League of Legends has been consistently the largest esports environment for quite some time and the Worlds tournament has been the capitalization of esports success as a whole.  The event peaked with over 5,000,000 viewers with the highest match being the grand finals and peaking at 5.1 million viewers.

Twitch would see the most traffic with almost 3 million of the concurrent viewers tuning in to the official live stream. YouTube would gather nearly 2,000,000 peak viewers through Co streamers and watch parties.  The combination of all these platforms, including the variety of language-based streams, would push the Worlds 2022 event into breaking its record of four million concurrent viewers set in 2021.

DRX would overcome T1 to will this year’s Worlds event after what could only be described as a miracle run to the top for DRX.  We hope the best to the teams that were involved and are excited to see what will happen next year!

OpTic Gaming was the favorite to win the Halo World Championship and the dominant team coming into the series with multiple strong performances in the prior tournaments and they did not disappoint.  Fans were certainly expecting an OpTic Gaming Championship team to show up this day, but the sheer level of play shown by the team was nearly unmatched as they managed to advance the entirety of the winner's bracket with only a single game lost.

However, a Cloud9 team that was sent to the elimination bracket very early in the event would make a showing once again to take on OpTic and gain a chance to win the Championship.  Cloud9 was eliminated in the first round of the series, but stormed through the elimination bracket with a renewed drive to succeed it all and would end up defeating every team on their way to land in the grand finals with OpTic.

The first series of OpTic vs Cloud9 was perhaps Cloud9's best gaming of the season and OpTic would fall 1-4 against Cloud9 who just earned a shot at the Championship title. The bracket reset match would come into play and Cloud9 would battle it out with OpTic for a final time, but this time OpTic would reign supreme and finish 4-1 over their foe.  OpTic would go on to celebrate the first Halo Infinite World Championship, although they almost celebrated a bit too soon when Cloud9 pulled a last-second tie on game 4, a victory would come nonetheless for OpTic.

The Halo Championship Series is coming to an end for this season and the World Championship is now upon us!  Teams are competing in multiple pools to earn their sport at that championship game as fans are watching to see who comes out on top!  The series is already here and you can view the games live on Twitch or at Uncrowned Gaming, however, the series is mildly complex and also offers some rewards that players can earn.

How to watch:

Teams are placed into "pools" and those games are being broadcasted on different Twitch channels as games are running at the same time as others.  The broadcasting is not focused on a single pool, but mostly about the highlighted games and they bring the biggest teams to the main stream and the lesser known teams to the side broadcasts.  You can view all FOUR Twitch streams below and you can check out the start times on our Events page.

• Stream A - Halo
• Stream B - Halo HCS
• Stream C - Halo HCS Red
• Stream D - Halo HCS Blue

There are also "partner streams" that are generally watch parties officially partnered with the league here:
Just a note, these streamers may or may not be streaming during the event, which is a bit confusing for partners of an event.

• Echidna
• OathxX
• UberNick
• Reclximer
• RealLifeSpartan
• A Full List is Here: https://twitter.com/i/lists/1565280521516593152/members

Rewards:

Rewards for watching are being offered via Twitch Drops.  These function by users watching a stream for X amount of time and allowing them to claim the reward to the game's account.  You can view you progress by visiting the Twitch Drops Page and you can link your Halo Waypoint Account to Twitch at your Drops Inventory Page.

For main rewards: 

• Go to a participating live channel, including Halo, HCS, hcs_red, hcs_blue, and Xbox
• Watch for 2 hours and claim the reward Winner's Circle - Emblem
• Fri, Oct 21, 2:30 PM - Mon, Oct 24, 3:00 AM EDT · Watch for 2 hours and claim the reward On Track - Emblem
• Sat, Oct 22, 2:30 PM - Mon, Oct 24, 3:00 AM EDT · Watch for 2 hours and claim the reward On Track - Armor
• Sun, Oct 23, 2:30 PM - Mon, Oct 24, 3:00 AM EDT · Watch for 2 hours and claim the reward Gladiator's Edge - Armors

