Yep, 343/Microsoft is putting on a whopper of a Halo tournament. The total prize pool will be $1 million dollars. Watch the vid below, then some comments form me.
Okay, it’s cool and all that MS is really backing Halo. However, I have strong reservations that at high stakes tournament is going to bring Halo back to the forefront of eSports. Yes, in the temporary, it will. Might get some of the former pro Halo players to come back to Halo or at least split their time between it and COD. But it will really have to prove itself with the whole of the community when the game releases in October, if it’s to have any eSports longevity.
The response to the game can’t be mediocre. It most certainly can not have a glitchy release as HMCC did. Beyond the, the game really has to be AWESOME. I have no doubt the campaign will be. And from what we’ve seen of multiplayer from the beta, as well as the changes 343 has already made to MP after input from the beta, it looks like it’s going to be good as well.
We’ve stated to see feedback from the community via SDCC and gamescom.
Now, here’s something I’m curious about, regarding YOU my dear readers.
Will the presence of Halo eSports make a difference to you personally? What are your thoughts about pro gaming in general and this $1 million tourney in specific?
My hopes are that Halo will once again take off in eSports. Not because I like eSports, but because I want more people to play against. That will happen if Halo eSports becomes huge again. As well, the thought of throwing $1 million at pro gaming for this kind of makes me ill. There are other things that $1 million could go toward. Most critically, making the game better and with more features. I’m still very disappointed that it appears we con’t be getting firefight back. And no, I’m not talking about it’s relative, War Zone.
Reply below folks. I”m genuinely interested in what you have to say on this topic.
-Sal
I personally do not care about pro gaming, be it Halo or some other game that I play. It’s not that I dislike pro gaming, it’s just that I have no interest in it. So no, this championship would not make a difference to me. But that’s just me. There seems to be a significant amount of people interested in the competitive gaming scene (enough to warrant a one million dollar prize pool. Hell, Dota 2 has a championship tournament going on right now that has a prize pool of $18,176,340).
As for the million dollars being spent on this championship (not to mention the money spent on setting up this whole thing), it’s basically marketing as well. You said it yourself, more people might play Halo because the pros are playing it.