The final major before the World Championship in Seattle drew big crowds and exciting matches.

Labor Day weekend is normally a time for people to relax, have an extra day off, and not think about working as the summer comes to an end. But for 16 professional esports teams, the work was just beginning. From September 1-3, 2023, Fort Worth, TX played host to the final major tournament of the Halo Championship Series (HCS). This would be the last time that teams could qualify for the World Championships in Seattle in October.

Hundreds of gamers descended into the Fort Worth Convention Center for a weekend full of exciting Halo action. The tournament was stylized similar to a soccer tournament, with group play of four teams in four groups, battling through the brackets to get to the grand finals of the weekend. The teams in each group included local Dallas favorites OpTic Gaming and Complexity Gaming, along with Spacestation Gaming, Sentinels, FaZe Clan, Quadrant, Native Red, Cloud9, Natus Vincere, Impact Team, Alpha Esports and Mindfreak. Four additional teams qualified for the brackets through play-in games, and those included LVT, Shopify Rebellion, G1, and Native White.

In September of 2022, the Sports Business Journal reported that the Halo Championship series was a bright spot in a struggling Halo Infinite game. The HCS partnered with many of the popular professional teams, like FaZe, OpTic, and Complexity, which sparked new life into the tournaments. Fans could be found wearing Halo themed sweatshirts from Complexity, a sea of blue sweatshirts donning the Spacestation Gaming logo, as well as FaZe clan and OpTic Gaming jerseys.

Master Chief, the game’s longtime protagonist, even made an appearance thanks to multiple cosplayers throughout the weekend.

While most fans at the tournament were long time Halo players and fans of the teams, one fan, Sofia Dubinina, didn’t grow up with video games, but found a love of Halo through her boyfriend. “I started dating my boyfriend three years ago, and he pushed me to play video games with him as a way to enjoy time together, and Halo was one of the biggest games we would play together.”

Dubinina, who originally hails from Russia but lives in Orlando, FL, now travels to different Halo tournaments with her boyfriend to take pictures and enjoy the excitement that in person tournaments brings.

The grand finals saw an intense match between Spacestation Gaming and OpTic Gaming. Spacestation, coming from the loser’s bracket, swept the first four of seven maps in the match. But that wasn’t the end all for OpTic. Because OpTiC was in the winner’s bracket and lost, there was a bracket reset. OpTic was now a part of the loser’s bracket, which meant the two teams would play another best of seven maps. This time, it was back and forth wins between the two squads, but some patient gameplay by OpTic in the final map allowed them to pull away with the victory, crowning them the Fort Worth Major champions.

The HCS World Championships will be held in Seattle, WA from October 13-15. Fans can find information about tickets through Halo Waypoint.