The Halo Championship Series Season 1 Finals began at PAX East on Friday, progressing through multiple rounds before finalizing the top three teams in Saturday's matches. There is a $100,000 prize pool on the table, and the winning squad will walk away with $50,000.
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Only first seed Evil Geniuses, strong contenders CLG (who led for most of the season) and Cinderella story Noble Black remain in the tournament after yesterday's games, and the finishing order of these three teams will be decided today. The game played in the HCS circuit is Halo 2 Anniversary from within Halo: The Master Chief Collection on Xbox One. You can watch live on Twitch via the stream below, which will kick off at 11 a.m. Eastern.
Noble Black (APG, Maniac, Arkanum, and Aries) began the tournament as the lowly 8th seed, and had to play the European champions Vibe before the event began in earnest to get a place in the bracket at all. These skilled players have been around the competitive scene for a long time (additionally, APG and Maniac won the Master Chief Collection Launch Invitiational together on a different team), but they haven't won big with this relatively new lineup.
After winning that play-in series against Vibe, Noble were knocked into the loser's bracket by EG, but used that opportunity to go on an upset-filled run. In succession, Noble eliminated 4th seed Optic Gaming, 2nd seed Denial eSports, and 5th seed Cloud 9 to earn a place in the loser's bracket finals. You can see the live bracket here for those results, and the finalized finishes for spots four through eight in the image above.
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Neither EG (Snipedown, Roy, Lunchbox, Lethul) nor CLG (Ogre 2, Heinz, Snakebite, Royal 2) have lost a series yet, but one of their winner's bracket runs will come to an end in the first matchup of the day as they face off against one another. The loser will drop down to face Noble, and those two will have to fight it out for a place in the finals against the undefeated squad.
Those two teams were the favorites coming into the tournament, and EG's squad of stars has been looking ruthless so far. Ogre 2--the greatest player to ever compete in Halo--and his efficient squad have impressed all season, though, and it's still anyone's series. If yesterday's matches were any indication, there will be some great games on display today: tune in below at 11 a.m. and enjoy the action!
Watch live video from Halo on www.twitch.tv
