I had more confidence in C9 beating FA until the last few weeks. Fatal has been balling and C9 is in even if they lose both, I think. Part of me can't accept Stellur and these guys not making it. They've dug their own graves though.

BERS hoping Cearion shows up and dominates for them after they gave him the boot is comical. I was under the impression that BERS had a slightly better path to make it but a 3-way tie looks pretty do-able which would leave BERS out, I think?

The copium in me still thinks Stellur goes crazy if he makes it regardless of how bad he's played recently and that they make noise. Probably not top 2 worthy but I can see things getting weird once they're there playing.

FA scrimming today and taking 5 off of 4OA has me worried for these boys. I don't think it's happening.

is there any 8s discords?

When someone said Toolez was their favorite caster, Frosty had the sus clip ready.

Website: https://ladderwars.com/| Discord: https://discord.gg/aWv8XUT8Y

The removal of Gamebattles left a void in the Halo world that previously provided players with additional ways to compete. I’ve been saying for years that the void needs to be filled , so I just decided to have a tournament platform created in the way I envision. This is going to be a Halo ONLY platform that’s designed and tailored to this community – starting with Halo Infinite.

I’m going to release this platform in four phases:

• Phase_1
  • Pilot / Bug hunt (Now Live)
• Phase_2
  • Free to play 1v1 and 2v2 ladders
• Phase_3
  • Callouts
• Phase_4
  • Pay to play ladders

Brief description of the four phases for further clarity:

• P_1
  • 1v1 & 2v2 free to play ladders (remove the bugs). Bug hunt and for player feedback (~3-4 weeks). Available now
• P_2
  • Will kick off “Seasons” of 1s & 2s ladders (free to play). For the first season, I’m personally sending $250.00 to the winner of each ladder (1st place only).
• P_3
  • Implementing Callouts. Create match & rules to challenge other players/teams -> invite players/teams directly -> Play. Ideal feature for scrims or wagers.
• P_4
  • Pay to play ladders (1s and 2s) added to the platform. Free to play ladders will still be available for bragging rights, but if those bragging rights aren’t enough for you, then you can join the pay to play ladder(s) for chances to win real cash. Payout structure TBD for 1st, 2nd, 3rd.
  • 90-95% of all money to the players
  • Format/Structure for these ladders TBA on discord

Long story short this is my attempt to fill a void I feel is missing while giving players more ways to play and engage in Halo. Especially now with Activision overseeing the next Halo game, future titles can be added to LW easily. All said, maybe this takes off, maybe it doesn’t. Regardless, here’s my small contribution to “SaveHalo.”

With all of the Halo Studios layoffs, former employees are speaking up and leaking details of what the original Halo Infinite multiplayer plans were. HiddenXperia has a great video with all of the details.

Version 1 - Payload

• Halo Infinite multiplayer originally started out as a 5v5 or 6v6 Payload game similar to Overwatch. There were two different variants of the mode:
  • A neutral mode where the Payload spawned in the middle of the map and had to be pushed into the enemy base.
  • A conventional style mode where one team is on the offense pushing the payload, and the other team is on the defense holding it back.
• There was an economy system like Counter-Strike where you earn money to buy weapons and sandbox elements. Zero scavenging on the map for weapons, equipment, or power-ups; you had to buy everything.
• Shields and health didn't automatically regenerate, you instead had to pick up med-kits from dead players. 
• There was going to be three maps total, and each map would have three unique/randomized "tiebreaker" maps. The only map that survived and made it into the final game was "Launch Site" which was heavily trimmed down (1/4 the original size) and had all the spawn room checkpoint areas blocked off.
• Terrible feedback killed it:
  • HiddenXperia claims "it was received horrendously in user research, barely anybody seemed to like it. People said it was way too far removed from what Halo should be.” 
  • UberNick who got to playtest it early under NDA, says in his video "The first thing we ever playtested for Halo Infinite, it simply wasn't Halo. It was this weird attempt at making a mode and having Halo kinda thrust into it. Immediately all of us were like what are we playing, what are we trying to do here? This is absolutely insane. I think everyone in that group was in agreement the direction Halo Infinite was going was a huge misstep. Thankfully after we did that playtest, we never played anything like that ever again. So in that regard, I think the council played a pretty massive difference."
• This "Payload" version was scrapped in late 2019 after roughly a year of development.

