343 has revealed the upcoming HCS season in a blog post and there’s a lot in there which can be confusing/overwhelming. So in order to help understand how it all works, we thought we’d do our best to break it down.
There are six type of tournaments throughout the season:
$ = size of prize pool/scale of tournament
$ – Open Series – Open, region-specific, online tournament where the Top Eight teams qualify for the following Pro Series tournament. Usually feature a single-elimination bracket
$ – Pro Series – Closed, region-specific, online tournament where the Top Eight teams from the previous Open Series tournament will be put into a double-elimination bracket with the Top Eight teams from the previous Pro Series tournament.
$$ – Super Tournaments – Open, region-specific, online tournament equal in weight to a Regional Qualifier featuring an open bracket, pool play, and championship bracket. Teams can qualify for a pool play spot in the following Major.
$$ – Regional Championship – Open, region-specific, LAN tournament equal in weight to a Super Tournament featuring an open bracket, pool play, and championship bracket. Teams can qualify for a pool play spot in the following Major.
$$$ – Majors – Open, global, LAN tournament featuring an open bracket, pool play, and championship bracket.
$$$$ – Halo World Championship – Closed, global, LAN tournament featuring a play-in stage, group stage, and championship bracket.
All tournaments award HCS 4v4 Points or HCS FFA points and most have event-specific cash prizes. These points will be used mainly for seeding purposes, but can also determine qualifying status for certain events.
All online tournaments will be hosted on the FACEIT platform and the HCS Points leaderboard will be hosted on Esports Engine’s HCS portal.
All LAN tournaments will be operated by their respective regional partner: Esports Engine for NA, DreamHack for EU, ESL for ANZ, and Gaming Partners for MX.
The season will begin with three online, open tournaments as a calibration period before the first Kickoff Major in Raleigh. The third of those is the Kickoff Qualifier, where 16 teams will guarantee themselves a Pool Play spot at the Raleigh Major.
Each week after the first Major, Open Series and Pro Series tournaments will take place until each region’s first respective Regional Championship or Super Tournament. Open and Pro Series tournaments will take place afterwards until the next Major in Kansas City. Again, Open and Pro Series tournaments will resume until each region’s second respective Regional Championship or Super Tournament. This will be followed by more Open Series tournaments (except ANZ) until the final Major in Orlando. After the Orlando Major, the Halo World Championship will take place in Seattle, Washington.
There will be other, one-time tournaments sprinkled in between events here and there, but they have yet to be announced.
So, a very simple, vague way to lay out the season for each region is: Open/Pro Series > Major > Open/Pro Series > Regional Championship/Super Tournament > Open/Pro Series > Major > Open/Pro Series > Regional Champonship/Super Tournament > Open/Pro Series > Major > World Championship.
We’ve made public Google Calendars for each region that includes each HCS event scheduled so far:
North America
European
Mexico
Australia/New Zealand