For Secondary Rewards:

• Go to a participating live channel, including Echidna, OathxX, UberNick, Reclximer, RealLifeSpartan, and more
• Watch for 4 hours and claim the reward HCS Celebration Pose
• Watch for 2 hours and claim the reward "Primal Glory" Armor

Recently there was a rumor that Halo Infinite would be turning to Unreal Engine 5 for the future of the game and its modes.  The main factor fueling this rumor is the upcoming Battle Royale mode that is still heavily delayed and likely years out at this point, but also the upcoming campaign DLC that also seems to be delayed. However, is there more to the story when all of the factors are added together?

TL;DR:

• Halo: The Endless has been trademarked and sounds like a full game.
• It may be a simple campaign DLC.
• It may also be a major addition to Halo Infinite itself.
• Support seems strong for both sides.
• We currently have no evidence of what The Endless will be.

First, the Battle Royale mode is likely to arrive eventually as it continues to receive updates and has a dedicated studio to its production. However, many sources speculate it's release date will not be until 2024 at this point, making it an extremely delayed feature to add to Halo Infinite which released in 2021. Second, the campaign DLC that many people believe is called Halo: The Endless (due to the recent trademark) sounds to be more of a full game than an actual campaign DLC. The trademark itself lists numerous features of the title that go well and beyond what an entire game would have, plus being an entire trademark instead of a simple copyright also pushes the evidence that it is a new game and not an addition to the current game.

Gamers and the media have also jumped on this possibility as it would help explain the massive lack of content and commitment from 343i if their dev team is actually working on a new game instead of filling the obligations of Halo Infinite. While Halo Infinite was told to be the future of Halo for numerous years to come, the disaster roadmap and PR nightmare of the game is likely to be a hurdle that no studio will be able to overcome.

This makes it very believable that the studio and Microsoft have decided to turn the Battle Royale mode and the upcoming campaign editions into a brand new game instead of trying to patch together fixes for the current failure of the Halo series. It would also create an opening for the game to leave its currently problematic game engine and move to a new engine such as Unreal Engine 5.

Of course, there are numerous other explanations for this trademark as it could simply be a very glorified rebranding of Halo Infinite in a season called Halo: The Endless and will have tournaments and events based off "The Endless" name scheme.  There was also high possibilities that the trademark is simply to cover events and other activities that may be contained within a campaign add-on or some other major game DLC.  Or it may simply be the name of the future Halo game that we won't see until after 2030.

Months or more likely years will still be needed to see what 343i plans to do with the Halo Infinite series and how true they plan to hold their commitment to the game's 10-year plan. It is hard to see a studio hold firm with trying to commit to a game that can already be almost considered dead on some platforms and communities, but bailing on the game would likely not help the PR nightmare that Halo Infinite has become for the already struggling series.

Halo Infinite has certainly been full of controversy and speculation since its release and overall disappointing roadmap and feature list. However, with both the departure of 343i's CEO and massive pressure being applied by upcoming blockbuster releases of Overwatch 2 and Modern Warfare II, gamers have begun to speculate all sorts of wild claims and rumors that may be planned for the future of Halo Infinite.

TL;DR:

• Certain Affinity is working with 343i for a Halo Battle Royale.
• 343i has blamed their Slipspace engine for many of Halo's problems.
• Lack of DevTools may support rumors that the new BR is not on the current engine.
• New BR mode may not run on the current engine.
• Microsoft has numerous studios and tools for Unreal Engine and Slipspace has created a bottleneck for helping getting Halo in order.
• Running a game on multiple engines seems... unlikely.

Project Tatanka is a Battle Royale like mode being developed between Creative Affinity and 343 industries that has been in the works since around the release of Halo Infinite. This project is still in the works as updates have been released by a Certain Affinity as recently as last week, although details of the game mode are minimal at this point. Of course, the gigantic mess that Halo Infinite currently is also creating numerous problems with information flow and accurate sources as fans continue to be outraged by 343's cancellation of features and continued delays of forge mode and other highly anticipated features.

