Recently ESL has started a weekly tournament series called “Go4 Halo”, run in similar fashion to that of the other Go4 events in games such as League of Legends or Heroes of the Storm. Unfortunately it looks like this set of tournaments won’t work out nearly as well as the others.
First we have to look at the fundamental difference between Go4 Halo and other events that they run. In most, if not all, Go4 events the structure works very differently. Teams or individuals will play in a weekend tournament, potentially winning money. Through winning or doing well during these events they also have the opportunity to qualify for a Monthly Final. These finals would give the players even more chances to win money and be successful. Halo, on the other hand, does not have this opportunity. The only events are the weekly Thursday cups that are independent of each other.
This situation is not necessarily bad, it’s just a waste of what could be. Right now an amateur team’s only chance to practice in a competitive environment is to play in the weekend HCS Online Cups or maybe playing in PGLs. The problem is that if your team is beaten in the first or the second round of the HCS Open Bracket you are essentially tough out of luck until next week, there is very little chance to improve. In my opinion Go4 Halo should be a secondary place to harvest new talent and give new teams a chance to practice for the HCS. Unfortunately it is not fulfilling this role due to lack of incentive and lack of advertising of the event.
There is very little incentive for a team to try and get involved with the Go4 Halo series. Only the winner of the tournament receives anything ($200) and it leaves teams with a sour taste in their mouth knowing that in the end they’re just going to be eliminated by a pro or semi-pro team (such as how Annex swept through the first tournament). If they brought the format in to be similar to other Go4 events they could award top8 or even top16 teams with points. These points could be used as a monthly ladder where the top x amount of teams get invited to monthly finals. Without proper incentive no one is willing to spend a Thursday wasting their time.
Close to no one even knows that these events are running, I’m sure for some this is the first time they’ve heard of it. The advertising for this event was so poor that in the first cup only 6 team attended. Many users on TeamBeyond were surprised that it even existed when other users brought it up. Without teams even knowing about it how could they possibly be playing in it?
Go4 Halo is still young, at this point in time they’ve only played through one event. Perhaps we should be happy that we’re getting anything at all, I’m just disappointed that it doesn’t live up to what it potentially could be.
