knife, causing the castle to fall down! DF tries his hardest to explain about his disability, while Spaghetti backs him up. Shelfy storms away, but during all of that, Spaghetti was secretly building a backup castle to save themselves from elimination. Snowflake, Illuminati, and Rose are very happy, but Plum is more negative, stating he was thankful he had at least "something".

It's time to judge. Wrenchy's violent rage got them to go second. Spaghetti explains the entire predicament with the castles, but Red is amazed by the second castle, giving them an 8/10. The pillar castle however looked more like a base and pointed out Wrenchy next to a pile of sand. He states he cheated, shocking Orangey and Lampy wishing he didn't hear that. Watery being right next to him made him furious. Watery wanted light near him, which Wrenchy, also raged, said he can sit under the literal sun. Red gave the pillar castle a 7/10, barely declaring Team Birthday Party the winner.

Red tells the viewers they are allowed to vote for a contestant to win the prize, NOT to be eliminated.

Votes
Blender (ELIMINATED) - 4 votes

Medaly - 2 votes

Grapey - 2 votes

Socky, Orangey, Watery, Cardy - 1 vote each

Recommended characters

 * Eraser Putty by Animated Abe
 * Alarm Clock by O & G Bullock
 * Latte by ForestairGD
 * Bowling Ball by Lightbulb_Shocker
 * Hot Pocket by Gaz Membrane
 * Tomato by RIAN RAMOS COELHO DE SOUZA (Aluno)
 * 5-Ball by TheCra5yCartoons
 * Taily by Luis Eduardo Toribio
 * Tablet by Nids&weths
 * Notepad by Gundham tanaka
 * Cinnamon Bun by Balloony & Marker5
 * Tortilla Chips by Enoch Tan
 * Name Tag by [GD] KrazyMan79
 * Water Gun by Daniel Perez
 * Sauce Packet by Lai Ngai
 * Jade by Adebimpe D
 * Dollar by Davicraft e Hp lu / Kuroventures
 * Pea by YourAverageCheezit
 * Peace Logo by Super Block Bros
 * Calendar by Aland
 * Paper Ducky by Crowm Cost bpac
 * and Elevator Button by 1cyTurtle

Trivia

 * This is the first episode not to be made entirely by TCOOS, as the new voice cast for OAG is introduced starting now!
 * This is the first episode to use the current intro.
 * This is the first episode to incorporate the prize voting system.
 * This episode is the first to close to a national holiday.
 * The elimination area got repainted since the other team lost.

Continuity References

 * The Give Blueprint Limbs Campaign returns from Testing The Plan.
 * Red continues to clap even after the intro ended, in the same style of clapping.
 * Blender sarcastically exclaims his time in the bottom two, similar to how Broccoli did last elimination.
 * Both of which were eliminated at those exact eliminations.
 * The abduction sound effect and the red "X" screen are both reused from the previous elimination.
 * On the bus, when Socky says "look at who you're talkin' to, buddy" after Grapey angrily calls him a child, he says it as if he was a child. This is confirmed because of his childlike behavior in the past two episodes.
 * Since Testing The Plan, Lampy is still good friends and allies with Mustache, even during his fights with Watery.
 * As of August 4th, 2021, this episode is the highest rated out of the five released, at a 97.9% rating.

Goofs

 * Some of the background music was somewhat too loud.
 * Lampy's audio wasn't 100% high quality this episode. His voice actor confirmed that it will be improved in OAG 4. Some of the clicks were used as certain 'stomp' animations or things similar to how it flowed with the episode.
 * Lampy also broke the fourth wall at 0:08. This is most certainly the final ever time a contestant says 'episode' due to writing mistakes. Red is the only character that really has direct contact with the viewers.
 * Dead Football's hand sometimes went behind Spaghetti's seatbelt while riding the double decker bus.
 * At 5:48, the trees in the background stopped moving.
 * Team Fix-It's sandcastle was pretty much the same during the homestretch of building and the presentation.