In Halo Wars 2 players lead armies of Spartans and other Halo fighting forces like Warthogs, Scorpions, and exciting new units in a brutal war against a terrifying new enemy, The Banished.

The last time we saw the crew of the UNSC Spirit of Fire in Halo Wars, they were settling in for a long cryosleep on their way home, knowing that with a little luck, they’d make it back to civilized space in one piece. Nearly 30 years later, they’re awakened to a new threat to the Halo universe and find themselves as the one thing standing between hope and annihilation. Halo Wars 2 will take you back to the Ark, introduce new heroes and villains, and deliver a new multiplayer mode that has the potential to push the real-time strategy genre forward.

Beyond the terrain and the world in which Halo Wars 2 takes place, its compliment of heroes and villains helps broaden the world. And because the UNSC Spirit of Fire and its crew are essentially in a place out of time, having been asleep for 28 years, they’ve missed all of the recent events that the Master Chief was a part of. This creates a unique setting for new players to the series, as they will be learning about the state of the universe alongside the crew of the Fire.

Play Halo Wars 2 with or against your friends and the Xbox Live community in up to 3v3 matches. All-new Units with explosive firepower, Leaders with special abilities that help to turn the tide in battle, and thrilling multiplayer modes are at your fingertips as you battle on a variety of maps.

After three days of incredible, nail-biting competition between the 12 best teams from around the globe, the Halo World Championship 2017 Finals by ESL has come to a close, breaking viewership records along the way. Hundreds of teams and thousands of players competed to qualify, but ultimately only one team would be crowned Halo World Champion.

In the end, the players who claimed the 2016 championship title were victorious once more: OpTic Gaming’s Bradley “Frosty” Bergstrom, TJ “Lethul” Campbell, Mathew “Royal 2” Fiorante, Paul “SnakeBite” Duarte and Coach Chris “Royal 1” Fiorante brought the #Greenwall a victory in the form of a convincing 4-0 finish against Team EnVyUs in the Grand Finals!

The Halo World Championship 2017 Finals by ESL broke digital viewership records across the board. At its height, the broadcast reached more than 135,000 concurrent viewers across Twitch, Twitter, Facebook, and Beam. In addition, more than 13 million unique viewers tuned in over the weekend to see competitive Halo played at the highest level across digital platforms. 10.3 million of these unique viewers watched the competition live on Twitter—a first time streaming destination for Halo esports.* These metrics exceeded last year’s tournament and make the Halo World Championship 2017 Finals the most watched digital broadcast in Halo esports history.

The Grand Finals was filled with incredible plays and intense moment-to-moment decision making by players and teams. The competition in Halo 5: Guardians has never been this fierce, and the players have elevated the game to a new level. Several things stood out during the competition:

• OpTic Gaming’s Royal 2 was the most dangerous player in the tournament, racking up an incredible 1.55 kill/death (K/D) ratio. The scariest thing? Royal 2’s teammates weren’t far behind; SnakeBite had the second highest K/D ratio in the tournament at 1.37.
  
• After falling into the Loser’s Bracket in the first round, Team EnVyUs sent four teams packingbefore making it to the Grand Finals. At one point, the team won 16 games in a row in the Loser’s Bracket before defeating a hungry Team Liquid during the semi-finals.
  
• International Halo once again finished in the top eight with strong performances by FAB Games Esports – a feat previously pioneered by last year’s Epsilon eSports. In addition, French team Supremacy – representing the nation for the first time ever at the Halo World Championship – handed OpTic Gaming one of the only two individual map losses during the entire tournament.

Thank you to everyone who tuned-in over the weekend, those who stopped by to attend the Halo World Championship 2017 Finals in-person, our fantastic partners at ESL and an extra special thank you to all the players from around the world who competed in this tournament. We know fans want the very best for Halo esports and the Halo Championship Series team is working to build and create great experiences in the coming year through bigger crowdfunded open events for HCS Pro League and Open Circuit 2017. It’s looking to be a fantastic year for Halo esports; be sure to follow Twitter.com/HCS, Twitter.com/ESLHalo and check out Halo.gg for the latest Halo esport news.