Earlier today, we announced our master plan for the launch of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, which comes in the form a celebration we like to call HaloFest. Three years ago, we built a living museum of Halo history for Halo: Combat Evolved’s 10th Anniversary. For Halo 2’s anniversary celebration this year, we’ll be heading down to Los Angeles for a weekend of Halo festivities and live streams, which means if you’re reading this, you’ll likely be able to join us by tuning in. Let’s jump into the details.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection Launch Invitational

The action begins at ESL’s Burbank, CA eSports studio on November 8, where 32 of the biggest names in eSports will duke it out in Halo 2: Anniversary multiplayer for $50,000 in prizing and a chance to be the first to play the Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta. We teamed up with our friends at ESL and Twitch to bring you a two-day event with world-class 4v4 Halo 2: Anniversary tournament gameplay just days before the release of Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

Rather than select full team rosters ourselves, we instead chose eight elite Halo players who will serve as team captains. The team captains have been given approximately one week to select the three teammates that they’ll take into battle at the Launch Invitational.

Without further ado...

launch invitational team captains:

The team captains have been notified of their captainship, and are currently selecting their peers to form their rosters for the tournament. Please note that some elite players that you may expect to see on this list were omitted because another team captain had communicated that they had an interest in selecting them for their team. What I’m trying to say is that OGRE2 may be in attendance.

The teams will be fighting for the following prize money:

1st – $20,000 USD

2nd – $12,000 USD

3rd – $6,000 USD

4th – $4,000 USD

5th/6th - $2,500 USD

7th/8th – $1,500 USD

In next week’s Bulletin, we’ll announce the final team lineups that you can expect to see on launch weekend. Alex “Goldenboy” Mendez will be joining me for play-by-play and analysis, and all of the action will be streamed at Twitch.tv/Halo.

On November 10, the venue - and title - will switch as we take over the Avalon Theater in Los Angeles. On the eve of the game's launch, you’ll have a chance to see the Halo 5: Guardians Multiplayer Beta before its December release – the winning team from the Halo: The Master Chief Collection Launch Invitational will be the first to play the Beta, and will provide us with a first glimpse into what’s on the way.

Additionally, we’ll also be showing off the world premiere of the first episode of Halo: Nightfall, which is included with The Master Chief Collection. Join us on Xbox Live, Xbox.com, or Twitch.tv/Halo to see all the action.

Speaking of Halo: Nightfall, we also released the official trailer just this morning on the official Xbox YouTube channel. You can check it below.

We’re excited for HaloFest this year, and we hope you are too. See you in a few short weeks!