Chronique:Halo Bulletin 07/08/2013

Working on Halo often requires that I keep quiet about ongoing projects. This can be particularly difficult when the project in question is awesome, or contains a remake of one of Halo 3's most popular maps, or contains a brand new game type, or new armor, or - you get the point. The development of the Champions Bundle has been particularly exciting to watch over the past few months, especially thanks to last-minute-clutch-game-winning passes during Ricochet playtests. The game type offers an entirely new team experience, and I absolutely cannot wait to see the game type played in Matchmaking, tournaments, and beyond. In addition to the newness, excitement, and often chaotic nature of this game type, we've also got five new medals that will be included - so let's talk about 'em.

Champions Bundle Medals[modifier]

At San Diego Comic-Con, we showcased some of the new medals included with the Champions DLC but we have not yet had the chance to discuss them in detail, so now seems like the perfect time to do so. Ricochet—the brand new game type which requires you to move the ball across the map and into your opponent's goal, either by throwing or running —has a variety of new medals for you to earn. We demoed Ricochet gameplay at Comic-Con last month and if you'd like to understand just how these medals are earned (and pick up some early tips), be sure to check out the Ricochet tournament footage from our live stream. Here are the descriptions of the new goodies for all of you medal-heads (see what I did there?).

Goal Defense: Kill an enemy ball carrier within 25m of your goal without them scoring.

Ball Clear: Throw a ball 40m away from your own goal.

Goal Keeper:' Kill 5 enemies while defending the goal.

Rejection: Intercept a throw within 25m of your goal.

Fast Break: Scoring a goal within 15 seconds of a ball set without a turnover.

I've been fortunate enough to play a fair bit of Ricochet over the past month, and I must say that the Rejection interception is by far my favorite medal. It is hard to beat jumping up, snagging a goal-bound ball out of the air, and frustrating your hopeful opponent to no end.

This experience (and new medals) will be available with Ricochet and the Champions Bundle on August 20th. If you need a refresher on what's included in the Champions Bundle, check out the 7.10 Bulletin. If you need to find me that week, I'll be online, playing Ricochet, and waiting by my goal. Get ready for interceptions, people!

Halo 4 Global Championship Update[modifier]

We are now almost halfway through week 4, leaving just over 11 days left in the Halo 4 Global Championship Online Qualifier. As we have mentioned, we are performing thorough checks of each week's leaderboards before announcing finalists. This includes sweeping for cheaters, verifying account ownership and personal info, and more. For week 1, we have confirmed three finalists, and are currently waiting to hear back from the potential 4th finalist.

Confirmed Week 1 Winners:

garigraiko39

T15 Carnopy

xStr8 SicK

Congrats to the above players! For week 2, we have confirmed four winners and will be contacting them shortly. This process took longer than expected, as investigations led to the discovery of players who were using exploits such as network manipulation and boosting. These players will be removed from the leaderboards, and appropriate action will be taken against their accounts. We are taking the same action against the week 3 leaderboard and will report the final results when possible. Thank you for your patience as we ensure accuracy in our final leaderboards.

We will be contacting the winners of these weeks by the end of the week. If you are one of the top placing players in these weeks, keep an eye on your inbox. Also, if you have been invited as a competitor, you will also be receiving an email with additional event details this week. Let's now take a look at the week 4 leaderboard:

The above players have demonstrated that they all are well-rounded FFA players - with as high as 61 games played in the Global Championship playlist, there is no doubt that they have all played their fair share of objective as well as Slayer game types. We're looking forward to seeing how the finalists from week 4 stack up against the rest of the competition at the Halo 4 Global Championship Finals - stay tuned to Waypoint for updates on confirmed finalists and the final player pool.

