“If you build it, they will come.” A classic quote that is short, sweet, to the point, and known by everyone. It can sound cliché at times, but it is one of the truest statements that can apply to each of our lives. In relation to competitive gaming and eSports, this short quote speaks volumes.

Take a deep breath, relax, and think back to the summer of 2009. If you were a competitive gaming fan, and more importantly a Halo fan, you probably remember a lot about 2009. 2009 was considered the height of Halo 3 MLG competitions. The MLG forums were the place to go to discuss anything and everything MLG Halo. Two hundred fifty six team passes would sell out in 30 minutes, and the dream of being a professional Halo player was held onto to by thousands of Halo fans from across the world. It seemed as if Halo would only continue to grow and the life of being a pro gamer that so many dreamed of would only continue to become a reality that got better and better year-by-year.

Now, fast forward to there here and now: the summer of 2014. Legitimate Halo competitions are all but dead, and the community has it’s eyes and controllers set to November 11, 2014, and the release of Halo: The Master Chief Collection to bring them back the endless hours of true Halo fun that they were brought to them when the original games released over the past 13 years. The decline that the competitive Halo community went through was due to a multitude of reasons, ranging from MLG dropping Halo from it’s season of events in 2012 to game after game being released with little to no eSports support.

With Halo: The Master Chief Collection releasing in less than 5 months, fans of competitive Halo are hoping it is the start of Halo’s climb back to the top of the eSports world as it was in years past. Fans are also looking to Halo 5: Guardians releasing in 2015 to be the true start of the climb back to the top – and with the right in game features and developer support, there is no reason Halo should not only return to it’s former glory, but continue to grow and become a legitimate competitive game once again.

As competitive gaming and eSports gets bigger each and everyday – the hopeful success of Halo 5 begs two very important questions: How, and Why, does Halo 5 need to be successful in terms of competitive gaming and eSports?

To answer the first part of this question, the how, the answer is quite simple. Halo 5 being successful as a competitive title starts with the game itself. The game, at its core, needs to go back to what made competitive 4v4 Halo in Halo 2 and 3 successful. To keep it simple, it needs to be a game that makes people want to get on everyday to play, and continually make the player want to get better. Whether this is through the pure difficulty of the game itself or a ranking system in the multiplayer, something needs to keep players coming back.

Some of the biggest games in eSports, such as StarCraft 2, League of Legends, Dota 2, and Counter Strike: Global Offensive, etc are popular because they easily fit these two needs. The games at their core are fun and challenging, and combined with ranking systems that challenge the player with each match they play, the replayability of these games seems to be endless. Even on the console side of this discussion, one of the best examples is Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is still considered one of the best Call of Duty games of all time, and was the game that propelled the Call of Duty scene to new levels in 2013. With a game that was fun and challenging at its core, combined with a brand new league play system, the competitive Call of Duty scene saw immense growth in 2013, with some events rivaling what Halo events used to be during what many still called “The Golden Age of MLG.” Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is one of the best examples of how a competitive community can grow massively in a short time with nothing more than a fun and challenging game, combined with developer support and the community behind it that capitalized on the opportunity it was given.

Just like Halo 2 and 3 in the past, these games at their core were good games that were pure fun. Combined with ranking systems and seemingly limitless in game options, some players could not put down their controller until they got the highest rank that they could. Fans to this day still reminisce about their nights on Halo 2, playing game after game grinding through the ranks until they got to the next level. The MLG playlist throughout the life of Halo 3 was a place for players to not only rank up, but play the same exact gametypes their professional gaming heroes would be playing on the MLG mainstage, which brings us to the next need of how Halo 5 can be successful as a competitive gaming title.

As mentioned in the previous sentence, the MLG playlist was part of Halo 3’s ranked playlists, and contained the same exact gametypes that would be played at MLG events all across the country. When looking at other games such as StarCraft 2, League of Legends, Dota 2, and Counter Strike: Global Offensive, there is one constant theme throughout all 4 of these major eSports titles. That theme is that the same game and gametypes played by the professional players are the same maps, games, gametypes, etc. being played by the casual players themselves, making it almost seamless for a casual player to quickly become a new fan of competitive gaming without struggling to figure out what map, gametype, etc. is being played by the professional players they are watching.

This is one very important aspect that needs to be incorporated into Halo 5 – that maps and gametypes are either introduced into the game in a hardcore/competitive playlist, or that the maps and gametypes are kept close to the vanilla settings of the game. Halo 2 is one of the best examples of this aspect – as you could not go into the maps and edit the weapons, vehicles, or objects because there was no forge. The only changes you could make were the types of weapons on the map, which made it much easier for people to relate to the gametypes and maps of MLG when looked at in comparison. It is the same for the other major eSports titles listed above. You can log onto each one of those games and do exactly what your favorite pro player does – play the same maps, the same game types, the same race, the same heroes/champions. It not only is an easy way for anyone new to competitive gaming to understand what they are watching, but to also give themselves the same feelings their favorite pro players go through when playing the game. That relation, and more so the lack of difference between the game or games being played in the professional leagues and at home by millions of casual players around the world, is a vital step into introducing new players and fans to competitive gaming.

