Today we’ve got several new playlists and experiences waiting for you in Halo 4 Matchmaking. Let’s dig in.

Legendary Slayer premieres today in Halo 4, offering a Slayer variant with default starting weapons, on-map weapons, and motion tracker enabled. Here are the key settings:

• 4 vs. 4 Slayer
• Default starting weapon (Assault Rifle)
• No Armor Abilities
• Motion Tracker enabled
• All weapons and grenades located on map (no initial, random or personal ordnance)

The singular loadout is:

• Starting weapon: Assault Rifle
• Secondary weapon: None
• Armor Ability: None
• Grenades: Frag x2
• Support upgrade: Explosives
• Tactical package: Resupply

We’re excited to deliver a brand-new experience to Matchmaking that will focus on even starting weapons and map control, with players fighting to gain control of all rifles, power weapons and each map’s power positions. The playlist launched on the following maps, which have been custom-created specifically for this playlist:

• Haven
• Solace
• Adrift
• Abandon
• Landfall
• Monolith
• Skyline
• Shutout

Today is the first day of the Halo 4 Global Championship online qualifier, a tournament which boasts over $500,000 in prizing. If you have not yet registered for the tournament, head here to get signed up. Once you’ve registered, head into Halo 4 Matchmaking to begin competing. Using an inverted scoring system, you’ll be given points based on your placement in each game that you play in the playlist. For example, if you place first in your match, you’ll receive a score of 8 for that game. Should you place second in the next match, you’d receive a score of 7, and your average across these two games would be 7.5.

1st – 8 points
2nd – 7 points
3rd – 6 points
4th – 5 points
5th – 4 points
6th – 3 points
7th – 2 points
8th – 1 points
Quit – 0 points

Over the course of all of your games, your average will be calculated. For example, a player who plays and wins 20 matches during a week of the Halo 4 Global Championship would be given an average score of 8 points. A player who places first in 19 matches and places second in match 20 would receive an average score of 7.95.

The four highest scoring players each week will earn a trip to the finals. You will not appear on the leaderboard until you play 20 games each week. Once you do, you’ll also automatically be entered to win additional weekly prizing, so even if you don’t think you’ll have one of the top averages, there are still prizes on the line. Stay tuned to Halo Waypoint throughout the tournament for details on these weekly prizes.

As you can see from the scoring list above, quitting a match will result in a score of 0 points. Due to the frequency of network complications in an online environment, we realize that not all quits are intentional. As a result, we’ve created a system that allows for an optimal tournament scenario in terms of network stability.

To ensure that unexpected network hiccups do not affect the outcome of the tournament, each player will have three quits that are excused from the leaderboard each week. We realize that players will be using their quits strategically, so we’ve publicized the fact that each player can use them to their advantage during each week of the tournament. We’ve worked with the network and backend teams on this solution, which prevents unexpected poor network performance from damaging tournament results. Keep track of your quits!

We’ll be constantly sweeping the leaderboards and game history to ensure that competitors are playing legitimately, and winners will be fully investigated before advancing to the finals. As a result, weekly winners will not be announced immediately when each week concludes.

The game type for week 1 is Infinity Rumble, which has received some subtle tweaks for tournament gameplay. Here are the full details:

This game type is played on the following maps, which have been updated and modified with optimized respawn points, initial ordnance and on-map weapons:

• Haven
• Solace
• Adrift
• Abandon
• Landfall
• Monolith
• Skyline

The Halo 4 Global Championship playlist is available at the top of the War Games Lobby playlists and uses new parameters and settings that are optimized for competition. Also, the Global Championship playlist has replaced the Rumble Pit playlist during the tournament. Here’s some of the things you can expect in the playlist each week:

• There will be no map voting in the playlist. Once you search and find a match, a map will be auto-selected and a three-second countdown will begin, during which players will not be able to leave or “back out.” Leaving the lobby or game through any method after this point will be counted as a Quit.
• After the game concludes, you’ll have an opportunity to view your post-game stats, and then you’ll be returned to the War Games Lobby rather than another searching phase. This will ensure that players do not accidentally hop straight into another game. To hop back in, simply search the playlist again.
• Join-in-Progress is disabled throughout the entirety of the tournament.
• The Max Party Size is 1, restricting players to solo-searching.

This week also features an encore of Crimson DLC, which has been rotated into the War Games selection as the featured DLC playlist. Lastly, the Spartan Ops timeline is currently unavailable (this issue is currently being resolved), but if you are looking to play Spartan Ops, head into Matchmaking where you’ll find a selection of “vehicular mayhem” missions:

• Episode 1, Chapter 1: Land Grab
• Episode 3, Chapter 1: The VIP
• Episode 3, Chapter 4: Shootout in Valhalla
• Episode 5, Chapter 4: The Cauldron Base
• Episode 5, Chapter 5: Spartan Throne

We’ll see you online, and best of luck to all Global Championship competitors!

Discuss.