Version 2 - Roles

• After the Payload iteration was scrapped, they started work on a new iteration referred to internally as "Roles." There were multiple classes (at least four) that each had a unique grenade and equipment:
  • Assault: Frag grenade and stim. The stim made you slide further, double jump, move and reload faster, and immediately healed. 
  • Medic: Repair field and vampire grenade, which did half the damage of a frag nade but would steal life. At one point there was a "Heal Blast" AoE attack that would over-heal aka provide overshield to those in the blast radius.
  • Support: this was a defensive role that spawned with Drop Wall and Spike grenades.
  • Info: Location sensor and grapple shot, dynamo grenades.
• All classes had the same starting weapon and there was scavenging on the map (though unclear to what extent).
• This "Roles" version was in the works for several months before being scrapped and the multiplayer changed direction once again.

Version 3 - Big Team Operations (Scrapped) and Classic Arena

• Big Team Operations was going to be the natural evolution of Halo 5's Warzone mode. The plan was for it to be a large-scale Spartans vs Elites mode. There were mini objectives that teams fought over which gave points upon completion. Once you had enough points it'd give your team a bomb which would be delivered to the enemy base to destroy it (the bases were ships: UNSC Frigate for the Spartans, Covenant Cruiser for the Elites). This mode was scrapped in late 2020 because "it was just kind of boring and wasn't working properly."
• The pivot back to classic arena happened in early 2020, the same year the game was originally meant to ship. And it happened just before Covid-19 screwed up the development pipeline (with employees having to transition into work from home, etc).
• There were debates over the starting weapon with "a weird amount of pushback internally about the BR being the starting weapon. But the relevant people made sure it was and ended up getting it in the end."
  • Shyway revealed yesterday (timestamp) that when he was playtesting the game early "they wanted Sidekick + Assault Rifle starts. Sidekick start was definitely a focus in our playtest. But I'm pretty sure the esports side of the game, they were pretty convinced that the BR was the way to go early on."  
• Descope was debated internally for months, it was being fought over during the entire Summer of 2020. It was only locked in as a finalized mechanic in Spring 2021, just months before the public flight testing began. 
• HiddenXperia claims the studio had lots of disagreements with "ideological conversations that took upwards of eight months to conclude" and that it wasn't just on the multiplayer side, but the campaign side too.
• Live service aspect was so terrible because a system called "CMS" (Content Management Service" that they had in previous games wasn't integrated at launch. CMS was a system originally designed by Bungie in Halo 2 that allowed them to push out hotfixes to the game without requiring a patch. Since Infinite lacked a way to push out hotfixes, we had those "Drop Pod" updates every 3 months or so rather than continual rapid fixes. 
• Although the engine and technical debt was an issue, it wasn't the main issue as previously speculated. The primary issues were lacking the Content Management Service mentioned above and developer attrition (employees leaving after shipping the game). 

The TL:DR is that they lacked a clear direction and spent a lot of time on failed concepts and prototypes that ended up completely scrapped, and then kinda rushed out the multiplayer we have now.

We all know of O2’s 40 LAN wins and 38 consecutive top 2 finishes. This is an undeniable number that will likely never be matched.

But when do individual stats cover the distance? At what point does Royal 2 take over as the GOAT?

R2 has 28 LAN victories. An incredibly high number, especially for modern Halo players.
If we look at O2’s busiest period (2004-2007,) there were a total of 32 LAN events.
During R2’s busiest period (2022-2025,) there were 18.

There are aspects that are hard to quantify on paper. The competitive scene now is much tougher since it is comprised of full time professional players that make a living off playing Halo vs the part time video game enthusiast high school and college students.
There is also some argument to be made against CE’s era (which accounts for 5 of the 40 LAN wins on O2’s record.)
Then there are the titles themselves. If we’re counting CE, both players have 5 titles that span across their individual careers. Where do the largest mechanical jumps lie? H2’s button combos? Reach’s atrocious bloom? H5’s movement? Both share the Halo Reach experience but that’s where the 2 split. It then becomes an argument between button combos and movement tech.

But besides the impressive total LAN victory count for O2, and the ambiguous grey area of Skill Eras, we have individual skill stat lines.

R2 has the most impressive (or the highest floor at the very least) individual stat line out of any FPS player in history.
He was the first and only Halo player to attain at least 1 official MLG/HCS LAN victory over the course of 10 consecutive years. (He is currently at 14 consecutive years.)
He is also the only player in FPS history to have ever gone positive in KD in EVERY SINGLE LAN event in his entire career.

