And then there were four. After two days of intense competition, the top 12 of the 2017 Halo World Championship has whittled down to the top four. Just as in Day 1, North America reigned supreme with OpTic Gaming securing its spot in the grand finals, while Team Liquid, Team EnVyUs and Str8 Rippin round out the final four. Editor's Picks Esports bracket: Who's your favorite esports pro?

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Any region not named North America continued to struggle after SoaR Gaming, London Conspiracy, Supremacy and fab Games eSports were all unceremoniously bounced from the HWC in fairly lopsided series. It's back to the drawing board for the rest of the world as the other regions will have to once again watch a North American team hoist a world championship trophy.

Speaking of that trophy, OpTic remains the favorite to win the World Championship after a strong Day 2. It opened the day with a suffocating 4-0 victory over Luminosity Gaming before facing off against Liquid in the upper bracket finals. Despite Liquid's successes against OpTic in recent tournaments, the upper bracket finals was simply more of OpTic flexing its muscles with a breezy 4-1 victory. With its spot in the grand finals now locked up, it's hard to see another team knocking OpTic off of its pedestal. Liquid will have one last shot to get to the grand final in the lower bracket finals on Sunday.

That's not to say that the rest of the top four are slouches, though, as they are competent teams that will surely put up a fight. Str8, however, didn't get off to the best start, as it was swept by Liquid in a lopsided match that included a 100-1 win in Game 3 Strongholds for Liquid.

Str8 was then sent to the lower bracket to face Splyce, and from the start, it was looking as though the North American hopefuls would be decimated by their fellow Americans. Splyce rushed out to a quick 2-0 lead in the series before Str8 rattled off three straight rounds on the back of some ridiculous slaying from Jonathan "Renegade" Willette. While Splyce forced a Game 7, Str8 won a tight Slayer round to move into the lower bracket semifinals.

Rounding out the top four is Team EnVyUs, a team that many had pegged as the second best coming into the weekend. After a less-than-stellar opening day, nV was forced to come all the way from Round 1 of the lower bracket to try and break into the grand finals. Despite being in the lower bracket, nV showed off why many hold this team in such high regards by not dropping a single game in three series against Supremacy, TMMT Crowd Pleasers and Luminosity Gaming. With Austin "Mikwen" McCleary leading this team with such strong overall play, nV is riding a ton of momentum going into its lower bracket semifinal matchup against Str8.

The stage is now set for what is sure to be an action packed day filled with its fair share of intrigue to close out the 2017 Halo World Championship. The competition kicks off Sunday at 1 p.m. ET with the Free-for-All Showmatch finals before the lower bracket semifinals commence shortly after.