Bungie.net has posted a note that the Halo National Championship Finals have started, with roving reporter Mnemesis at the event, with news soon to come. Stay tuned.

There are profiles of each of the sixteen Halo National Championship finalists up at Bungie.net. Thanks to Louis Wu at HBO.

Max Yeroen Hoberman at Bungie.net posted today that KingsGames.com will be starting the first Halo Tournament Season starting September 7. Details available from the Kings Games site.

It's possible that the Halo50k competition, so named because they plan to give out $50,000 in prizes, may drop the $400 entry fee they were going to charge. It seems they may be on the verge of getting corporate sponsorship for the tournament. To accommodate these arrangements, the tournament has been postponed from November 2002 to February 2003. Registration is temporarily suspended, and if the new schedule doesn't work out for teams that already registered, their money will be refunded.

The Summer Offensive tourney this year by Marine Recon will be held at PlayMyth. It will use maps from the Inter Order Map Standard, a collection which can be downloaded from Iconlegends or the-package.net.

Bungie.net has posted information on a new Halo tournament in Florida. This one is special because it has a lower age limit than the Halo National Tournament; it's for players between the ages of 10 and 17. The rules are similar to those of the HNC but without an elimination round.

The winners of the regional HNC competitions have been posted at Bungie.net. The finals will be played next week in Los Angeles. If the winners are unable to play, there is an alternate from each center.

Also seen on HBO: tourney writeups by 909 (Plano, Texas) at HBO and Matt Soell (Washington) at Bungie.net. Thanks Louis Wu.