Matchmaking Playlist Update[modifier]

On Monday, we'll be moving into the fifth and final week of the Halo 4 Global Championship. When we shared the tournament schedule, we revealed that the featured game type for the final week would be Legendary Rumble. We're excited to announce it will also feature Legendary Rumble BR, a new game type premiering in the Global Championship playlist in response to community feedback regarding a BR-start Legendary experience. The maps and settings will mimic the 4v4 Legendary Slayer offering, with no initial, random or personal ordnance, weapons placed around the map, motion tracker enabled and a single Loadout for all players. The settings for each game type are as follows:

Legendary Rumble

Legendary Rumble BR

For Legendary BRs, we added a Battle Rifle in the Primary Weapon slot, and moved the Assault Rifle into the Secondary Weapon slot. These settings will offer a BR-based game type that is quite different from the Team Throwdown and Pro game types, and we hope that you enjoy the experience. Additionally, we want to hear your feedback on the game type, as we are considering adding it to the Legendary Slayer playlist after the tournament concludes. Head on over to the War Games Feedback section and let us know what you think after you give it a shot.

Week 5 is your last chance to qualify outside of the Gamescom tournament, so be sure to register if you haven't already. Just by registering, you'll be rewarded with a free 'sKills' Avatar shirt, and for each week that you play 20 games in the Global Championship playlist we'll award you with 20 games of Double XP tokens. This applies to all weeks, so there's still time to get your Double XP from week 4 as well. As always, best of luck to all competitors, and we can't wait to see who the finalists will be.

In Spartan Ops Matchmaking, we're offering the third and final Covenant-themed series of missions:

Mission 4, Episode 1: Hairy Call
Mission 4, Episode 3: Random Transport
Mission 5, Episode 3: Everything Has Gone Wrong
Mission 5, Episode 4: The Cauldron Base
Mission 5, Episode 5: Spartan Thorne

Lastly, we'll be removing "Sarge's Lab" from the Grifball map rotation as the map undergoes some lighting optimization. A refreshed version (and more) will be included the next time we update the playlist.

Stay tuned to next week's Bulletin for details regarding how the Champions Bundle will be featured in Matchmaking!

Gamescom Qualifier[modifier]

Gamescom, the world's largest trade fair and event for interactive games in Cologne, Germany will be the last chance to qualify for a spot in the Halo 4 Global Championship finals. We can't wait to check out the competition in Germany and are now able to share some details with you.

The Gamescom Halo 4 Global Championship Qualifier will be taking place from August 22nd - August 24th (Thursday - Saturday) and each day will be an individual tournament, meaning that competitors need not make a weekend-long commitment in order to participate. Due to the size and format of Gamescom, the tournament will be walk-up only. Arrive early each day if you'd like to get a spot in the competition, as we cannot guarantee anyone a spot. For the same reasons, we cannot guarantee that all attendees will be able to compete (that would be awesome but may also take several months) and estimate that we will be able to accommodate at least 1,500 competitors over the course of the weekend.

The game types that will be featured at Gamescom are identical to the ones used at RTX, and the map rotation will be Haven, Skyline and Onyx. We'll have additional details regarding the format of the show in the near future. If you're looking to compete, head to the Xbox booth on Thursday morning to get in line. If you'll be at the show, we'll see you there and are looking forward to see who of Europe's finest will earn a trip to the finals in Seattle the following weekend!

Screenshot Spotlight - Monitor[modifier]

Previously, we turned the spotlight on Landfall. This week, we decided to go with some particularly guilty sparks. Take a gander at the following Monitor screenshots, and then capture your own for your chance at being featured in next week's Bulletin.

For your chance at being in the next spotlight, take a screenshot that is predominately green. Then tag it with "Green" and "Halo Waypoint", and maybe, just maybe, yours will be featured in the next Halo Bulletin!

As we touched upon last week, we'll be keeping a close eye on the competition at AGL9 in Atlanta this weekend. Tune in to the live stream if you'd like to check out some of the Halo 4 Global Championship invited players (and more) compete alongside and against one another!

Until next week,

Bravo