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Halo: The Master Chief Collection releases November 11th, 2014. In a few measly months, gamers will have the chance to see what Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2 and Halo 3 was meant to look like by the artists who worked hard to create the visuals, since the original Xbox and Xbox 360 were not equipped to fully display the code that was written for them.

The Master Chief Collection will be released on the Xbox One only, and the buzz is getting louder in the diehard Halo community as people remember what it was like to compete in and watch tourneys of truly well-balanced, competitive shooters.

Leagues are being set up across the globe in anticipation, requiring vast amounts of man hours and resources to accomplish, in order to give the people what they have been craving for so many years: The active return of Halo to eSports.

 

Recently, I was approached by team HazarD, who was interested in having me design their logo. Being pleased with the work I was doing on their logo, they next asked me to create their jerseys. I’ve been wanting to take a crack at eSports jerseys, feeling the desire to create quality, unique jerseys for competitive teams, and I was eager to prove my talent.

The HazarD jersey design is in progress and not ready to share, but Halo Diehards is proud to have become a sponsor for HazarD, and it was time to do some research, see what’s happening and coming up in competitive Halo.

What I’ve learned this morning is quite disconcerting.

There are already cracks in the game plan that mars the perfection that could be with the rebirth of competitive Halo. Apparently, according to Scott Lussier (Gandhi, one of the National Champions for Halo 2), the Xbox One was not designed to be conducive for a successful large LAN environment, as is necessary to run a large eSports league.

Loading an account onto the Xbox One is not a simple process, and there is a limit to the number of accounts that it will allow to be loaded onto it, putting an even greater strain on the inspirational leaders in the competitive community that are trying to provide this long-awaited arena for teams and fans.

Listen as Ghandhi explains the situation in this video announcing the UGC Halo 2 10K Tournament set for January of 2015.

 

 

 

It’s really hard to imagine that the people responsible for creating the Xbone didn’t have the foresight to make sure the machine was fit for large LAN leagues. At $500 a pop, and with eSports being the craze that it is, the Xbox One should be well-equipped to run competitive events. The fact that this may not be so is actually quite astonishing.

To add to that I learned something a couple of days ago that lessens the value of the Kinect.

I haven’t purchased my own Xbox One yet, haven’t decided for sure that I will. I may make the move to the PC or make a drastic cut in gaming completely and pick up some new hobbies, staying with the Xbox 360. But if I do go with the Xbox One, one of the only reasons I’d want a Kinect is for the capture and stream ability, even though I already have a capture card. But what I learned, is that the capture and stream abilities of the Xbone do not include game chat.

Really? How many streamers, especially of the competitive variety, do you know that stream without game chat? Makes you kind of scratch your head at the game devs.

After years of laying in wait, the competitive Halo community finally sees some light at the end of the tunnel and will push forward, regardless of the obstacles the Xbox One places before it. I for one am interested to see where it all goes.

Will competitive Halo become the rage it once was? Will developers finally realize that this is a direction that’s worth their while and make games that support the playstyle? Time will tell. In the meantime, why not check out and follow the progress on UGC and other competitive Halo events that can be found across the ‘net.

Me? I’ve got some jerseys and logos to make!

 

 

Links: @HazardESportsNA, @ScottGandhi, Wikipedia – Halo: The Master Chief Collection (has better info than the MCC page at Halo Waypoint), UGC Events