Predictions Going Into Seattle
The final event of the inaugural Halo: Infinite Season went down last weekend in Seattle.
The first Halo: Infinite World E-Sports Champion would finally be crowned.
How It Went Down
I had SEN winning it all, Optic at 2nd, Cloud 9 at 3rd and FaZe at 4th.
The current SEN roster has 2 world championships together, with Royal 2 and Snakebite winning one before teaming up with Lethul and Frosty. With that many rings on 1 team, you can’t count them out. Forget whatever happened this season, this squad has championship DNA that you can’t coach. They’ve been there before and know what it takes to win it all.
I had Optic at 2nd. This team is looking “Final” as FormaL would say. Not dropping a series at HCS Orlando, they won their first Major in Halo: Infinite. Optic Halo are dominating the competition and a favorite to win it all. I would’ve had them at 1st if it wasn’t for the resume and experience SEN has at World’s.
It was really hard for me to keep Cloud 9 out of Grand Finals and have them at 3rd. If it wasn’t for Optic’s dominance lately I’d have Cloud 9 at 2nd. Cloud 9 are the defending champs. They have also won 2 Majors in Halo: Infinite and made Grand Finals at every LAN. You can argue they have the best resume this season and would’ve been a favorite if Renegade stayed.
I had FaZe at 4th. With a 3rd place finish at Orlando, FaZe has proved they are one of the top dogs in Halo. This roster has been together for a short time so I don’t see them topping SEN, C9, or Optic but they can keep up with anyone. This team will win a Major in season 2 if they stay together. On paper you can argue they have the most talent.
Play-In Tournament
The play-in tournament determined who would be the last 4 teams to join pool play for a shot at a world championship.
We had Acend, Jlingz, Complexity, and FNATIC make it out of the play-in. Usually these play-in teams don’t do well in pool play but we had some surprises. Jlingz was able to sneak into the top 12. While FNATIC, in a huge upset knocked out G1 to secure top 8. No one had these guys making it that far into the tournament and it was a pleasure to watch their run. Complexity didn’t do much this tournament and has had an uneventful year. Hopefully, they can turn it around next year.
Acend, Europe’s hope for a world championship, didn’t crack top 10 but had a Rollercoaster of a weekend no short of drama and controversy.
Acend VS. eUnited Controversy
Acend and eUnited were playing in pool play. A series with a lot of implications that would send Acend to the elimination bracket. They took eUnited to a Game 5 that started tight. No one could’ve expected what was about to happen. At 7-7, the Acend players randomly stopped playing, while eUnited kept playing.
Acend claimed that their player had a pc issue, could not hear, and asked for a reset. That reset did not happen. eU kept playing against an Acend who wasn’t even holding their controllers, and it was ruled that Acend forfeit the match. It was the strangest thing I’ve witnessed in e-sports so far.
In the aftermath we had a lot of conflicting information coming out of both parties. No one knew what was going on, just a bunch of smoke and mirrors. A lot of the community was up in arms but we just had to wait until the official ruling. HCS ruling was:
Not many agreed, in my opinion, they should have replayed that game 5 the next day early. I also don’t think eUnited players should be getting the hate. This is the tournament admin’s fault and HCS really dropped the ball here.
Elimination Bracket
Elimination bracket had some amazing series. Where we saw Oxygen make a deep run but they could not get past FaZe who dominated them 3-0. And to my surprise, we saw Sentinels bow out in the Elimination Quarterfinal to Cloud 9 3-0. SEN not making top 4 was a big surprise. Cloud 9 followed that series up by knocking out FaZe and punching a ticket to Eliminations Finals. FaZe went out swinging and they’ll be back stronger next year.
Winner’s Bracket
In Winners bracket we saw Optic dominate every series they were in. Optic looked like they were gonna win it all easily. The way Optic has been playing lately it wasn’t surprising to see them go to Winner’s Final. However, I did not see Native Red sending C9 and FaZe to the elimination bracket. Native Red had a legendary run and looked better than ever. They earned everyone’s respect and made sure we put some respect on their name whenever we talk about top halo teams. This was my favorite story of HCS Worlds. Native Red made it all the way to Winner’s Final against optic. They put up a fight against Optic, but Optic was just too strong for them.
The Last 3 Standing
At the end of Championship Sunday, we had Optic, C9, and Native Red left standing. Since Native Red lost to Optic in Winner’s Final they got sent down to the Elimination Final against C9.
We saw C9 get their revenge and end Native Red’s Cinderella run. C9 made yet another Finals appearance, continuing their trend of making every Grand Finals this year.
The team that comes from Elimination bracket has to win one best of 7 series to ‘reset’ the bracket. If they accomplish that they have to win another best of 7 since it’s double elimination. Meanwhile, Optic coming from Winner’s only needs to win 1.
Game 1 of Grand Finals went to Optic, who looked great. Then in Game 2 the whole tune of the series changed. Cloud 9 played outstanding and won 4 games in a row to reset the bracket. They made Optic bleed and it looked like Cloud 9 were gonna win the whole thing. Unfortunately, they ran out of gas in the 2nd series and were reverse-swept by Optic who turned it up a notch.
Optic are The HCS 2022 World Champions.
Formal becomes the 2nd player in history to win a world championship in Halo and CoD. Lucid and Trippy got their 1st rings. APG adding to his legendary resume and solidifying himself as one of the all-time greats.
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