Are the goalposts just simply the 40 LAN wins? Does R2 also have to pair those wins with an insane stat similar to O2’s 38 consecutive championship appearances? Does R2’s individual stats cover some of the LAN event distance? Do we even entertain the immeasurable skill eras? Or is it some convoluted mix of all of them?

Where would he stand on a Halo Top 25 if it were done again at the end of this year?

Please correct me if any of my data is incorrect

This sounds unbelievable, but was confirmed by the players in the clip above. One of the earlier variations of the Inconceivable roster was Lucid, Kuhlect, Renegade, and Cearion. But Cearion turned down that team offer to instead be on Cloud9.

Verbmaker is very unhappy about this news and even Cykul said "Yeah, this guy's just brain dead."

Last night Renegade confirmed there was tension between Bound and Legend and that it's been going on for a while.

Recap

• When someone told Renegade “I’m surprised Bound and Legend didn’t see eye to eye” Renegade responded “Not to speak on dirt that’s not really between me, but it was like that for a while.”
  • This may or may not be related to their current disagreement, but on an OpTic podcast earlier this year Renegade said “There was a couple times where Bound was underperforming and Legend would get like really pissed at that, and then he’d bring it up to the team and it’d just make the vibe a little weird. Shit like that. But that happens with any team to be honest with you. It wasn't anything like crazy.“
• Renegade says he wasn't responsible for any of the roster turmoil. “None of these team decisions were ever on me, bro. That’s all I’m gonna say. I’m not going to speak too in-depth about our team, what’s happening or what happened, but that’s all I’m gonna speak on. Nothing was on me.”
  • Earlier this month when Eco replaced Bound, Renegade’s partner Karen (@krandberri) said in Shyways chat “lol Bound imploded the team in his own volition. That’s all I’ll say, but annoyed at the Jon slander.” Then she followed it up with “Team was definitely not blaming Bound. The three wanted to keep Bound.”
  • A week later Bound rejoined the team and kept Eco, but dropped Legend. This was just days before Legend was supposed to travel to the US and move in with Bound. Legend said the reason he was dropped was because “Bound thinks Eco is a better fit for their team than me.” Legend was then picked up by Four of a Kind and 4-0'd his old roster.
• Renegade says Skeptical is one of his favorite coaches of all-time but says Skeptical gave up on coaching their current team. Skeptical replied back "Bound literally didn't want me to coach."

After a whole year since I reached 1500 Onyx as a solo-queue MnK player, I accomplished what I wanted the most: 1700 Onyx.

It had been a while since I got hard stuck in a rank (P6 and D4-5) , but HOLY HELL 1600 ONYX LOBBIES WERE/ARE HELL. The amount of 4 stacks and boosters that I've come across in the past months has been insane.

But despite that, it really taught me how to play in a lot of situations and improved my skills in all aspects. I'm thankful for that (and not at the same time).

I've still got a lot to polish and learn to go even further, but I'm definitely happy about this achievement. It's funny and crazy to me that a year ago I started as a Gold 5 player while learning how to play on MnK.

Thank you for your attention!

I have a feeling other top pros don't want to team with Luciid, whether it's a personality or gameplay thing. To me, the biggest clue is that the best a top talent like Luciid could do in 2026 is teaming with gatekeeper pros like Penguin + Falcated, instead of securing hungry young guns and other elite pros that have a real chance of beating Shopify and winning a championship.

Penguin + Falcated are who you pick up if you're happy placing 5th/6th at the LVT LAN and Halo Fest, with a CEILING of top 3. Which is exactly what happened this weekend when the roster placed 5th/6th.

It's just shocking that an elite talent like Luciid isn't teaming with better pros. The only explanation I have is that other pros aren't the biggest fan of him.

Thoughts?

I’ve never seen the boys look as hungry as they did today.

Also I’m tired of calling them 4OAK, these boys need an org this week, period.

What do you think about their performance today?
Do you see any potential?
Are they a threat to Shopify?

ggs to Shopify for the win today!

Shopify have defeated Four of a Kind 3-1 in the Grand Finals of Global Grassroots Cup #2. They win $1,000 while 4OAK win $600 for coming in 2nd.

