Halo World Championship Finals: Event Predictions

Halo’s biggest tournament of the year is just hours away from starting in Hollywood, Calif. Sixteen of the world’s most talented competitive Halo teams will be fighting for their share of the $2.5 million prize pool. In this article, you’ll find eSportsNation’s group play and top-eight predictions for the Halo World Championship Finals 2016.

With there being four pools consisting of four teams each, the top-two teams from each group will advance to a single-elimination, eight-team championship bracket on Sunday, March 20. We’re expecting to see some of the best Halo action we’ve seen all year.

Without further ado, here are our predictions for the Halo World Championship Finals.

Group Play Predictions

Group A 

• Chosen Squad
• exceL eSports
• Team Allegiance
• Team Liquid

The North American teams, Team Liquid and Team Allegiance, are arguably the stronger competitors in this pool, with Allegiance having one of the more successful records in major competitions. On the other hand, exceL eSports has had a tremendous run throughout the European region, aside from their recent defeats to Team Infused. With exceL’s swift type of playstyle, they could easily give Team Liquid a run for the second-place spot in Group A.

The last team to look at is Chosen Squad, a team that seems to dominate more in their respective region at slayer game types. They are certainly the underdog in this pool and will certainly be looking to create upsets against the aforementioned teams.

Winners

• 1st – Team Allegiance
• 2nd – exceL eSports

Group B

• Team Infused
• Team Exile5
• Evil Geniuses
• Renegades

It’s quite safe to say that this is one of the more interesting pools within the entire tournament, with North American and European juggernauts Evil Geniuses and Team Infused being placed together. Each team has consistently placed well in their respective regions and will certainly be looking for the No.1 and No.2 spots in Group B.

The group also consists of a wild card team, Renegades, who will be extremely fun to watch. They’ll be looking to sneak in some victories against the powerhouse teams of this pool. It really depends on whether they are switched on or off for this event. They will definitely not go down without a fight. Team Exile5 has been placed in a difficult group; however, if they’re able to take a win against Renegades and possibly one other team, they could edge on through.

Winners

• 1st – Evil Geniuses
• 2nd – Team Infused

Group C

• Team Immunity
• Denial eSports
• FAB Games eSports
• Team eLevate

To start off, Team Immunity is unfortunately in the same boat as Exile5 here in Group C. It’s difficult to consider that they’re going to go through to the bracket stage of the tournament, especially with their recent roster change—Matthew “Heff” Hefren will be out due to a hand injury and will be replaced by Tedd “Junior” Joe. Team eLevate’s Wildcats, formerly Noble eSports, has had a decent showing all the way up to HaloWC Finals, but it won’t be an easy run for the bracket. They have failed to defeat teams that their North American counterparts, Denial eSports, have been able to conquer more easily, such as Team Allegiance. It’ll be interesting to see how that matchup will pan out for the two.

Denial eSports will be looking to find their momentum for this event after their successful NA regional run. They’re arguably one of the better teams at this event and will be fighting FAB Games eSports for first place. In terms of ability, Denial and FabE seem to be a perfect pair, regardless of the latter’s more successful placements.

Winners

• 1st – Denial eSports
• 2nd – FAB Games eSports

Group D

• Counter Logic Gaming
• Team Skyfire
• Epsilon eSports
• Cloud9

Watching Counter Logic Gaming play lately is something quite easy to say: they demolish their competition. CLG was able to come out with the championship title for the NA regionals and will be looking to continue pushing on towards the grand finals on Sunday. They should be able to come out of this pool with a first-place finish.

Now, the difficult question: Who will be coming with them? It’ll be tough to say between Epsilon eSports and Cloud9, formerly Triggers Pound. Epsilon has been able to compete against the better teams throughout the year, with X-Games Aspen being an example. Even though Cloud9 lacks the experience that Epsilon has gained, they have their own tricks. Unfortunately for Team Skyfire, there’s little hope for a spot in the championship bracket. Epsilon and C9 are tough enough to begin with, and they had to be put beside CLG as well.

Winners

• 1st – Counter Logic Gaming
• 2nd – Epsilon eSports

The Top 8 Breakdown

Once the top-two teams from each pool emerge victorious, the bracket will randomly seed each team. It’ll be difficult to predict who will play who, but we’re going to make our top-eight placings regardless. Here are our predictions:

• 1st – Evil Geniuses
• 2nd – Counter Logic Gaming
• 3rd – Denial eSports
• 4th – Team Infused
• 5th – exceL eSports
• 6th – FAB Games eSports
• 7th – Team Allegiance
• 8th – Epsilon eSports

Evil Geniuses was able to narrowly defeat CLG at X-Games Aspen and will be hoping to do so again at the Halo World Championship Finals. We believe they have what it takes. Do you?

We’ll see how this all plays out starting at 9:25 a.m. PDT today on twitch.tv/halo for mainstage matches and twitch.tv/esl_halo for the second-stage matches.

Who do you think will make it out of the group play for the HaloWC Finals? Let us know. Follow the event coverage over on our Twitter – @eSportsNation.