Halo MCC Pro Series announced, begins May 23

What you need to know

• 343 Industries and FACEIT have announced the Halo MCC Pro Series, which is a series of online tournaments for Halo: The Master Chief Collection.
• Both amateurs and pros alike can compete, and teams that place well can win prize money.
• Tournaments will happen every Saturday starting on May 23 and ending on July 18.

Halo developer 343 Industries has partnered with the esports organization FACEIT to launch the Halo MCC Pro Series, which is a series of online tournaments centered around Halo: The Master Chief Collection (MCC). Halo 2: Anniversary is the primary game that participants will be playing, but the other titles from the MCC will also be played as well. The tournaments will begin on May 23 and will be held every Saturday until July 18.

The format of the tournaments is designed to give both amateur and pro players a chance to win. The first tournament will be a 16-team open tournament that amateur teams can sign up for. The top eight teams from the open tournament will then meet the top eight pro teams from Halo's recent DreamHack Anaheim competitive event the following week to form a 16-team pro tournament. The top eight teams from this competition will automatically qualify for the next pro tournament, replacing the first eight teams from DreamHack. After the pro tournament has finished, the cycle will repeat. The tournaments use a single elimination design.

Both open and pro tournaments have prize money for high-ranking teams, although the pro tournaments pay much better than the open ones. Winning first place in an open tournament will score a team $250, while winning the gold in a pro one nets a team a full $2,000. For more information about prize money and registration for these tournaments, make sure to check out 343 Industries' full breakdown on Halo Waypoint.

What do you think of the Halo MCC Pro Series? Are you going to try to participate? Let me know. And if you haven't already, check out the full Master Chief Collection. All of the games in it are already out on Xbox One, while Halo: Reach and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary are out on PC. The PC version of the game still has a while to go before it's complete, but Halo 2: Anniversary is releasing on May 12 and the other games are coming after that. Buying the MCC now ensures you'll have access to the other games when they release.