https://www.spawnkilled.net/blogs/news/hcs-optic-invitational-officially-postponed
Tashi said it was delayed because of rostermania and the holidays coming up. HecZ will reschedule to later in the HCS regular season
The HCS was an excuse to sell colours in the shop for $30, it should never have existed. They couldnât put the armour into the first battle pass, but they planned for us to be playing the same stuff for 2 years straight so what do they care if nobody watches? They had the entire fanbase pinned down as aspiring MLG pros, when even the pros leave.
Some of the replies in this thread show just how disconnected some people can be from reality.
Iâm not even going to call anyone out because Iâm not here to start an argument with them.
I was VERY disappointed with how Optic and Hecz chose to handle this tournament. I did a lot of digging and prodding over the last week before the announcement and actually pushed them to make a statement about it. Iâm glad they finally did, but as many people pointed out- fans are SOL for plane tickets and hotel costs.
That said, even though we donât have a full year 2 roadmap yet, I still have some confidence in HCS. It really was the strongest, most consistent part of Infiniteâs first year - drops notwithstanding. You can talk about twitch viewership if you want, but that doesnât hold a flame to the in-person crowds. Every event sold out.
HCS is strong, and if they take the time to do the events smartly, and continue to turn a positive profit on them, and hitting their own internal metrics - it will continue to thrive.
Will it beat CDL or OWL or RLCS? No - and I donât think they have any illusions that they will. And thatâs OK! Fans of Halo esports generally enjoy the product weâre getting. Can it be better? Of course! Is it a guarantee it will be better? Nope! But theyâve continued to improve and impress all season - letâs see how things start off in year 2.
As far as orgs âleavingâ - we donât know that yet. eUnited and C9 probably just wanted to grab a cheaper roster for year 2. Can you blame them? Esports is a business like any other, and C9 didnât build themselves up with a full powerhouse of content creation behind their team. Eunited had personality issues on their roster since day 1. We already have 2 new partners, and many more orgs still wanting to join.
Letâs see how it goes.
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Tell me whatâs more exciting to watchâŚ
ThisâŚ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpDnB6gj0ms
Or thisâŚ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbI2lp79nl0
@AshamanND I think youâre the one missing the point.
Nobody wants to watch professional bowling using bumpers.
Nobody wants to watch professional baseball using batting tees.
The âprofessionalâ players will get very bored of it, which is happening.
The pro scene should have been KMB and the rollers left for the casuals.
The viewership is everything. Doesnât matter if the crowd sold out or not, they need viewership. All media is valued based on views these days. The in-person crowd is probably just enough to pay for the eclectic bill for that event. Microsoft is one company who is very generous when it comes to losing money, remember the Zune? They lost almost $300 mil on the Zune alone, they are not afraid to take risk but they do know when enough is a enough. Same applies here.
HCS may be entertainment for us, but itâs a source of income to them.
They grossly exceeded all of their own internal targets in year 1.
You donât have to agree with their strategy, but if itâs working - I donât see a problem.
Of course they can improve things - and Iâd like to see things get better too. Doesnât mean it hasnât had success so far.
Its pretty hard to hate on any halo pro including Spartan because they all are pretty wholesome and drama free. But he is the most likely to say something negative publicly.
For people unsure if HCS is dying , the biggest warning sign was when they reduced the prize pool at grand finals a few weeks before the tournament started. The reason was they didnt make enough money off crowdfunding from in game cosmetics. So they have to stretch that small amount of crowdfunding dollars into next year which means smaller prize pools next year.
So the pros are now grinding for less money on top of their orgs probably paying them less. Meanwhile it takes 5 minutes to find a game in the HCS playlist
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It would be a massive shame to see the HCS shuttered after 1 year, the in person experience was one Iâll never forget and I really hope it comes back around to Seattle for year 2
To me that was more a sign that 343 wasnât confident the crowd funding would continue to be a strong contributor in future. Obviously the store contributions would dwindle as the game aged. Just more poor planning on 343s part.
https://twitter.com/Tashi343i/status/1599816361601269760
Year 2 roadmap drops in January, just before the start of the season.
They put argyle and detachment in the map rotation 
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Ah, yes âdisconnected from realityâ. Meanwhile, in reality;
- G2/eUnited/Fnatic/Cloud9 drop their teams
- Optic cancel a LAN 1 week out citing ânot enough teamsâ.
- The share price of FaZe Holdings Inc. has dropped from over $20 to $2 in less than one year.
- The VP of eSports & face of eUnited is stepping down from his role and the organization are making âmassive shake upsâ.
- The âvalueâ and âworthâ of cryptocurrencies has been decimated over the last year, Blockhaindotcom (Cloud9âs largest sponsor) and Cryptodotcom (Fnaticâs largest sponsor) are experiencing financial hardship and right now neither Cloud9 or Fnatic has a Halo roster.
- The entertainment offering has not changed, if anything itâs becoming increasingly stale as more sandbox items are GAâd. As described above, players are percieved to be âbowling with bumpersâ.
To make things worse, the list of in-game items currently "GA"d has increased? Weâre now at
8 Weapons, 2 Grenades and 2 Equipment (ignoring things like fusion coils);
- Pulse Carbine
- Commando (Original one can stay)
- Shield Wall
- Heatwave
- Bulldog
- Shock nades
- Spike nades
- Repulsor
- Mangler
- Sword
- AR
- Shock Rifle
The reality is itâs not looking good. As Halo continues to decline in the the Xbox âtop gamesâ list and thereâs a gradually reducing player count in the Steam charts, there will be no new players for the ranked playlists and no fresh accounts to purchase HCS team skins further compounding the problem. Reallocating the money and resources from HCS would allow the game to get in better shape and bring players back. Theyâre so close to being on-point with the live service delivery (ignoring the egregious fumble with no PC M&KB QA and forcing mouse accel and aim assist on everyone). I think let the developers focus on the core product, the game, while the pros and the orgs can focus on what they do best (âcompetitionâ). They can sort out all the ancillary stuff which caters to a niche subset of players with their BR-only ruleset allowing more money and resources to be throw at the actual game.
Iâm honestly most suprised M&KB has not been GAâd at this point.
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The HCS community is one of many reasons Halo is in a bad state. They complain about the very things they want.
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Why on earth is the Heatwave GAâEd? Itâs literally one of the few guns requiring skill. 
Shield Wall? Still pretty useless. Repulsor? Be aware at ledges⌠Spike nades? complete unpredictable and you mostly need both for a kill.
Lmao thatâs crazy. I actually do think some stuff should be removed from comp, but this is excessive. Single shot weapons with bloom like the sidekick and commando obviously shouldnât be in comp settings. Shock nades are imba as hell, and the shock rifle is way too easy to use to be in comp. Everything else should be in.
Why the shock rifle now? Did it change?
I got news for you I would be calling my bank for a refund if 343 did not give a refund for an event that never happend!!
Where you getting this info from? Last I heard the top players hadnât figured out where things stand after the update.
Itâs a current suggestion, not an agreed upon GA list. Likely need to wait until around the SSG tournament (if it happens) to see what the list comes to.
https://twitter.com/Bound2K/status/1602102470884442113