Halo Fest, a community event marking the 25th anniversary of the Halo video game franchise, has been confirmed to take place in Seattle, Washington, from December 11 to 13, 2026. As part of the weekend, organisers will host the HCS Invitational, an invite-only Halo Infinite tournament with a $150,000 prize pool.
According to the official details, Halo Fest has two main parts. On Friday, December 11, the Seattle Symphony will perform an orchestral concert of music from the Halo games at Benaroya Hall. Then, on Saturday and Sunday, December 12 and 13, a full convention will take place at the Seattle Convention Center’s Arch building.
The competitive centrepiece of the weekend is the tournament played on Halo Infinite, the newest mainline game in the series. Eight of the world’s top Halo teams will compete for the $150,000 prize pool, using the most current competitive maps and game modes used by the Halo Championship Series (HCS), the game’s official esports circuit.
The tournament is split into two stages. On Saturday, December 12, teams will play in a group stage, with teams divided into groups of four, a format sometimes called “GSL-style,” where each team plays the others in its group to determine who advances. Most matches will be played as a best-of-five series, meaning the first team to win three games wins the match, while the grand final is expected to be a best-of-seven series, requiring four wins.
Prize money will be split among all eight teams based on where they finish: $50,000 for first place, $25,000 for second, $20,000 for third, $15,000 for fourth, $12,000 each for fifth and sixth, and $8,000 each for seventh and eighth.
Unlike some tournaments that use a points-based ranking system to decide who qualifies, the HCS Invitational selects its eight participants through direct invitations. According to organisers, invitations were based on several factors: whether a team is officially partnered with HCS and still active in the community, whether a player or team has consistently performed well at a high level, and whether individuals or teams have made positive contributions to the Halo community.
Prominent organisations with active Halo rosters include Shopify Rebellion, Cloud9, FaZe Clan, and TSM, though none of these have been confirmed as part of the eight invited spots.
Beyond the invite-only tournament, Halo Fest will also host $50,000 in prize money across open competitions that any attendee can enter, spanning several games in the Halo series. These open events are designed to let everyday attendees compete for cash prizes, with the possibility of playing on the event’s main esports stage.
The prize pool for the upcoming HCS Invitational far exceeds what fans saw at the European Halo Championship 2025 and DreamHack Birmingham 2026 featuring Halo.
