HCS makes final adjustments to some weapons prior to summer season

After a number of changes to the competitive in-game settings for Halo 5, the Halo Championship Series, (HCS) just announced its third and final update to the competitive settings for the summer 2017 season.

This came just one day ahead of the first placement cup for the 2017 season, which runs from April 29 to 30. HCS made a number of changes that will heavily impact the effectiveness of the “pickup” weapons used in many maps.

Replacing the Storm Rifle with a Tactical Magnum on “Truth”

Prior to the update, the Storm Rifle was located in the “Bottom Mid” position. This update now removes the close range effectiveness that came with the Storm Rifle and gives players an opportunity to use a more long-range weapon instead. What’s interesting about this change is that “Bottom Mid” is known for being one of the more close-range, action-heavy locations on the map, making it interesting to see just how effective the specialized magnum can be in that location.

Scattershot and Railgun ammo reduced by one clip on “The Rig” and Railgun ammo reduced by one clip on “Fathom”

The HCS team claims that the reduction of ammo for these two weapons was based off community feedback that the Railgun and Scattershot can become a bit too commanding at times. HCS believes that lowering the ammunition down by one clip will be enough to prevent the weapon from being overpowering.

With this already being their third wave of changes, HCS appears to be heavily invested in improving the competitive game.