eSports Halo Championship Series Announced
Back in the day, Halo 3 was a great eSports tournament game to play. Teams of four would utilize brilliant tactics with the supreme goal of fame and prize money. 343 Industries and Microsoft hope to bring that type of excitement back with the announcement of the Halo Championship Series, with players competing in Halo 2 Anniversary play instead.
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Aimed at generating excitement and anticipation of the Halo: The Master Chief Collection releasing on November 11th, the Halo Championship Series was created to bring Halo competitive multiplayer to a sanctioned eSports body. 343 Industries will be teaming up with Twitch, ESL and other tournament organizers to bring tournament play to life. The entire details of the league series are not confirmed as of yet, but here’s what we know:
- Preseason begins in early November, and the Halo Championship Series Season 1 (should it go further than one third of a year) will end in March 2015.
- Halo 2: Anniversary Edition will be the official multiplayer game of the tournaments. No other games have been announced for tournament play at this time.
- 4v4 play over online and in-person LAN matches throughout the series.
- Teams earn Halo Championship Series points throughout the tournaments, with the top teams competing in the HCS season finals in March. It is similar to the World Championship of Starcraft, with Red Bull Battle Grounds events players accumulating points throughout the season.
- Prize and grand prize pools have not been confirmed, although a Launch Invitational tournament taking place this weekend between 8 teams will compete for a share of the $50,000 pool. Launch tournament play begins on Saturday November 8 at 2 PM PDT on the Halo Twitch channel.
While it’s great to see Halo back in the competitive gaming scene’s focus once again, it’s unfortunate to me to see just Halo 2: Anniversary get tournament recognition. I cannot say anything more beyond that due to embargo restrictions regarding reviewing Halo: The Master Chief Collection, however I’ve always held the notion that variety in tournaments is great to see. I’m hoping Evo 2015 will feature both Super Smash Bros Melee and Super Smash Bros for Wii U, in one way or another, keeping that sort of “variety is the spice of life” mentality.
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