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The Halo World Championship finally returns after a four-year hiatus since 2018! Now, 20 competing teams from all over the world will be competing on Halo: Infinite to see who the best Spartans in the galaxy are. Read on to get into the historic world of Halo esports and find out all you need to know about Halo World Championship betting.
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Halo: Infinite is the return of Halo to its former glory. Learning from the mistakes of Halo 3 and Halo 5, Microsoft and 343 Studios relaunched the Halo Championship Series in 2021 at the same time with the release of Halo: Infinite. Since then, the community’s been more welcoming and the competitive scene’s been thriving.
Now that the regional leagues are back, you can find tournaments from amateur, amateur elite, semi pro, and pro in the Halo Championship Series across the year. This leaves the everyday punter with a breadth of options to bet on. From North America to Oceania, let's take a look at what you can bet on in Halo esports from the below betting markets.
Despite the complexity of Halo: Infinite, moneyline bets are still your go-to when betting on the historic esport. And although there are a variety of game modes like Stronghold, Slayer, Capture the Flag, and Oddball, moneyline bets are still all about predicting whoever comes out on top. Therefore, be sure to know the order of game modes in a best-of series to better your odds. However, it is worth noting that you can place individual bets on maps or bet on full-length best-of-three or best-of-five matches across Halo esports.
Best betting sites to use for Moneyline betting: Rivalry
Future bets are simple yet almost always unexpectedly hard to get right. Upsets happen all the time in esports – no matter the genre, and predicting an overall winner for the tournament or even just the finalists is a tough job on its own. However, it can be fun to root for your chosen team all the way up to the finals!
Best betting sites to use for Futures betting: Pinnacle
Totals is the next level in upping your game in betting on Halo esports. In Halo: Infinite, totals can refer to going over or under maps played in a best-of series or kills or takedowns in a match. As an example, the upcoming Halo World Championship will mostly be played in best-of-fives, so betting under 3.5 maps predicts that the series will be a one-sided affair. Otherwise, betting over 4.5 means that the series will go the distance with a 3-2 score line.
As a reminder, closer matches between teams with closer skill gaps usually mean bloodier fights. As such, it can be helpful to glance at the team standings and look at stat platforms like Halo Data Hive to help you out with your betting decisions.
Best betting sites to use for Total betting: 1xBet
Handicap betting is given its name because it makes use of handicaps to level the playing field. This is achieved by requiring teams to win by a set margin for it to be considered a win. Although they are harder to predict, getting handicap bets right provides much greater rewards. Handicap bets are better explained through examples.
In the upcoming world championship, a +1.5 map handicap for a best-of-five series means that a team only needs to win two games for you to secure your payout. This is because that would total to a 3.5 score, which is above the 3 wins needed to win a best-of series. A -2.5 map handicap requires a team to convincingly win out in a 3-0 sweep, while a -1.5 map handicap allows a team a one-game allowance 3-1 for you to win your bet. Remember that a team doesn’t necessarily have to win the series for you to cash out.
Best betting sites to use for Handicap betting: Pinnacle
Then, there’s one of the hardest betting formats, propositional betting. Prop bets rely on one’s game knowledge to figure out what exactly will go down in the arena, because as we all know, not all occurrences in-game necessarily decide the game’s outcome. Bets such as guessing the correct map score, if a match will proceed to overtime, or even as simple as melee kills can be used in prop betting – thus requiring a lot of prep work and research for the higher payoff it offers.
Best betting sites to use for Prop betting: Rivalry
It's been over four years since the last Halo World Championship and teams across the globe are more than eager to get their hands on the trophy once more. With the Halo Championship Series partnering with Esports Engine in 2020, the competition’s seen changes here and there in the 2022 season. Times have changed since then, with former champions like Splyce and Counter Logic Gaming being out of the count for the upcoming World Championship. We’ve seen teams like Sentinels and Cloud9 win out in the biggest majors in the past year. Therefore, keep a good eye out when betting on the Halo World Championship.
