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343 Industries Announces the Halo Championship Series

K

klodeckel

Banned
halo%20lcs.jpg


In anticipation of the release of Halo: The Master Chief Collection next week, 343 Industries is excited to announce the “Halo Championship Series”, the official eSports league that will celebrate the franchise’s rich competitive gaming legacy while building an all-new platform for the future of Halo eSports.

The “Halo Championship Series”, or HCS, was born of 343 Industries’ desire to curate a quality eSports experience – for pro players, enthusiasts, and spectators – by creating a single sanctioning body for Halo. Designed to foster the best environment and platform for competitive multiplayer, the HCS will showcase, sponsor and support existing tournament organizers in the growing landscape of eSports today. To help fulfill this ambition, 343 Industries has teamed up with Twitch, ESL, and various tournament organizers to create a year of high-stakes action featuring Halo 2: Anniversary, the newly reimagined multiplayer engine within Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

Halo Championship Series Details:

The first season of the Halo Championship Series will kick off shortly after the launch of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and run from November (preseason) through March of 2015.
Teams of four Spartans will compete in a structured series of online and in-person LAN events.
All officially sanctioned tournaments (LAN and online) will award HCS points to the top teams.
At the end of each season, teams with the highest HCS point totals will be invited to compete at the HCS season finals in March 2015. More details to be announced.

“Halo was one of the first console eSports titles to rise to popularity a decade ago,” said Che Chou, Franchise Media Director, 343 Industries. “With the HCS, we’re harnessing that passion and investing back into the community that’s still vibrant today. In addition, our partnerships with ESL and Twitch – both parties with years of invaluable expertise – will help us realize our vision of quality and equality for the HCS.”

"This is a significant moment for both the huge Halo community on Twitch and the game’s overall fanbase,” said Ernest Le, Director of Publisher & Developer Partnerships, Twitch. “Partnering with 343 on the Halo Championship Series allows us to invest in the players and tournament organizers. We can then build on that foundation to benefit Halo fans worldwide."

“Halo is one of the most storied franchises in gaming and has such a rich eSports legacy,” said Craig Levine, Vice President, ESL America. “ESL brings a proven track record of hosting world class competitions and broadcasts and are excited to be an official partner of the Halo Championship Series. In 2015, the HCS will crown a new generation of Halo champions and showcase Halo to millions of eSports fans around the world.”

Players and fans can see an overview of league information at Halo Waypoint. Within the coming weeks, 343 Industries will publish the official rules handbook of the HCS, and players will also be able to register their teams and begin competing online in the official ESL HCS league, view their global Halo rankings, and more.

343 Industries will be sharing more details about the Halo Championship Series at the Halo: The Master Chief Collection Launch Invitational tournament, taking place this Saturday, November 8 and Sunday November 9, where 32 of the world’s biggest names in FPS eSports will be facing off for their share of $50,000 to celebrate the launch of Halo: The Master Chief Collection. It all starts on Saturday, November 8th – tune into Twitch.tv/Halo at 2PM PDT to catch the action and learn more about what’s ahead for eSports and the Halo Championship Series.
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http://news.xbox.com/2014/11/games-...-series?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

#WeBack
 
J

jackissocool

Member
Cool! Halo is so much more fun to watch than CoD (or any other modern FPS, really), so I would love to see it make a big return to pro gaming. I also like that the console makers are pushing their own pro-gaming stuff separate from MLG. This and the PlayStation League are very cool.
 
W

Wollveren

Banned
Finally Halo e-sports!!! As much as I love watching league tournaments, Halo has to be where MLG and e-sports began <3
 
K

kittens

Unconfirmed Member
tootsi666 said:
This is great for Halo.
IMO Halo is just boring to watch, but maybe H5: G will be an interesting spectator sport.
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It's the only game I've ever enjoyed watching, but it's also the only game that I've ever been interested in on a hyper competitive level. Smash Bros. is fun to watch, too, but I don't really care about it.
 
