First up is the progress of the third week of the Halo 4 Global Championship.

As of the bulletin’s writing, here are the top ten so far this week:

This week is Rumble Pro, BTW. In the meantime, 343 is still working to verify the winners from the first two weeks of competition.

As expected (not even a secret) the finals will take place at PAX this year.

Next up is the Matchmaking Playlist Update

Here’s a look at week 4 of the Halo 4 Global Championship gameplay, which is aptly titled “Rumble Grab Bag.”

 

Here are the loadouts for the slayer variants of the above games:

UNSC Slayer

Loadout	Pro BR
Primary Weapon	Battle Rifle
Secondary Weapon	Assault Rifle
Grenades	2x Frag
Armor Ability	None
Tactical Package	Resupply
Support Upgrade	Explosives

Covenant Slayer

Loadout	Pro Carbine
Primary Weapon	Carbine
Secondary Weapon	Storm Rifle
Grenades	2x Plasma
Armor Ability	None
Tactical Package	Resupply
Support Upgrade	Explosives

Forerunner Slayer

Loadout	Pro LightRifle
Primary Weapon	LightRifle
Secondary Weapon	Suppressor
Grenades	2x Pulse
Armor Ability	None
Tactical Package	Resupply
Support Upgrade	Explosives

Here are the settings for the Objective based games of the Halo 4 Global Championship:

FFA Oddball

Game Settings
Score to Win	150
Time Limit	12 minutes
Oddball Options
Ball Count	1
Ball Spawning	Static
Carry Points	1 point
Carrier Kill Points	No Points
Automatic Pickup	Enabled
Hot Potato Timer	Disabled
Random Potato Timer	Disabled
Carrier Visibility	Enabled
Loadout Usage	Personal
Respawn Settings
Respawn Time	5 Seconds
Suicide Penalty	3 Seconds
Death Cam	Disabled
Infinity Settings
Personal Ordnance	Disabled
Equipment
Motion Tracker	Enabled
Sensor Range	Unchanged

FFA KOTH

Game Settings
Score to Win	150
Time Limit	12 minutes
KOTH options
Hill movement	Progressive
Number of Hills	1 Hill
Scoring Style	Score One
Hill Movement Condition	Time
Hill Time Limit	30 seconds
Hill Point Limit	25 points
Drain on Hill Move	Disabled
Trespasser Kill Points	Disabled
Hill Spawn Penalty	Disabled
Vehicles on Hills	Disabled
Loadout Usage	Personal
Respawn Settings
Respawn Time	5 Seconds
Suicide Penalty	3 Seconds
Death Cam	Disabled
Infinity Settings
Personal Ordnance	Disabled
Equipment
Motion Tracker	Enabled
Sensor Range	Unchanged

Since week for of the competition has objective based games, I may finally throw my hat into the ring here. Do I expect to do well? Hell no. But it’s the week that I would mostly likely have my best showing.

Next is the part that is likely to upset some of you. It does me…

Global Championship Invites

(Text directly copied form Halo Waypoint)

When we announced the Halo 4 Global Championship, we stated that some competitors would be invited to compete in the finals event. We had to jump through some additional legal hoops to announce the specifics, and are now able to share the details of the first invites.

The goal of the first group of invites is to reward top Halo 4 competitors who have performed well over the past few months at regional tournaments. We’ve teamed up with Arena Gaming League (AGL) to invite the following players to compete in a semi-finals bracket against other invited players. The players who emerge from the semi-finals bracket will face-off against the winners from RTX, Gamescom, and the online qualifier in the final bracket of the Halo 4 Global Championship. The winner will take home $200,000.

The players will be contacted directly in the near future. Here is the current list of players that will be receiving invites:

Tournament	Invited Players
AGL 3	1st place 4v4
AGL 4	1st place 4v4
AGL 5	1st place 4v4
AGL 6	1st place 4v4
AGL 7	1st place 4v4, Top 16 FFA
AGL 8	Top 4 4v4 teams, Top 16 FFA

After RSVP’ing, players who receive an invite will be given admission to the Halo 4 Global Championships and a spot in the semi-finals bracket. Invited players are responsible for providing their own travel and lodging, but will be given a PAX badge so that they may compete in the invite bracket. Also, we’ll be keeping a very close eye on the AGL 9 tournament on August 9-11 in Atlanta, GA, so best of luck to all of the 4v4 and FFA players!

HFFL: So you few non-pro players who snuck in through RTX and who might get lucky through the weekly competition…forget it. The cards ARE being stacked against you. Personally, I feel that only those people who have actually played in the official Halo 4 Global Championship and placed in the convention events and online competition should be allowed to compete for the big money in Seattle at PAX. With respect to whomever made this decision, those gamers you’re inviting into this competition already have AMPLE opportunity to play and win for money. Let them fend for themselves like the rest of us in the official contest. It really is a slap in the face to those who put in a crap ton of time online now seeing that they will have to face pros, even more so than those who qualified at RTX. My comment above about playing next week. NIX that. This competition has not been worth my time, especially given the special treatment to pros, who again have and continue to have their chances to win money playing Halo otherwise.

Lastly, the screenshot spotlight shines on the Majestic Map pack. I can’t wait until Castle comes back. I still need just ONE achievement for Halo 4 and it’s specific to that playlist/maps.

Want to read the whole bulletin? Go here.