Halo Championship Series

I joined the HCS Team in St. Louis for a blizzardous blast from the past at UGC's Halo Classic. While there, we got to see nearly one hundered teams compete in an Open Event for Halo 3 4v4 competition, duos take each other on in a Halo: CE 2v2 tournament, and lone wolves fight to be top dog in a Halo 3 FFA tournament. After three days of incredible competition our voices were gone and our hands were definitely frozen.

If you just want a summary of cool things that happened at the event, here are some memorable moments worth your attention!

TOX Gaming took first place in an fantastic Grand Finals matchup against Denial Esports.

The Top 6 teams from this event were TOX Gaming, Denial Esports, Team Reciprocity, LUX Gaming, Status Quo, and GMS. All of them will be invited to the HCS Invitational at SXSW in March, which you can find more info on just a little further below.

Denial shocked everyone with their placing, with each member performing at the highest level. Watching Shele play at his first event, Str8 Sick sniping, Aries picking up three Overkills in the Grand Finals, and Commonly consistently making plays was so much fun to see in person.

To start Championship Sunday, RyaNoob ended up winning the Halo 3 FFA proving his lone wolf abilities in this game as well.

The insparable duo of Legend & Patch won the Halo: CE 2v2 Tournament and will almost certainly look to defend their title at this year's legendary CE Beach Lan.

Community member and photographer extraordinaire David "Sandman" Doran, was also there to document the event in epic fashion. If you want a cool perspecitve of the event, give his photo album a look through - you'll be very happy you did! Here's just one of my favorites from him:

What's next?

HCS INVITATIONAL at SXSW: MARCH 15-17

In case you missed the announcement earlier this week, we're bringing Halo to the legendary South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas! We're making sure there is plenty to watch and do at our booth, including hosting streaming booths for some our first HCS Grassroots content creators (Ac7ionMan, UberNick, Vetoed) and an open Halo 3 FFA tournament with $5000 prize pool. We'll also be putting on quite the show at the SXSW Esports stage, so you should tune in on mixer.com/Halo and twitch.tv/Halo that whole weekend. You can find more specific details on what we'll be streaming in our announcement post, but here's a quick look at all the fun you'd miss out should you not tune in:

$100,000 Pro Invitational featuring the Top 6 teams from UGC Halo Classic

Microsoft Store 2v2 Throwdown

Big Team Battle Bonanza

Rivals Showmatch: Snip3down vs Lethul

On top of all of that, we'll also be sharing some exciting MCC news during the show. Does the eyes emoji work on Waypoint? 👀 Sweet.

If you want to attend the event, SXSW tickets can be purchased here!

Gamers for Giving: March 23-24

This competitive gaming tournament, streaming marathon, and massive LAN party for charity will be our next HCS Grassroots supported event. While I was away in St. Louis, they actually pivoted their plans so that they could support a Halo 3 4v4 event instead of their previously planned Halo 3 2v2 format.

DREAMHACK DALLAS: MAY 31-JUNE 2

This HCS Grassroots event for Halo 3 is expected to be so big that it's already scheduled to span two months. Yes, that was a joke... please don't try to stay at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center for two months. If you're looking to stay in Dallas for that long though, DreamHack has provided a list of hotels and other event information right here!