T

tootsi666

Member
kittens said:
It's the only game I've ever enjoyed watching, but it's also the only game that I've ever been interested in on a hyper competitive level. Smash Bros. is fun to watch, too, but I don't really care about it.
Click to expand...
Halo is my favourite mp to play, but I find more complicated, slower paced games more interesting to watch. The really funny thing is, I don't like to play games I like to watch (LoL, Dota 2, CS, fighting games).
 
C

Conkerkid11

Member
Wow, sounds like a great way for 343i to kick Halo back into the competitive scene, beyond reviving some of the greatest entries in the series.
 
C

Calm Killer

In all media, only true fans who consume every book, film, game, or pog collection deserve to know what's going on.
Sweet! So much coming from this game.
 
RoyalLaFlame

RoyalLaFlame

Banned
Ok guys. on my way to become the 2014 Halo Championship winner. I'll drop University if this happens.




This is great news.
 
P

Pudge

Member
Sounds good, but I hope Halo 2 Anniversary ends up playing well. Seems like they'd be better off going with a known quantity for a little while like Halo 1 or Halo 3 and then see afterwards if H2A is even good enough to be competitive. H2 was kind of a joke in this space IIRC.

And before you post, yes I know why 343 is really doing it. Doesn't make it a smart move.
 
O

Opiate

Member
I'll be interested to see how this does. It feels as if Halo has fallen many steps down the competitive gaming ladder; first, FPS have taken a distant back seat to MOBAs; second, PC FPS have re-arisen as the dominant form of competitive FPS; third, even amongst console-centric FPS, it seems CoD has managed to take the driver's seat from Halo.

That all sounds very negative, but I don't mean to suggest this can't succeed. Having a sponsored league can change things, and I believe CoD is fading.
 
Phawx

Phawx

Member
Opiate said:
I'll be interested to see how this does. It feels as if Halo has fallen many steps down the competitive gaming ladder; first, FPS have taken a distant back seat to MOBAs; second, PC FPS have re-arisen as the dominant form of competitive FPS; third, even amongst console-centric FPS, it seems CoD has managed to take the driver's seat from Halo.

That all sounds very negative, but I don't mean to suggest this can't succeed. Having a sponsored league can change things, and I believe CoD is fading.
Click to expand...

Have you seen H2 MP?
 
T

too much eslim

Member
Opiate said:
I'll be interested to see how this does. It feels as if Halo has fallen many steps down the competitive gaming ladder; first, FPS have taken a distant back seat to MOBAs; second, PC FPS have re-arisen as the dominant form of competitive FPS; third, even amongst console-centric FPS, it seems CoD has managed to take the driver's seat from Halo.

That all sounds very negative, but I don't mean to suggest this can't succeed. Having a sponsored league can change things, and I believe CoD is fading.
Click to expand...

Halo faded because of Reach and Halo 4.
 
T

Tashi

343i Lead Esports Producer
Super excited to announce HCS and also have it kick off shortly. We hope you'll love what we have cooking for Halo eSports going forward.
 
S

Strider

Member
Opiate said:
I'll be interested to see how this does. It feels as if Halo has fallen many steps down the competitive gaming ladder; first, FPS have taken a distant back seat to MOBAs; second, PC FPS have re-arisen as the dominant form of competitive FPS; third, even amongst console-centric FPS, it seems CoD has managed to take the driver's seat from Halo.

That all sounds very negative, but I don't mean to suggest this can't succeed. Having a sponsored league can change things, and I believe CoD is fading.
Click to expand...

You make a lot of good points... But ultimately fps esports is really big on consoles now and it's a completely different crowd for the PC games you mentioned. Including the fps Counter Strike.

COD fading is a huge deal and if this is successful and there is positive buzz around Halo 5 beta, I think Halo can take the reigns from COD once again with Halo 5. We'll see.
 
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