HALO WARS 2 COMMUNITY TOURNAMENT

Roughly 3 months ago three groups came together with one thing in mind – competitive Halo Wars 2. Guess what folks? They delivered. For roughly twelve hours on Saturday, June 23, the top 16 players in the world for Halo Wars 2 came together and battled it out with a wide array of both leaders and playstyles. No two builds were the same, no two strategies. We saw so many epic matches – in many cases with just a single engagement being the deciding factor for how a game would shift.

We would love to congratulate The Banished, Breaking the Clutch, Team Respawn, and all the players who took part in the first season of the community-curated Halo Wars Championship League. It was great to see such a fun event take place and Wrensi and I had a lot of fun helping cast a few of the matches.

The Top 4

Mike BEASTon Almirante99 RockGeneration CarsandCameras

Mike’s Balance Change

One of the prizes for winning this tournament is something that will change the future of Halo Wars 2 in the form of a balance change. After talking with Mike about it he wants to make a change to Decimus’ hero unit, the Warlord. A while back siphon was removed from this melee unit because of some bugs. However, re-building the way siphon works on individual units is something Wrensi has fixed. So, in the upcoming balance update, Siphon will be re-added to the Warlord.

Q&A with the Organizers

After the season concluded we spent some time talking with the various groups that ran the series of tournaments. Below are all of their respective communication and content creation channels.

The Banished: Twitter | Twitch | Discord

Breaking the Clutch: Twitter | YouTube | Twitch | Discord

Team Respawn: Twitter| YouTube | Twitch | Discord

343: What was your favorite part of Season 1?

The Banished: Easily Mike BEASTon’s reverse sweep of Almirante. Those two had played so many games that day, it was truly a test of endurance as much as skill and Mike managed to give a suitably epic ending to season 1.

Breaking the Clutch: Our favorite part of the season was the invitational. 3 different organizations with collaboration with 343i coming together for the sole cause of bringing together the best Halo Wars 2 players. Being able to watch and choose four different matches at the same time is something Halo Wars has never seen before. It was an incredible event to witness as nearly every single matchup brought forth the highest level of play. Seeing Halo Wars live out its potential for competitive play with the support of the community is more than we could've ever asked for as a dedicated Halo community

Team Respawn: Seeing so many people enjoy watching pro players go at it! We met a ton of Halo Wars fans and people just curious on what the competitive scene for the game looks like.

343: What do you want to do differently in season 2?

B: We're hoping to have more standardized rules and more spread out tournaments. We loved having everyone participate, but it was sometimes confusing for people to have a tournament on Saturday that they could register for but having that buried by registration links for tournaments for the next two weeks.

BtC: This season was our first season for the HWCL. Breaking the Clutch will be pushing for more finite rules to spread across all tournaments in the HWCL. A more professional experience for both the participants and the viewers is a must for any competitive league. Although we have passed off the torch to The Banished for this next season’s invitational, we will continue to push forward for the highest quality experience possible.

TR: Looking into doing less tournaments per organization in the upcoming season but expand the number of organizations in the HWCL. I think having a regular rotation of casters hosting HWCL games will be a very good thing!

343: When do you think Season 2 will start?

B: Shortly after the next patch drops, we'll hopefully let the meta settle a bit and then get the party started.

BtC: Hopefully within the next month. Once all the scheduling is completed, we can begin announcing when the next tournaments will be, as well as the next invitational, hosted by the Banished.

TR: Hopefully in the next few weeks!

343: Are there going to be any more groups joining in to help support the HWCL?

B: I wouldn't anticipate we'll add any more. We've got a great group of people to work with, don't think we need any more.

BtC: It is always a possibility. There aren’t many tournament-hosting organizations for Halo Wars 2, so it is unlikely, but still possible. We always welcome special guests to help cast and process the background data to make these events possible. Breaking would like to give a special thank you to TheWALL766 for helping as a substitute caster with BtC Hosticide.

TR: I hope so! There are some good organizations out there that would great with the HWCL.

343: Where can people go for information about the HWCL tournaments?

B: Easiest places would be our different Discord servers. We're more than happy to answer any questions that you'd have!

BtC: There are a couple of places to go for HWCL information. It can be found in any of the three organizations’ discord servers, or it can all be found on the HWCL post pinned to the Halo Wars 2 forums on Halo Waypoint.

TR: Any of the group leaders, our Discord server, or the pinned page on waypoint for the seasons.