Photo credit Rachel Olsen-Cooper

Day 2 of the HCS saw many matches ending in 3-0 sweeps, with OpTic Gaming, FaZe Clan, Spacestation Gaming, and Shopify Rebellion all topping pool play with 3-0 records. Only 7 of the pool play matches ended without a sweep of the match.

Two surprises came from the early exits of Sentinels and Native Gaming. Native took their first win of the weekend over Business, but were eliminated in a sweep by Complexity Gaming. Sentinels bowed out with an 0-3 record, despite going into the weekend sitting 4th in the North American leaderboards.

Tyler “Spartan” Ganza of Sentinels posted on X (formerly Twitter) that he blames himself for the way they played this weekend. Ganza says that he started to feel ill during day 2, feeling that his team was playing down a man even though he was trying to keep up.

Lost to C9 1-3. Out at Top 16.

I don’t know what happened today but I got to our match and I felt a type of feeling I’ve never felt. Low blood sugar or something but all series I felt like I was going to faint.

So disappointing today of all days it happens. All my fault.

— Tyler Ganza | SEN (@Spartan) March 16, 2024

We hope that Spartan is doing well and look forward to him playing at full health in the next major.

The big story of the day, however, came from the Europeans of FOE, specifically WuTum. Thanks to a big win over Cloud9, WuTum made Halo history by becoming the first keyboard and mouse player to compete in the top 8 of a Halo major. FOE would go on to reverse sweep Proton gaming, but fall to Shopify Rebellion in the Elimination Quarterfinals, ending their run in the top 6 for the weekend.

All photos from Day 2 can be found in the PHOTOGRAPHY PORTFOLIO page.

All images credit Rachel Olsen-Cooper

On the backside of the Esports Stadium, amateur players gathered to try their hand at a variety of open events, including Free For All, 2v2 and 4v4s in the older Halo Games, and 2v2 Halo Infinite.

Among these gamers, many women showed up to show off their skills at the game. At the Fort Worth major last September, there were no more than five to six women or marginalized genders competing. This weekend, there were at least two 4v4 teams on Day 1, and around 12 women competing today. The women’s Halo scene is starting to gain traction, and we hope to see 20-30 women showing up to events by the end of this season.

All images credit Rachel Olsen-Cooper

Day 3 will wrap up the weekend with the semi-finals and finals in each bracket, as well as wrapping up some of the free play tournaments. Keep it here for more updates, and follow us on X for breaking news involving the tournament!