The Halo World Championship comes as one of the top esports tournaments of the year, with a full-scale pro circuit behind it. The Halo World Championship is the yearly finale of the Halo Championship Series hosted by Microsoft. From Split 1 to Split 2, 4v4 teams compete all-year round to see who’s at the top of the competition in the newly- released Halo: Infinite.
Tickets for the #HCSOrlando22 Major and the #HaloWC 2022 go on sale tomorrow at 10am PT – don't miss your chance to witness history in person with the whole @Halo community! 🏆 🎟️ https://t.co/vbxoB0Nxyd pic.twitter.com/ZnKFjfIOV9 — Halo Esports (@HCS) June 28, 2022
Tickets for the #HCSOrlando22 Major and the #HaloWC 2022 go on sale tomorrow at 10am PT – don't miss your chance to witness history in person with the whole @Halo community! 🏆
🎟️ https://t.co/vbxoB0Nxyd pic.twitter.com/ZnKFjfIOV9
— Halo Esports (@HCS) June 28, 2022
To qualify for the World Cup, teams can either get enough circuit points in their country/region or finish the Halo Championship Series 2022: Orlando as part of the top 12. The tourney features the 20 best teams in the world duking it out from October 20 to 23, 2022 in the Seattle Convention Center, Seattle, North America.
Halo goes way back in esports history as one of the OGs that brought up gaming. The game, Halo: Combat Evolved, was released in late 2001 with over five million copies sold. In the early 2000s, generations in North America would remember playing Halo on their Xbox till the wee hours of dawn. And from this, Halo esports would be born and go on to form organisations like Major League Gaming (MLG) that organised top-tier tournaments with hundreds of thousands of dollars in prizing.
The support towards Halo would keep on growing from its $180,000 in prizing in the MLG National Championship 2006 all the way until the first-ever Halo World Championship in 2016, with a whopping $2.5 million USD pool. Although it wasn’t always smooth-sailing for the triple-A title, Microsoft’s investment into supporting Halo’s esport scene really allowed the Halo Championship Series to keep growing with regions joining across the world:
Now, years after, the Halo Championship Series has returned better than ever and with it, comes the revival of the Halo World Championship. Teams like OpTic Gaming, Cloud9, and Sentinels are gunning for the trophy, hoping to dominate the growing scene. But only time will tell if Halo esports can ever return to the peak that it used to enjoy and be on par the likes of League of Legends, Counter-Strike, and Dota.
There are 20 competing teams in the Halo World Championship, but only one team will come out victorious. For the first stage of the championship, eight of the 20 teams will be competing in the Play-In stage. The Play-Ins will have the top 2 teams from Europe, North America, Mexico, and Oceania compete in a single-elimination bracket. All matches will be played in best-of-fives with the Top 4 qualifying into the next stage of the tournament.
Following Play-Ins, then comes the Pool Play – a group stage where 4 groups of 4 teams each compete in a round robin format. To qualify straight into Pool Play, teams must be in the top 12 of the upcoming HCS 2022: Orlando. Similarly, all matches are to be held in best-of-fives, with the 1st and 2nd place teams from each group qualifying for the last and final stage of the tourney.
In the final day of the tournament, we have the Championship Bracket that sees the last eight teams compete to see who’s the best of the best. In this stage, all matches are still best-of-five, but unlike the former stages, the championship bracket will be double elimination. After all’s said and done, there will be one team to stand above them all.
Since the Halo World Championship is so far away, we still don’t have the roster of competing teams for the upcoming S-tier event. As the competition comes closer, however, expect this article to be updated with the latest information regarding the teams joining the Halo World Championship. Tune in to the Halo Championship Series 2022: Orlando from September 23 to 25 to see who qualifies for the upcoming tournament.
Being supported by Microsoft – one of the biggest companies in the industry, means that 343 Industries has the backing to carry out one of esports’ biggest tournaments of the year. As such, it sports a whopping $1,000,000 USD in prizing despite Halo being on the downtrend in the past decade.
Of this prize pool, almost half ($400,000) goes to the champion alongside 200,000 Pro Points (50,000 per player). Pro points are a part of the Halo Championship Series’ ranking system, where having more points qualifies you into tiers of competition. Players can only compete in tiered events they qualify for (online tournaments, pro series, regionals, etc.).