One of the most recent rumors about Halo Infinite is that this new Battle Royale mode will not run on the current Slipspace engine and will actually be run on Unreal Engine 5. These rumors were initially ignored as it would make little sense to drop all of the work and effort put into the mode at this point to move to a new engine, however, new rumors seem to point that the mode was never developed on the same engine to begin with. These rumors are being backed up by a continuation of problems with the current engine, including a complete lack of DevTools that would be needed to assist an outside company with creating the mode.  This rumor has been pushed by potential leaks reported by Youtuber Sean W.

There are also rumors that the core Halo Infinite game could also move to Unreal Engine. However, the logistics of this would be enormous and do not seem likely given how major features like Forge mode are still in the works.  Granted, 343s continuation of blaming their engine for their ongoing problems and Halo Infinite's absolutely disappointing performance as Microsoft's and Xbox's flagship game may actually be fueling these rumors and even may fuel an actual engine change to the game itself. The current speculation is that the Battle Royale mode would actually slowly overtake the old Halo Infinite system and instead of being added to the current game, the current game would essentially be re-added to the new mode.

Of course this is all speculation at this point and we have no clear information about what the future of Halo might involve. However, fans actually appear hopeful that the new modes and even possible upcoming campaign DLC will run on Unreal Engine instead of the current model.  One major support of these changes is that Microsoft has continued to try to support 343 and Halo by throwing money at the current problems, but the fact that no other industry or studio has experience with their engine has created massive problems with this solution as all new contractors and staff need to be trained like new. Which is likely not going over well as Microsoft has entire studios and massive support networks that are dedicated to the Unreal Engine.

While these rumors may have a lot of backing and sound theoretical uses, the problem will still remain that a singular game will not perform very well flip-flopping between game engines as the user tries to experience the game. If the Battle Royale mode stays as a mostly independent game from Halo Infinite and the campaign remains fairly separated from the multiplayer, this might actually be something that is possible and would not affect the user experience very much, but only time will tell what the future for Halo holds.

On the same day that the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority stated they are pushing an investigation into the Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Xbox’s CEO Phil Spencer released a blog detailing their plans for the newly acquired games should the deal go through.

TL;DR:

• UK is investigating the current acquisition.
• Spencer confirms CoD, Diablo, and OW are coming to Game Pass.
• We are still unknown on WoW and its subscription.
• Call of Duty is confirmed to be staying on PlayStation.

In this blog post, Spencer outlines how they plan to bring all Activision Blizzard’s games to Game Pass once the deal is complete although only lists the games currently available for consoles on his example list.  We currently do not have any answers for how PC-only games (like World of Warcraft) will be handled or if their monthly subscriptions will be affected. 

Cross-play was also a major topic of this blog and Spencer confirmed that it will remain within the games and gamers will be able to enjoy the games with their friends no matter the platform.  He pushes Minecraft as an example of Xbox’s commitment toward cross-play and mentions that Call of Duty will continue to release on PlayStation with the same edition on release day.

The Blog does lack any information about Overwatch and Diablo continuing to launch on PlayStation, but it is worth noting that Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 are already planned to release on PlayStation for their releases. Of course, cloud gaming and mobile gaming are a strong focus of the blog as Xbox continues to push their cloud gaming and mobile platforms. 

Bungie has teamed up with Epic Games for a Destiny 2-focused crossover with both Fortnite and Fall Guys on the Epic Game Store.  This will also mean that Fortnite skins will be dropping on Destiny 2 as well, although a Fall Guys skin in Destiny 2 does not appear to be a thing (perhaps we should all be glad of that). 

TL;DR:

• Destiny 2 is now on Epic Games
• Fortnite, Fall Guys, and Destiny 2 will all be getting crossover items
• Destiny 2 and Fortnite will be getting crossover maps (Destiny's map might not be themed)
• Players can find deals on Destiny 2 for the launch event on Epic Games

Destiny 2 will also be gaining a collaboration map with Epic Games for the player-vs-player Crucible mode in Destiny 2.  The map appears to be focused on Javelin-4 but we currently do not have many details about this map or if it will be themed after one of the crossover games.

