Halo HCS Charlotte Major delay throws up new problems

The Halo Infinite Championship Series is gearing up for its very first Major of the year, the Kickoff Charlotte Major. However, the open online qualifiers for these events have just been pushed back, getting a decent delay and wreaking havoc on players’ schedules. The Charlotte Major delay has had its reasoning explained, but it’s another frustrating decision for Halo fans. There seem to be some good reasons for the delay to the Charlotte Online Qualifiers but this is another knock for the event.

HCS Charlotte Major Delay

The HCS Charlotte Major is the Kickoff event for the 2023 season of the HCS. It’s starting with an Open Bracket of teams coming in from sign-ups. That’s before moving on to the general pools rounds. Then, finally into the Championship Bracket. This is our first big event for Halo this year, but it isn’t getting up and running as smoothly as might have been expected.

343 Industries’ Tashi has taken to Twitter this week to talk fans through a recent decision for a Charlotte Major delay. The first event of the HCS has been pushed back. It’ll now be running February 11-12th for North America and purely the 12th for the rest of the World.

This should also give teams more time to finalize any roster moves, and make sure they're registered and ready to go.

We never want to make changes after we announce and I apologize for the frustration and hassle this might cause. Full events roadmap still on the way also.

— Tashi (@Tashi343i) February 2, 2023

This moves the entire competition back by a full week! So why exactly has it been done? Tashi did explaining their reasoning in the same tweets as the delay.

They’ve said it’s to get everything done before the balance update coming on the 15th. Organizers want the qualifiers done before this update so changes to the game aren’t disruptive. This limits the delay that can happen. It can’t get moved past the update’s due date. This limits how far back it can get moved, and has delayed it until pretty much the last possible weekend.

How Will Teams Deal with the Delay?

Organizers will also be making a bigger stipend available to teams to try and cover the extra time, which is a nice gesture. However, it hasn’t solved everyone’s problems.

While 343 has said that this gives teams more time to finalise their roster moves and players, the Charlotte Major delay is still going to disrupt players’ travel and plans.

The reaction from teams and players hasn’t been entirely positive. One player, Spartan, has seen the brighter side though. Tweeting “It’s actually impressive at this point. Adds flavour to all of our lives having to adjust to the spontaneous, out of left field decisions and changes that happen.”

Other players have pointed out bigger problems. Specifically, those who aren’t currently full-time in Halo esports have called out how disruptive this is. With dates changing at the last minute, it becomes difficult to ensure entire teams are available to attend. 343 is quite prone to these last-minute decisions too, such as the changes to crowdfunding for last year’s prize pool.

These kinds of problems seem to be continuing to plague Halo Infinite. While developers are taking steps to communicate all of the changes and reasoning, it has to be frustrating for players and teams to try and plan around these delays. With Halo Infinite esports supposedly to be relaunching this year, such an early delay is disappointing, especially after all the setbacks of last year.