Hello there folks and thanks for taking the time to check out this very important article.

I’ve been wanting to hold a charity event for some time now. With some recent happenings behind me, I feel I can now give my full attention to doing this. I’d like to announce HaloFanForLife.com’s first ever charity tournament.

I’ve selected Autism Speaks.

You may have heard of Autism, but what is it really? Well check out this link to find out specifically what Autism is. I’ve selected this charity for two reasons. One as a person who suffers from depression and anxiety myself, I found that while not the same, I have similar attributes as those with Autism. Certainly when I was a kid the symptoms of Autism applied a lot to me. But I won’t go into detail there. Also, a friend of mine I highly respect, Andrew Sparkes, Vice President Kids & Collector Brands at Mega Brands, through Mega Brands has donated to this charity as well. So what better way to honor a person I truly admire and respect than to donate to the same charity he supports?

Mega Brands is a licensee of Halo toys and develops the awesome Halo Mega Bloks building sets that I review here on the site.

Okay, so how about the tournament info you ask? Glad you asked, here’s the details at present.

There will be two tournaments.
• 4v4 single elimination
• 2v2 single elimination

Games played will be on custom maps, a couple of which I’ve created (don’t worry, I take great pains to create good maps that work).

Depending on the number of entries will depend on the gametypes played.

First round will be slayer.
Second round, CTF
Third round, Oddball
Fourth round, Team Regicide

That’s if there are enough teams to dictate the need for that many rounds. If there is a need for more rounds (wouldn’t that be awesome) those will be slotted in.

As for prizes, I’m still determining that. At the moment it looks to be a take of the money raised, though truthfully, I’d love to give away prizes instead and give all the money to Autism Speaks. However, at present, I’m not able to grant prizes, unless there is a prize donor that comes forth. So if it comes to monetary prizes, 1st place will receive 20% of the take in monies raised and second place 5%  (for each specific tourney).

No guests are allowed to enter. Each player must have a verifiable gamertag.

[UPDATE] (Date changed to a week later as I forgot that I’ll be in New York covering New York Toy Fair the weekend of February 9…) The Tournament will start on the weekend of February 16, 2013. So there is plenty of time to get your team together.  If interested in signing up for the tournament, please e-mail me at [email protected].

Custom maps to be played on will be available to download from my fileshare: HaloFanForLife1 on the weekend of January 26, so you’ll have three weeks in which to practice on those maps.

I’ll have the rules in detail for the tournaments soon. In the meantime, please pass the word around and let’s raise awareness and funds for Autism Speaks!

UPDATE: Rules and more info now posted below!

Okay folks here are the rules and other info for the tournament, same applied to both 4v4 and 2v2 tournaments unless otherwise specified:

• Players must use a legitimate gamertag, no guests will be accepted, no exceptions.
• Tournaments are best of three, single elimination.
• Your team is allowed no more than 10 minutes late time from the time posted for your match. If you fail to show up as a full team, you are immediately disqualified (no half teams going into matches, for example).
• Payment to enter tournament must be sent by whomever is designated the team leader. The person will also be the team leader in the competition.
• If interested in submitting your team/payment, contact me at [email protected] and I will then give you the paypal e-mail address to send payment to. Paypal is the only form of payment I will receive.
• Entries into the competition can be taken up to February 9, 2013 at noon Easter time.
• While I can’t enforce this, I ask that you all be on good behavior. Remember you are representing yourself, your team, this competition and keep in mind that the charity if for kids. To that end, please refrain from using any improper language in lobbies and games. And please no t-bagging. Again, I can’t enforce that, but it is very much appreciated if you don’t do those things.
• The maps to be played on will be available on my fileshare sometime during January 26. They will be labeled as:
–  HFFL 4v4 slayer
–  HFFL 4v4 CTF
–  HFFL 4v4 Oddball
–  HFFL 4v4 Regicide
–  HFFL 2v2 slayer
–  HFFL 2v2 CTF
–  HFFL 2v2 Oddball
–  HFFL 2v2 Regicide
Be sure to download both the map and gametype for each.
• Do not look to exploit maps. I will be in the game lobbies to start and will load the maps from my fileshare. Anyone caught cheating will disqualify their team from competition. Each match must be save in the team leader’s fileshare so I can review them if there are any objections. Let’s keep this to a minimum here folks, this is to be a friendly competition to raise awareness and money for charity.
• Tournament schedule will be posted on the blog the Friday, 2/15/13 before the tournament starts.
• The 2v2 tournament will start at 3pm the Saturday of the tournament weekend 2/16/13.
• The 4v4 tournament will start at 3pm the Sunday of the tournament weekend 2/17/13.
• Be sure that your team is available for the rest of the day as I’m not sure how long it may take to get through the tournament.
• As matches conclude, I will update the tournament bracket so that each team knows who they will be facing off against in the next tier should they win.
• In the event of a ties, the team to FIRST get to the tied amount will win.
– For example if a slayer match goes 480-480, the team to get to 480 first will win. This can be verified through HaloWaypoint.com. As well for objective matches if a game goes 2-2 CTF, the team that captures the flag for the second time FIRST would win. Should Oddball be a tie, the team that reaches the final tying score first would win.

So in this respect it is VERY important that you go for the win as fast as you can, as a tie may not go in your favor.

If there is anything I missed, PLEASE reply or shoot me an e-mail [email protected].

I want to make sure all relative questions are answered.

-Sal