Fall Guys will feature Destiny 2 skins and Fortnite will be getting an entire arsenal of skins, gliders, pickaxes, and more.  It sounds as though Fortnite will also be gaining a Destiny 2-themed map for creative mode.

These crossovers are due to Destiny 2 coming to the Epic Games store and that also has perks for players looking to pick up the game on the platform.  Destiny’s 30th Anniversary pack will be free for Epic Game’s players that feature Halo-inspired weapons for a limited time. The Destiny 2 base game is free on all platforms, but the add-ons will also be discounted for a limited time on Epic Games.

According to TechRadar, Discord is currently offering a Nitro Basic plan in the UK for $2.99 a month starting today. The plan is currently limited to UK users and is only offered on the desktop app.  Discord appears to be planning to bring the plan to iOS next but overall we do not have any released windows.

TL:DR:

• Currently only in the UK and planned for iOS next.
• Costs $2.99 a month (at least for now).
• Gives users custom and animated emojis.
• Also provides increased upload size, special stickers, and a special badge.

The plan is geared towards daily users of Discord who do not want to spend the $9.99 a month for their full range of features and perks.  The will increase a user's upload limit to 20MB per file along with allowing users to use custom and animated emoji across servers.  It also offers a special Nitro Basic badge and special stickers.  

These features are actually very practical and useful for those who use Discord on a regular basis but are not involved enough to want server boosts and the suite of other perks offered by the full plan.  The timing of this plan may have to do with the addition of Xbox and PlayStation Discord apps and the massive user base that should provide the service.

Overall, $2.99 a month would be much more appealing to users not wanting to drop over $100 a year into a free chat service.  However, nothing of this new service is confirmed to be the final global release of Nitro Basic.

On August 5, PCGamer reported that the Steam Client Beta had been re-released and updated, allowing for official support of Nintendo Switch Joy-Con controllers. The Joy-Cons can be used individually as a mini-gamepad or in pairs with the Steam Deck. Improved support for Nintendo Online Classic controllers was also provided with the update. 

Users must first access the Steam Client Beta and then click "Steam," "Settings," and "Account" to change the "Beta Participation" setting. Click "Steam Beta Update" from the dropdown menu and restart Steam to finish the installation.

Steam supports a wide range of controllers, both wired and wireless and including other Nintendo controllers. Unfortunately, there is no way to wire your Joy-Cons to your PC setup, so you'll have to use bluetooth for the connection.

More than 60 content creators will be featured in YouTube's new Game On livestream event, which will premiere on August 27.

During YouTube: Game On, fans will get to play alongside their favorite YouTube personalities via the event’s voting mechanics. The event will allow for an interactive stream where fans can decide what happens next and decide the fate of the steamer.

Gamers can actively participate in a variety of games during the upcoming event, which will be broadcasted in multiple languages simultaneously. This means that user polls will be open to gamers from around the world as streamers play hit games from Fortnite to Fall Guys.

There is currently no information about how long Game On will last since it will be determined by fans as they watch the live stream. Segments and a schedule are likely to be revealed before the event begins, but currently, we only know that it begins at 4pm ET.

What kinds of segments will be on YouTube: Game On?

Fans will have control over the destiny of YouTube: Game On. They will decide whether to see horror segments with jump scares or Hot Ones, a segment hosted by Sean Evans, who will ask guests to play Street Fighter 6 and consume increasingly spicy chicken wings. On the program, Gran-Poppy Playtime will see unsuspecting seniors attempt to be the last person standing while playing Poppy. There will be many other segments from the following games and possibly more:

• Among Us
• Fall Guys
• Fortnite
• Free Fire
• Friday Night Funkin’
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Minecraft
• Mortal Kombat 11
• Poppy Playtime
• Rocket League
• Street Fighter 6
• Trackmania