Snowy Salutations

Halo: The Master Chief Collection

Besides getting hit by a snow storm at UGC's Halo Classic event in St. Louis, the other reason I titled this update 'Snowy Salutations' was because we welcomed the new year with the January Update in MCC. If you haven't yet seen the ridiculously amazing wintry background art by Jeremy Cook, either in my December Community Update or in MCC, you will now... because I'm not giving you a choice. Here it is! [Click here for the 4K version]

• Modern Aiming
  • For a good visual of how Modern Aiming improves the feel of aiming in MCC, give the video to the right a watch as it does a great job of breaking down some of the differences.
• New Skulls
  • Eight new skulls have been added to Halo: CE to help players further customize their campaign experience. They all should look pretty familiar: Anger, Bandana, Catch, Ghost, Sputnik, That's Just Wrong, Thunderstorm, and Tough Luck. Let us know what you think as you explore CE's missions with these turned on!
• Super Duper Fiesta
  • A Match Composer search preset that searches for Fiesta games in Halo 2, Halo 2: Anniversary, Halo 3, and Halo 4. This option has taken the place of the Action Sack searching option, but we'll keep an eye on how everything plays out.
• Ugly Sweater Nameplate
  • If you don't have it yet, hop on MCC and complete 12 matchmade games before the end of January!

We also released a playlist update yesterday that introduces more map and mode combinations (including Ricochet!) for Halo 4 in the Match Composer to add more variety and depth when the game is selected. Read up on the details in the MCC Forum courtesy of Postums! 

MICROSOFT STORE TOURNAMENTS

There's one this Sunday, January 27! The SXSW post covers the plan for Microsoft Store events quite in-depth, but since the ideas are so cool, I wanted to share the full excerpt here so you didn't miss it. Read up!

For over a year, hometown hopefuls have flocked to their local Microsoft Store each month for some competitive fun with their friends and nearby Halo community members. We’ve gotten feedback that many players are super passionate about Halo and want to up their game to the next level and have more fun competing. The Microsoft Store tournaments are meant to offer light competition where the main goals are building a local community and having some fun competing. In anticipation of the HCS Invitational, we want to take the opportunity to welcome players of all skill levels to their local Microsoft Store to learn the ropes of competitive Halo 3, have some fun while competing, and potentially earn the chance to play on mainstage at the HCS Invitational at SXSW.

Here’s how it works!

• North America will be divided into FOUR regions: West Coast, Central, North East, South East
• Each region will be represented by a top pro Halo 3 player.
  • West Coast: Cory “Str8 Sick” Sloss
  • Central Division: Michael “Flamesword” Chaves
  • North East: Paul “SnakeBite” Duarte
  • South East: Justin “Pistola” Lee Deese
• Before players compete in the January and February MS Store 2v2 tournaments, they’ll have the opportunity to watch an instructional video where one of the above pro players teach them a bit about competitive Halo 3 to help them improve their game.
• Depending on which region your store is located within, your instructor will either be Str8 Sick, Flamesword, SnakeBite, or Pistola.
• If you attend both tournaments (Jan 27 and Feb 24), as well as make it past the first round in one of the two tournaments, you’ll have the opportunity to get flown out to Austin, Texas for a chance to compete alongside your region’s respective pro players in the $5,000 MS Store 2v2 Throwdown.

Additionally, Mixer will reignite the Mixer Matchups program for this tournament series starting on Sunday, January 27 with monthly broadcasts supported by livestreams from participating store locations and commented live from Mixer Studio One on Microsoft Campus. This is the first of many ways Halo and competitive gaming content will be showcased on Mixer, so stay tuned to @WatchMixer and the Mixer Blog for more information on Mixer Matchups.

Finally, we’ve heard stories of amazing community ambassadors attending their local Microsoft Store tournaments with the intention of growing the community, teaching players how to improve their game, and promoting a fun environment. THANK YOU! We’re asking each Gaming Expert in each Microsoft Store in North America to nominate official ambassadors in their stores. To show our appreciation for the ambassador’s support, they will also have the opportunity to be flown out to SXSW in Austin, Texas to spend the weekend with the Halo community and enjoy the show.

