The Halo Championship Series is still going strong despite concerns around viewership. It’s not what it once was, but there’s a dedicated following of fans that keep the competitive ecosystem of Halo alive with each successive event. Later this month, the best Halo teams in the business will descend upon Atlanta to take part in the next HCS Major, which boasts a $250,000 prize pool.
In October, the HCS World Championship will take place in Seattle, and all roads lead to that event.
Is Halo Still Alive?
Halo Infinite had its fair share of troubles when it was released in 2021. Following the deployment of the free-to-play multiplayer portion of the game, the scene went stagnant very fast despite a total revitalisation of the series’ esports ecosystem. There was a record-long delay between seasons being released, and the player count collapsed in on itself alarmingly fast.
Despite that, Halo still has a vibrant competitive scene backed by Microsoft and the organisations that flesh out the roster. However, the recent HCS Major in London – the first Halo tournament to take place in the UK for several years – was a woeful showing, with viewership peaking at just 63,000 users. By contrast, the Arlington Major that was played in March pulled in 109,670 peak viewers.
Like many other esports games, the majority of fans wait for the HCS World Championship event to surface before tuning in.
At the Atlanta Major, we’ll be seeing the following teams taking to the stage:
- FaZe Clan
- Complexity
- Bonten
- OpTic Gaming
- ITB
- PURE
- Shopify Rebellion
- Sentinels
- Cloud9
- Spacestation
- Quadrant
- Incognito
There are four spots still up for grabs for the pool play portion of the event, and they’ll be filled by competitors rising through the open bracket. That’s one of the most positive components of the Halo Championship Series – any team with the ability to compete can realistically make it into the big leagues at any Major.
The action starts on July 26 and it’ll run until the GF on July 28.
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