With less than a week left before Halo Infinite‘s first World Championship tournament begins, the HCS has announced that the event’s base $1,000,000 prize pool will no longer be elevated by crowdfunding contributions as previously promised. The sudden announcement has pro players baffled, with more than a few venting their anger on social media in the aftermath of the controversial post.
This year, all the prior major Halo tournaments have been directly enhanced through crowdfunding sources, leading to nearly $500,000 overall added to prize pools during the season. A similar crowdfunding bonus was also promised for the World Championship, but that promise is getting walked back at the last second as the HCS claims it will push the funds into new initiatives instead.
The anger was palpable amongst many of the scene’s most notable personalities. Snip3down specifically stated he wished he “wasn’t lied to when deciding to make the switch” to Halo Infinite from Apex Legends, claiming he would never have left the battle royale game if the false promise of a greater Worlds prize pool hadn’t been there.
Sentinels captain Snakebite was similarly upset by the sudden change of heart but said he wasn’t surprised “given the state of the game.” Like many others, he remained optimistic about the event overall, explaining that his frustrations didn’t stem from how this made the event worse. “What I’m embarrassed about is the way it has been delivered; a week before WC to fans, players and partners.”
FaZe Clan’s Spartan, a player often outspoken about the state of Halo Infinite and the HCS, added that he was “extremely grateful” for his position and the opportunities Halo provides but called the announcement “a slap in the face to all of us.” OpTic Gaming’s FormaL simply replied to the post with “disappointed to say the least.”
Despite the outrage, 343 Industries’ esports lead Tashi believes the removal of crowdfunding bonuses for Worlds serves the scene better in the long run. “It’s about taking a wider approach to have a bigger overall impact,” he explained in one reply. “The Worlds prize pool will stay at $1M which is huge, and the funds will continue to be invested in bolstering the scene more and adding more tournaments.” The announcement blog went into more detail about this, highlighting the success of the FaZe and eUnited tournaments as a foundation from which they intend to build on next year.
“Supporting partnered teams in this way has proven to be a powerful route to take as we can elevate the work that they’re doing, and even fill in gaps in the roadmap with all new tournaments,” the post read. “Going forward, we’re going to continue this new philosophy in an effort to bolster the roadmap and add new events all together, rather than boosting what are already very large prize pools.”
The HCS will be expanding on the details of this new roadmap for Halo Infinite‘s second competitive season at Worlds. Still, the positive impact that crowdfunding may have on the calendar doesn’t change the fact that the promise for crowdfunding at Worlds was broken to achieve it. Spartan said as much in response on Twitter, saying, “I would understand going forward next year if they did that, but Worlds being advertised as 1M and crowd funding all year only to tell us 7 days before the event starts that it’s not being crowdfunded would be fairly lame.”
The Halo World Championship kicks off on Oct. 20 with action from the play-in bracket before the winner of the trophy, and $400,000 in prize money, is crowned on Championship Sunday.