Here are the dates for the winter and spring Microsoft Store tournaments:

• January 27
• February 24
• March 31
• April 28
• May 19

The first two will feature Halo 3 2v2 tournaments on official tournament settings, and format for the tournaments starting in March will be announced at a later date.

Halo Gear

The second issue in Linda-058's comic miniseries, Halo: Lone Wolf, will be coming out on February 6. In this issue, Linda must not only deal with her target, Dr. Chen, but also the dangerous secret he's harboring. If you couldn't tell, I like to link out to the relevant pages, so here's a link to where you can preorder the digital version and here's where you can get a physical version.

And, as a reminder, the Halo: Collateral Damage Hardcover compilation, which contains all three parts of the miniseries (as well as some additional bonus content) hit store shelves last Wednesday, January 16. You can also preorder the digital edition online from Dark Horse by clicking here!

Community competitions

• BTB.net is hosting a Big Team Battle tournament in Halo 3 on MCC. You still have time to register, the tournament begins March 2. Visit their event page on challonge for details and reach out to them on Twitter if you have any questions!  
• SWATnation is putting on a 2v2 SWAT tournament for Valentine's Day which will take place on Sunday, February 24. They're calling it Will You Be My SWATentine, and needless to say, I'm a fan of the name.
  
  • They hosted a 4v4 tournament this past weekend, all while raising over $1000 for charity and showing some great matches. Unsurprisingly, Dynasty (consisting of pros bubu dubu, abbrupt, Sabinater, and Falcated) took the cake.
• A Halo Wars 2 Anniversary Tournament by the Halo Wars Fight Club will be taking place that same weekend with competition happening on both Saturday the 23rd and Sunday the 24th. They've shared all the tournament details here on Waypoint, so give it a gander if you're interested in celebrating Halo Wars 2's anniversary with other Halo RTS fans!

Make-A-Wish

Thanks, Uny!

At 343, we’re blessed to be able to come to work each day ready to play in one of the greatest toyboxes around. From creating new story elements and fleshing out characters, weapons, and worlds, to exploring the finer details of sandbox balancing and gameplay gymnastics, getting to call Halo a career is incredible in its own right. That being said, I’d be lying if I said that really any of those aforementioned attributes took the top honors as my “favorite thing” about working at a place like this. No, I think that podium spot is likely reserved for moments like we got to experience last week, where all of a sudden the real impact of what we do comes to light.

Our incredible long-time friends and partners at the Make a Wish foundation had recently let us know about a particularly awesome young fan named Nathan, who desired nothing more than to be able to hang out for a day with some of the folks who make his favorite games. I actually had the extreme honor of skyping in on the big screen of his local Utah-based Microsoft Store a few months ago to let him know “in-person” that his wish was being granted. Last week, Nathan and his amazing family (Mom, Dad, Nathan, and four siblings – math I can personally relate to!) joined us for a day that none of us will soon forget.

It kicked off at the Bellevue MS Store early in the morning, where a couple of Spartans from the 405^th, a diamond-armored Minecraft character, a Campbell-cosplayed Cortana, and a nearly 7-foot-tall Master Chief (featuring the debut of an unbelievable new suit made by prop-master Phil Shinner) stood alongside a big contingent of Microsoft, Xbox, 343, Minecraft (and more) staff to welcome Nathan and his family for a fun donut and gameplay-filled morning. Later that morning, Nathan and crew made their way out to the studio for a day that featured learning to code with our friends upstairs at Minecraft, getting the lowdown on franchise history and universe details in the Halo museum, cake and ice cream homemade by 343 staff, a behind the scenes look at toy development, tips on how to stream and create content, and building a custom Forge map called "Central Point" with MP designers - which you can bookmark and play for yourself online.

We actually even held a legit BTB playtest session on the map (not gonna lie – it was pretty great right out of the box) with Nathan’s family and a host of 343 staff, a playtest that literally culminated in an epic 100-99 slayer match where Nathan got taken out by his own mom FTW. You can’t make this stuff up.

Needless to say, by the time Nathan and crew departed late that afternoon, we had all formed a pretty special bond with a pretty amazing family of fans. It was another reminder of what Halo is really about. Moments that make memories and a universe that forges relationships, and it’s an incredible honor to be even a small part of that process.

<3 Grim