Halo 4 will be showing up at MLG Dallas this weekend. They'll be testing out Infinity Slayer, CTF, and KOTH with pre-defined loadouts on the maps Abandon, Adrift, Haven, Solace, and Relay (a forge space) - all to determine what aspects of the game are fit for future competitive play. MLG has often been criticized in the past for stripping down Halo to its most balanced essentials, but now they're giving every new feature a chance to avoid losing any potential new players who pick up the game and might be intimidated by drastic changes from out-of-the-box settings.

I'm curious to see how personal ordinance drops in Slayer work out since competitive Halo has always been about the better team controlling power weapons, which encourages map movement. Regardless, it should be interesting to see how players who are already really good at Halo adapt to the new game ($20,000 for first place).

Friday, November 2 – 6:00pm – Midnight CST

• First Look Game Analysis - Bravo, Elamite and pro players will provide an in-depth first look at the game including a Pro analysis of new weapons, gametypes, maps, and features.

• Interviews – Bravo and Elamite interview top competitors and personalities attending MLG Dallas to get their first thoughts on the new game, and to divulge how they prepared for the tournament.

• Scrimmages - Top teams will face off as they warm-up and formulate strategies for the first time in Halo 4. The broadcast will showcase Pro Scrimmages, Show-Matches, and Exhibition.

Tournament play begins Saturday at 10am CST and continues through Sunday. Let's see if the game that built MLG still has what it takes to stay relevant. It all comes down to the audience that shows up and viewer numbers online, so be sure to tune in if you enjoy Halo!

Alternate stream: http://www.twitch.tv/mlg_halo_4

343 also announced they'll be adding a Competitive Skill Rank system post-launch!

Look forward to it, I just changed to bumper jumper, now I'll be a pro.

Damn, I'll miss most of Saturday's stuff because I'm out all day, but I'll definitely watch as much as I can!  
 
Reach got very tired very quickly in terms of MLG - between that, the huge rise in SCII's popularity at MLG, and some of MLG's own behind the scenes mishandling of the game (Moving their host of great Halo commentators like Chris Puckett completely off from Halo and onto general MLG hosting/SCII casting really damaged the excitement behind some of Reach's tournament appearances, I think). I hope that Halo 4 manages to recapture even a smidgen of the spark of Halo 3's MLG showings. A lot of the pros seem relatively excited about the game too, so that's a start!

@Ursus_Veritas: yup, Reach was embarrassingly the only Halo game to be removed from the circuit last year. It took them so long to get rid of bloom/sprint - the game actually had decent settings by the last event. But like you said, StarCraft II (and League of Legends) just stole the show. Halo 4 could be a clusterfuck with all the new settings, but I suppose that's why they're testing it out first in this manner.

I really don't understand why anyone would want to watch league of legends at the pro level... I mean I get Starcraft but really...

I'm more interested in Tekken Tag 2 this weekend.

COD and Halo back on the circuit... happy days.

Are you going, OP? I'll be hitting up the event in-person later today to check it out for The Dallas Morning News. Wouldn't mind bumping into like-minded Giant Bomb readers.

Nice, I will definitely be watching some of this.

@Sargus: nope, unfortunately I will not be attending in-person. Let us know how things look though!

@big_jon: isn't it the most popular game in the world? Makes sense why MLG would want to get in on that ($$$)

@xaLieNxGrEyx: I think Halo is the only shooter at this event. Might be too early for Black Ops 2.

Edit: stream is live but they've delayed to 6pm CST