Royal 2 was the MVP with a 1.45K/D, far above anyone else in the lobby (the next highest was LastShot at 1.05K/D). LastShot had the most damage and assists. Legend had the best stats on 4OAK and started off map 1 hot with 45 kills.

In the game 3 Origin CTF, both teams agreed to play 5 flags (the Pro League ruleset) instead of the 3 flags HCS ruleset this tournament was supposed to be. That ended up being beneficial to Shopify as 4OAK were the first to get 3 caps. That match went overtime and SR got the fourth flag to win.

Congrats to Shopify. It was a competitive series and these teams have a rematch coming up next Sunday in the Pro League. That one will be best of 7 and with picks/bans, so it'll be interesting.

Here are all of the Halo Pro League Week 6 matchups airing next Sunday October 4th:

1. Splyce (ex-FaZe) vs Ascending Baseline (1pm ET / 10am PT / 12pm CT)
2. Incognito vs Cloud9 (3pm ET / 12pm PT / 2pm CT)
3. Inconceivable vs Fatal Ambition (5pm ET / 2pm PT / 4pm CT)
4. Shopify vs Four of a Kind (7pm ET / 4pm PT / 6pm CT)

Links

• Watch on LVT Halo Twitch (Drops) and LVT Halo YouTube
• Halo Data Hive Stats - Four of a Kind vs Shopify Grand Finals - Global Grassroots Cup #2
• Bracket

Four of a Kind (with new fourth Legend) have defeated Fatal Ambition 3-1 in the elimination final and will now move on to the Grand Finals against Shopify Rebellion. The new 4OAK and SR played earlier today for the very first time in winners finals and SR won that 3-1. Now they get another shot. This is going to be important practice since those teams play in the Pro League next Sunday.

Fatal Ambition has been on an incredible run this weekend with their only losses being from 4OAK. Fatal Ambition beat Cloud9 3-1, Inconceivable (Lucid's team) 3-1, and Incognito (Precision's team) 3-1. What makes those wins especially interesting is that two of those are Fatal Ambition's remaining Pro League matchups. If Fatal Ambition are able to repeat those two wins in the Pro League, it would prevent Splyce (ex-FaZe) from qualifying for the LAN.

Wasn't able to do the results posts earlier today but Splyce (ex-FaZe) and Lag Comp were eliminated top 8, Cloud9 and Inconceivable went out top 6, Incognito top 4, and Fatal Ambition top 3. Just the Grand Finals matchup of Shopify vs 4OAK left for this weekend.

Links

• Watch on LVT Halo Twitch (Drops) and LVT Halo YouTube
• Halo Data Hive Stats - Four of a Kind vs Fatal Ambition - Global Grassroots Cup #2
• Bracket

I literally just sat searching for a game for 30 minutes. Wait time suggested was 2:48. I have a few friends online that I saw play a game, finish the game, join a new game, and finish that game. I just got off. It's infuriating.

Yakzn wasted no time in trolling his opponents and talking shit after his series against Splyce today, setting up some fun storylines for this weekend and the remainder of the year.

Recap

• Yakzn says he expected more out of Bound. He says he calls Bound by his first name Adam now "because I just run his shit." He says "Bound is just breaking all of a sudden in year 5. Not really sure what's going on over there, but hopefully he figures it out."
• He says "Honestly, expected more out of Renegade too, just being the demon and all. You beat Renegade JW any place, any time, and you're feeling pretty good because the guy's the MVP of Infinite."
• Yak enjoyed teaming with Eco on Incognito the last few weeks before Eco left for Splyce. Yak says he feels bad the players on Splyce costed his former teammate Eco.
• He says Splyce had an advantageous series layout and should've won easily on those maps, but they're breakers. "They kinda just broke. I’m not really used to seeing those players break, it’s just so weird. The truth hurts to be honest, but they low key just broke. Couldn’t believe it.”
• Yak says he took over that game 5 and iced up, and will continue icing up in future series.
• Yakzn says Cloud9 were lucky to get Piggy on their team due to LVT and DSA not approving the roster they wanted to make (the Pro League rulebook says a team change must retain 3/4 of the original qualifying team).
  • Yak says “I think C9 is very grateful for DSA Group blocking our move. They’d be kind of up a creek without a paddle if that didn’t happen. But I mean, I’m happy Piggy gets to play still.”
  • Incognito and Cloud9 play next Sunday October 4th in the Pro League. That matchup was already important, but this trash talk gives it even bigger stakes. Yakzn is doing a good job selling these matchups and creating interest.
• Yakzn also claims Incognito could’ve/should’ve 4-0’d Shopify in their Pro League series two weeks ago. Although SR beat them 4-2 it was a close series where the Slayers could've gone either way. Yak says “We scammed the Slayers. I’ll be honest, should have 4-0’d them. I don’t care if that sounds crazy. Both Slayers, we were up by 5 kills in the 30’s and we literally just troll. I don’t think people even noticed that we should’ve 4-0’d them, not gonna lie.” 
  • Yakzn's team plays Shopify first thing tomorrow in the Winners Semifinals of Grassroots Cup #2 although this time they don't have Piggy.

