Cue the ’80s-style training montage, because you only have about a month to prepare for the biggest Halo 4 tournament of the year.
Microsoft revealed today that it is holding a Global Championship series for Halo 4. The competition will have $500,000 in prizes for the competitors. That includes a $200,000 grand prize.
The online qualifiers begin July 15 on Xbox Live. Interested players may register at halo4globalchampionship.com, and they must play at least 20 games per week. Competitors can qualify in person for the finals either at the Rooster Teeth Expo in Austin, Texas on Friday or the Gamescom convention in Cologne, Germany from Aug. 21 to 25.
The finals will take place from Aug. 31 to Sept. 1 in Seattle. The company will bring six of the live teams and 20 of the online qualifying teams to face off against one another for the big showdown.
Microsoft is the latest company to try to capture the influential e-sports audience. In February, Activision introduced its own $1 million tournament for first-person shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Both Activision and Microsoft are following a model established by developer Riot Games, which controls the competitive scene for its League of Legends multiplayer online-battle-arena game.