The ESL Halo: The Master Chief Collection tournament coming up this weekend is a chance to showcase the title (and remind us all of how good the past Halo games were, if anyone has forgotten) while giving top players a chance to compete for $50,000 in prize money.
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The competition will serve a more important role for the competitive community, however: ESL's tournament will act as a launch pad for Halo's future as an eSport, and go a long way in determining which title from The Master Chief Collection will mainly be played in tournaments.
Halo 2 Anniversary seems to be the favorite so far-it was the game of choice at the PAX Prime Showdown, and will be used in ESL's launch tournament as well. Halo: Combat Evolve has never been available on Xbox Live before, but its classic LAN competitions have kept interest among hardcore players. Halo 3 is the second most popular choice for competitive play, especially given the makeup of the active community today, but it doesn't seem likely to take the reins from Halo 2 Anniversary.
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ESL's tournament will serve as a launch pad for competitive Halo, ideally putting it back in the public eye. The series had been MLG's flagship game for years, but the rise of Call of Duty and Starcraft (combined with the competitively lackluster Halo Reach) put the franchise on the back burner. Many pros have stayed committed, and if they top eight teams perform and entertain at this weekend's event, the series could very well be back in the limelight once again. The trailer below, courtesy of Beyond Entertainment's Snipetality, captures all of this with footage from events and games past-The Master Chief Collection is set to bring it back to the present.