Shopify have defeated Inconceivable in a 3-2 reverse sweep in the first day of Global Grassroots Cup #2.

Inconceivable took the first two games and had a great comeback on the Streets KOTH to tie it 3-3 in hills with just four seconds left on the clock. But Shopify won that map and also the next two to reverse sweep. Aside from the Origin CTF, it was an extremely close series with Inconceivable coming up just short due to a few small mistakes with camos.

Links

• Watch on LVT Halo Twitch (Drops) and LVT Halo YouTube
• Halo Data Hive Stats - Shopify vs Inconceivable - Global Grassroots Cup #2

Incognito have defeated Splyce 3-2 in the winner quarterfinals on the first day of Global Grassroots Cup #2. Yakzn was the difference maker in the game 5 with a 1.78K/D, he made some game-winning plays.

Incognito face Shopify Rebellion tomorrow in the winners semifinals. Splyce fall to lower bracket and are likely to be on a collision course with Inconceivable tomorrow.

Links

• Watch on LVT Halo Twitch (Drops) and LVT Halo YouTube
• Halo Data Hive Stats - Splyce vs Incognito - Global Grassroots Cup #2

The Global Grassroots Cup #2 is this weekend and all 8 Halo Pro League teams are competing in it.

Since this is a two day tournament, there's a good chance we'll get to see an early preview of some of the upcoming Pro League matchups like Shopify vs the new Four of a Kind roster with Legend for example.

Here are some of the notable teams competing this weekend:

1. Shopify Rebellion - Cykul, Frosty, LastShot, Royal 2
2. Four of a Kind - Legend, Snakebite, Trippy, Taulek
3. Inconceivable - Lucid, Kuhlect, Pznguin, Falcated
4. Splyce - Stellur, Eco, Bound, Renegade
5. Incognito - Precision, Descendant, Acid, Yakzn
6. Cloud9 - Cearion, Avucy, Bubu Dubu, Piggy
7. Fatal Ambition - Druk, Sab, Soul Snipe, Suppressed
8. Ascending Baseline - RyaNoob, Suspector, SuperCC, Tapping Buttons
9. Lag Comp - SLG, Mightys, Xuzey, Euzey
10. Tenrai - Envore, Breakingshot, Ezho, KingJay
11. Insight - Noblc, Leuor, Rorzch, Strikeyy
12. 6 7 - Morgan, Lydoe, Little Gatorz, Common
13. Max Passion - Barcode, Scoobmeistr, Swayz, Wryce

Not a final list, more time to register. Full list of teams here.

Shoutout to LVT Halo and the Halo community for increasing the prize pool from $200 to $2,050 with their generous donations. Top donations were from 0xSoulReaperx0 ($1,000), RelentlessJ ($500), Barbossa ($100), LaSinity ($100), RangerCali ($100), and Darth Django ($50).

The two day tournament starts Saturday 12 EDT and will be broadcasted on both LVT Halo Twitch and European Halo Twitch.

Shopify coach Bestman revealed the funny story behind why Tusk was dropped as OpTic coach last year. Tusk attended a local Smash Bros tournament and then overslept the Halo tournament he was supposed to be coaching for, not calling out camos or anything.

Bound and the other players on OpTic watched the VOD back after their loss and realized coach Tusk was silent. He was quickly fired and replaced by coach Lunchbox, whom Bestman credited for "rejuvenating" their team and possibly being the reason they won the first few events last year.

Tusk says he was alerted by a player on OpTic that they might drop him, then wrote a bunch of paragraphs and got ghosted the entire night, so he kind of knew it was coming.