Rockstar Newswire

In this special edition of the Crew Cut - after witnessing some intense en masse elite Crew showings in the Max Payne 3 Social Club Multiplayer Events playlist last week and after studying the squads that are occupying the #1 positions on the recently revamped tiered Crew leaderboards - the Rockstar Dev Crew of internal ringers from our various studios would like to throw out a challenge.

We're calling all top Crews to name the time and place, and we will do our best to accommodate a Crew vs Crew battle online in the coming weeks ahead - some of our best guys Crewed up against any of yours. So that the result cannot be in doubt, we'll also look to stream the action from these sessions live via the Rockstar Twitch.tv page. If you're the leader or an active member of an elite Crew occupying a top spot on one of the tiered boards (you don't have to be the #1 spot, but do try and impress us with your standing), confer with some of your fellow soldiers, and give us a shout to mouthoff@rockstargames.com to propose a date and time for a throwdown against us, any particular modes, and letting us know your online IDs so we can send out invites accordingly when the time is right. We will be standing by, locked and loaded. With that, here's a lineup of some of the current #1 Crews that we are hoping to hear from - if they dare.

LXG Crew, at the top of the 101-300 tier on Xbox 360, were the first Crew our Dev team came up against in a recent MP3 Xbox event and their proficiency is well documented in our Crew Cuts. Less well known are the U Got Smacked Clan who top out the 1-5 headcount stratum. There's a lot we could say about this German fivesome, but this video from the U Got Smacked YouTube channel of Crew leader UGotSmacked dual-wielding 1911s around the Imperial Hotel in Free Aim tells you everything you need to know:

Murders Death Kill have been quick to point out to us in previous Crew Cut comments sections their achievement of placing top of the 6-20 tier. However, they were modest enough to forget to shout out their other number one placing on the Hardcore Gang Wars leaderboard. An intimidating prospect - but we're up for it. Red Dead Soldiers rep hard on the 21-50 tier, and a look at their Crew Feud stats shows why: not a single Crew has managed to best them in terms of Feuds won, or in terms of kills made during Feuds. Let's see what we can do about that... Finally, not only are Killer Smoking Aces the best Crew in the 51-100 tier, they are also the third best private Crew in all of Social Club, holding their own against Crews with triple the number of members.

Over on PS3, the Ganja Outlaws continue to reign supreme at the top of the 101-300 boards. Further down the membership strata, X-Justice For All-X call the shots in 1st place of all 51-100 Crews. Interestingly, they are only two members over the threshold to take them into a lower tier. Although kicking out some dead weight wouldn't actually do them any favors seeing as they would fall into second in the 21-50 tier behind Death Bringers, who with just 43 members, have nearly 30M more XP. The 5 members of crybaby killers1 maintain an astonishing 95% win percentage for Feuds at the top of the 1-5 member tier on PS3, having played nearly 800 Feuds. Their Crew leader Ego-Smasher is quick to fire up his minions with regular ALL CAPS pep rallies on the Crew's profile page. Soul Crushers hold a slightly more modest 51% Feud win percentage, but nonetheless hold pole position on the 6-20 echelon of PlayStation 3 Crews. They're also partial to CAPS emphasis, as shown in their clear and direct motto: Inflict PAIN No FEAR No REGRETS Leave Nothing BEHIND.

When they're not eating pizza or fighting Shredder, the five members of TMHT - DVD 5 Crew are riding high on the 1-5 member leaderboard for PC players. This is their first shout on the Crew Cut; we look forward to facing off against a relatively unknown quantity. By contrast, Pest Control, Pro And Deadly, Illuminati and The Gallant Psychos are PC Crews we know well, and do hope to take on in a live battle. With more than 5,000 Feuds played between the four Crews, these guys are well versed in the guts and glory of Max Payne 3 Multiplayer, and should be well up for a chance to prove themselves against our Devs.

Having assessed 15 of the top Crews we hope will accept our challenge, none of them look like they'll be giving our Dev Crew an easy ride. We'll also be sending Crew leaders a message directly to get in touch - otherwise, if you're the head of an elite Crew or an active member who wants to round up some fellow warriors to accept the Rockstar challenge - get at us. If you're a highly-skilled Max player otherwise who wants in for some Rockstar blood, either motivate your Crew to keep rising to the top - or align yourself with one of these squads to get in on it. You can also stay apprised of who and when we're battling in the comments section here, where we'll drop an update or via Twitter where we'll also give a shout...