One of the key components of Halo 5 being a successful eSport, which has been discussed many times before, is the need of an in game spectator mode. In it’s 13 year history, no game in the Halo franchise has ever had a spectator mode, and the discussion of a spectator mode in Halo has been heavily talked about since Halo: Reach. Especially in recent years, many eSports titles have seen a heavy transition into the world of online, at home leagues and tournaments. Every major eSports title currently has a spectator mode, making it very easy to broadcast these tournaments and leagues from an outside studio to fans all over the world. The lack of spectator mode has not only made running large LAN events difficult, but has also made running online leagues and tournaments seemingly useless. While independent streaming has grown massively in the past few years, the need to be able to see all POVs in any team game is of the utmost necessity.

With no spectator mode, online leagues are mostly nonexistent. As well, trying to broadcast a team game such as halo without a spectator mode means leagues and tournament organizers will need to invest in extremely expensive streaming equipment to broadcast the matches. The technology to be able to switch POVs can cost thousands of dollars, where as streaming with a spectator mode can be no more simpler than hooking up an additional Xbox and monitor to be able to sit in on all the matches, saving massive amounts of money. It is no question that any major eSports title currently played in the professional leagues is made easier to run by the tournament organizers thanks to a spectator mode. An in game spectator mode in Halo 5 can determine the games lifespan as a competitive title – and the possibilities are limitless with what the Halo community could do with a spectator mode in Halo 5.

Now, we move onto the second part of the question, which is “why?” Why does Halo 5 need to be successful as an eSport? To some people, it doesn’t. Some people could care less about competitive gaming and eSports, and see it as nothing more than a hindrance to the game and other players.

In some respects, the answer is simple. eSports and the growth of competitive gaming as a whole can be attributed to the current major eSports titles out there, and the thousands of new fans those games have brought into their respective communities. It is easier than ever to introduce friends and family into competitive gaming because of the abundance of leagues and tournaments that are available for watching right from our laptops or PCs or even gaming consoles. If Halo 5 is a great game that has a possible future in the competitive scene, easily being able to introduce more people to it will be just one step to returning Halo to it’s former glory in the world of competitive gaming.

Now, with this, not everyone will not share the same views. Everyone has his or her differing opinions on why Halo 5 needs to succeed as an eSport – and I, as well, have mine. As someone who has loved competitive gaming since I first learned about it in 2007, I’m going to share my thoughts on why Halo 5 needs to be successful as an eSport with some of my own personal experiences, so hopefully you can relate to it as well.

I remember first seeing MLG on television in 2006. It was an episode of MLG’s TV Show on USA Network, and Final Boss was playing Str8 Rippin on Team Slayer on Lockout. As someone who had been playing Halo since 2002, but did not have Xbox Live, I didn’t think too much of it. I saw that they were playing Halo 2 and thought it was cool, but I had very little knowledge of the maps and gametypes. It was not until the following year in 2007 when my cousin told me about this website called GameBattles, a website where you could play against other people in leagues, tournaments, and win money. Immediately I was interested, and he went on to tell me about MLG, and how you can be a professional gamer. At that moment, I remembered seeing the MLG TV Show, and everything clicked. Right from the first MLG event stream I watched in 2007, I was hooked. I knew that I wanted nothing more in my life than to be a professional gamer, or at least involved in the competitive gaming community.

Being apart of the Halo community for the last 7 years has made me who I am, and I would not trade any of the memories from the glory years for anything in the world. I remember being like so many other gamers out there – dreaming of playing on the MLG mainstage, introduced by Faruq to fans chanting you and your team’s name. As time went on, and the landscape of the Halo community changed, so did the dreams of many Halo players from around the world. The thought of playing on a mainstage now is almost non existent, and the thought of Halo tournaments being what they once were during the glory days seems more like a dream than a possible reality. The last 7 years have been a wild ride that I would trade for anything, and I have been so happy to be apart of it.

Some of you might be reading through this and thinking – what does this have to do with why Halo 5 needs to be successful as an eSport? I relate this question to myself personally because I feel as though you need to give aspiring gamers out there something to play for. Back in the glory days of Halo, aspiring Halo players stayed up late at night dreaming of playing alongside the Ogres and Walshy on the mainstage. They dreamed about waking up everyday knowing that you have nothing to look forward to but practicing Halo with your teammates and traveling to the next practice LAN or MLG event in the coming months. It was a dream dreamed by many, but only achieved by few.

Halo 5 needs to be a successful eSports title so that Halo players out there will once again have something to strive for and dream of. Even when Halo Reach was at it lowest points in 2011, players still played because they held out hope that things would improve the following year, and that their dreams of playing the game they loved for a living would not fade away right before their eyes. Before Columbus 2012, the community came together so that we could prove we were not dead, and that we could keep going even when the state of the game and community looked so grim. We proved ourselves to everyone out there in the competitive gaming world that we are not to be doubted, and that we can be stronger than ever when doubted and put on the back burner.

Halo 5 might be all that the competitive Halo community has left. We, as a community, are all looking to Halo 5 to be our own Black Ops 2 – to be the game that brings back the community and the feeling of the glory days as well as brings in thousands of new fans and players to take part in the incredible game that is competitive Halo. With what the Halo community has gone through in the past few years, it is safe to say they will be ready more than ever when Halo 5 releases to begin the comeback of what competitive Halo used to be. For too long, we have had to sit back and watch other games blow up in popularity and size because of powers beyond our control. Halo 5 needs to be successful so that we, the competitive Halo community, can work together once again to return Halo to it’s former glory, and push it to even bigger heights than it saw in the mid and late 2000’s.

The time is now, and with the right game that is supported and made with eSports directly in mind, it will only be a matter of time until we can return to our former glory and more once again.

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