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Evil Geniuses wins first Halo X Games Aspen Invitational

The first X Games Aspen Invitational may have been an exhibition for Halo 5: Guardians, but it certainly wasn't short on excitement. Even ESPN was getting in on the action, cutting in to televise the event throughout the weekend.

Ozzie Mejia

February 1, 2016 11:35 AM

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This past weekend was a big one for competitive gaming, with major tournaments taking place for games like Killer Instinct, Hearthstone, Pokken Tournament, and Super Smash Bros., among others. But while there were high stakes involved there, the world of Halo got into a different kind of competitive event. Halo 5: Guardians just wrapped up its first X Games Aspen Invitational, as part of the Halo World Championship Tour.

Eight of the world's top Halo teams flew from around the world to convene in Colorado for this event. The action kicked off on Thursday, with ESPN keeping tabs on everything going down. The Worldwide Leader cut to the Halo event at various points over the weekend, televising a number of the weekend's biggest matches. The final day of competition saw Team Allegiance sweep the Los Angeles Renegades team for the bronze medal, despite a strong performance from Braedon 'StelluR' Boettcher.

That led to the Gold medal match between Evil Geniuses and Counter Logic Gaming. Evil Geniuses had its backs to the wall, on the brink of elimination. However, CLG couldn't ward off the EG comeback and Evil Geniuses was able to take the final two sets on Plaza Strongholds and Regret Slayer to win its share of the $30,000 prize pool.

While this weekend's event did not influence the Halo World Championship Tour standings, it did offer an indicator on teams to look out for in the future. In particular, Evil Geniuses now has a target on its back, having cemented itself as one of the best Halo teams in the world. It was also an interesting event from a spectator's standpoint, as it further showed ESPN's seriousness towards pushing into the realm of eSports.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?