The opening international event of the 2025 Halo Championship Series, HCS Major Arlington, is taking place this weekend.

In addition to seeing household names within North American esports, HCS Major Arlington 2025also plays host to an open bracket providing an opportunity for amateur teams to compete against the best in the world.

Here is everything you need to know about HCS Major Arlington, taking place from April 18th-20th, 2025, at Esports Stadium Arlington.

HCS Major Arlington 2025 follows four qualifying tournaments that have taken place across North America, Europe, Mexico, and Australia. A total of 12 teams from North America and Europe have secured a place in four pools of four teams, with the final slots determined by teams competing in the open bracket.

A maximum of 64 teams will compete in the open bracket with the top two from the upper and lower brackets advancing to pool play alongside the 12 teams that have already qualified.

Pool play will see each team in the pool play each other once. The top two teams from each group advance to the championship bracket and qualify for the upper bracket.

The team that finished third qualifies for the first round of the championship bracket but begins in the lower bracket. The team that finishes fourth is eliminated from the tournament.

The 12 teams that have qualified for the event are as follows:

Shopify Rebellion heads into the tournament as the top team in North America after winning the North American qualifier in March.

OpTic Gaming almost took victory after managing to force a bracket reset in the Grand Final but were defeated 3-1 in the second best-of-five series to secure second place and a spot in pool play.

From a European perspective, Team Nemesis is the team to beat. The team features HCS veterans Michael ‘Snipedrone’ Juchau and Norwen ‘SLG’ Le Galloudec who are no strangers to contending against the North American powerhouses.

A $250,000 (~£188,853) prize pool is on offer for the opening HCS Major of the season. The money is split between the top 16 teams as follows:

The event will be shown across the Halo Twitch and YouTube channels.

Viewers watching the action on Twitch are eligible to claim a variety of viewership rewards ranging from exclusive weapon coatings to new emblems and weapon charms.