As we mentioned, the Halo World Championship is still far away and with the Orlando major yet to take place, the rankings could all change overnight. It’s no secret that North America has been dominating the Halo competitive scene for the past years, though, so right off the bat, we see a few key players heading into the highly- anticipated tourney.
OpTic Gaming have returned after they unexpectedly exited Halo’s competitive scene about five years ago –right just when they won the championship in 2017. Although they now field a brand-new roster, OpTic’s proved that they’ve still got it. The team won the HCS 2022: North America Super in a 4-0 sweep against Gamers First to be the best team in the region heading into Orlando. They convincingly took down fellow rivals Cloud9 and Sentinels along the way to the trophy, and Orlando will be the next test to their claim to the throne.
When the Halo Championship Series returned in 2021, Cloud9 were the first to strike in the HCS 2021: Kickoff Major. They convincingly took down eUnited to start their season strong. They’d then continue their dominance in the following North America Regionals, where they beat OpTic Gaming to be the favorites heading into the Kansas City Major. However, they fell short to Sentinels when it mattered, going 0-4 in the finals. As such, questions arise of the team’s performance heading into Orlando. But with the addition of Adam “Bound” Gray to their roster in the past month, things could start looking up for the North American squad.
Gamers First is the dark horse heading into the rest of the Halo ’21-’22 competitive season. This team has slowly been creeping up the ladder since they started playing in the past year, now taking down juggernauts like Cloud9 and Sentinels in the past regionals. In the kickoff major of last year, they lost 0-3 to Sentinels to finish 17th-24th. In the Kansas City major, they lost to Europe’s Acend 1-3 to end the tournament in 9th-12th. In Orlando, however, we could see the script finally turning its head as the team matures and finds their footing in professional Halo.
Though it can be overwhelming to start betting on an up-and-coming league such as the Halo Championship Series, there’s a lot of gold to be made by finding the right bets and striking at the right time. Right now, North America is the region everyone’s looking at to lead the way in the last months of the season. But it can be good to be familiar with all the competing teams in the tournament to see which ones are worth putting in a pretty penny for.
On the same note, pay close attention to these teams’ roster changes and performances in the recent months. While it can be good to see results in the past year, they just might not be the same team that won them that championship a lifetime ago. As such, always do your research and due diligence by researching these teams on stat platforms (such as Halo Data Hive) and watching their livestream VODs (video-on-demand) on YouTube.
Lastly, we know it’s a given, but familiarise yourself with the growing meta of Halo: Infinite as the game was just released and is still growing. All-new strategies are being found out across varying game modes, and being familiar with these will help you see which teams will be better equipped come the World Cup.
While it's too early to predict a winner, it’s never too early to start doing your research. Stay tuned to the regional leagues of the Halo Championship Series and keep your eyes and mind open. Though North America has always been the juggernaut in Halo esports, that could easily change in the ’21-’22 season. Take the Orlando major as a hint to see who will be performing in the Halo World Championship that comes in the month after.
But remember, even champions can fall as we’ve seen Sentinels and Cloud9 stumble in the past year after winning their respective majors. Come back to this guide the weeks after Orlando to see how we rank the teams joining the Halo World Championship to help you make your decisions when betting.
The Halo World Championship is the climax of the long and winding Halo Championship Series. It returns in the 21-22 season after a four-year hiatus since 2018.
We recommend Rivalry for moneyline, futures, and prop bets, 1xBet for total bets, and Pinnacle for handicap betting!
You can watch the livestream of the Halo World Championship on its official Twitch and YouTube. You can even follow the respective perspectives of the Blue and Red teams on Twitch!
Right now, it’s too early to say. We suggest keeping a close eye on the Halo Championship Series 2022: Orlando Major to see the heavy favourites coming into the world cup.
The Microsoft-backed Halo World Championship features an astounding $1 million USD in winnings, with $400,000 going to the eventual champion. Not bad for an esport still on its return to glory.
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