Season 1 of the Halo Championship Series wrapped up last month, concluding in an exciting final tournament with a $100,000 prize pool.
Halo Championship Series Season 1 Recap: Evil Geniuses Crowned Deserved Winners
The details for Season 2 have officially been announced by circuit operators ESL, who have upped the ante for the Halo 2 Anniversary eSports league. Teams were left scrambling to create a roster capable of competing with champions Evil Geniuses, and there's even more money on the line this time around.
The total season prize pool is now $250,000, with a $150,000 pool waiting at the season finals. There will only be two LAN events ahead of the final this year, with a long series of online cups padding the season for both pro points and prize money. You can see an outline of the schedule above.
Halo 5: Guardians Release Date Announced In New Trailer
Two pre-season cups will begin the season on April 5 and 12--just around the corner. The first live event will kick things off in full, a $25,000 tournament in Atlanta from April 17 to 19. Following this, the online cups will really come into play: there's no LAN tournament again until late June, with eight online cups planned on the weekends through all of May and most of June. Each of these will have a $3,000 prize pool, and the point rewards for both the online tournaments and live events can be seen in the chart below.
LAN tournament play will return a the $50,000 Indianapolis event June 26 to 28, with just one Open Cup for no pro points between then and the $150,000 final at ESL Studios in Burbank, California on July 26.
Rules this season include needing a majority (not just half) of a team to maintain pro point seeding if you drop a member, and players can only be added during three designated transfer periods. Several new maps will be tested as well during the preseason tournaments--you can find links to each on the announcement page and try them through file share.