Halo players,

It’s with deep regret we must cancel this year’s Gamers for Giving Halo tournament.

For eight years, we’ve had the privilege to consistently host some of the most competitive and enjoyable Halo tournaments in the Midwest – including a portion of last year’s Halo Championship Series.

We’re proud to say our roots as an organization come from Halo. Through thick and thin, it’s a community and franchise that has remained near and dear to our hearts. We have always looked forward to including Halo as part of Gamers for Giving.

Due to encountering an unrecognizable error in the custom games matchmaking platform, we are unable to successfully host this year’s tournament. This was an entirely unanticipated and unexpected occurrence, and was not an error we encountered during any of our test sessions with the consoles. After spending multiple hours testing various network configurations, swapping switches, interacting directly with 343 Industries, and even considering a venue swap – it has simply not been possible to initiate custom game sessions in a reliable tournament environment.

This is not a decision we made lightly, and we deeply regret any inconvenience this has caused our attendees. Please know this decision was made after exhausting all possible scenarios that would’ve reasonably included any hope of the tournament happening within the means of our attendees, volunteers, and resources. We know some of you have traveled far distances to compete at Gamers for Giving this weekend, and we want to make things right as best we can.

If your team would like a full pass refund, we will be honoring requests until March 21st, 2016. Please open a support ticket through the LANFest website with the subject line “Halo Refund Request”, and provide the PayPal transaction ID from your original purchase. The refund will be issued through the same method of payment your team pass was purchased.

Alternatively, we are happy to offer complimentary Sky Loft passes to teams who would rather allocate the cost of their tickets to the fundraising goal of Gamers for Giving. If your team would like to join us for the remainder of the event as a Sky Loft guest, please visit the console check-in desk and present your team’s registration or photo ID. We’d love to spend the weekend with you in our hospitality lounge.

We apologize again to all of you who’ve made the effort to be a part of this year’s event. We appreciate you coming out and joining us, and hope to see some of you in the Sky Loft tomorrow.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out directly at contact@gamersoutreach.org.

All other aspects of Gamers for Giving will continue as planned. We hope to welcome back Halo again in the future, and to see you at Gamers for Giving.