Meta Plays Halo Wars 2 League Season 8 Announcement

We are pleased to announce the Meta Plays Halo Wars 2 League Season 8!
Meta Plays will cover key matches, with the rest being open to community casters.

Introducing the 1v1 Pro League Season 7:

1v1 Pro League Season 7 Tournament #1 - £200 + Community Donations - Single Elimination - January 17th
1v1 Pro League Season 7 Tournament #2 - £200 + Community Donations - Single Elimination - March 21st
1v1 Pro League Season 7 Tournament #3 - £200 + Community Donations - Single Elimination - June 6th

Introducing the 2v2 Pro League Season 1:

Note: registrations will open closer to the start date

2v2 Pro League Season 1 Tournament #1 - £200 + Community Donations - Single Elimination - January 24th
2v2 Pro League Season 1 Tournament #2 - £200 + Community Donations - Single Elimination - March 28th
2v2 Pro League Season 1 Tournament #3 - £200 + Community Donations - Single Elimination - June 13th

Introducing the 1v1 Rising Star League Season 3:

Note: registrations will open closer to the start date

1v1 Rising Star League Season 3 #1 - £100 - Double Elimination - February 7th
1v1 Rising Star League Season 3 #2 - £100 - Double Elimination - May 2nd
1v1 Rising Star League Season 3 #3 - £100 - Double Elimination - June 20th

Introducing the 2v2 Rising Star League Season 2:

Note: registrations will open closer to the start date

2v2 Rising Star League Season 2 #1 - £100 - Double Elimination - February 15th
2v2 Rising Star League Season 2 #2 - £100 - Double Elimination - May 9th
2v2 Rising Star League Season 2 #3 - £100 - Double Elimination - June 27th

Introducing the 1v1 Amateur League Season 3:

Note: registrations will open closer to the start date

1v1 Amateur League Season 3 #1 - £50 - Double Elimination - February 28th
1v1 Amateur League Season 2 #3 - £50 - Double Elimination - May 16th

Introducing the 2v2 Amateur League Season 3:

Note: registrations will open closer to the start date

1v1 Amateur League Season 3 #1 - £50 - Double Elimination - March 7th
1v1 Amateur League Season 3 #3 - £50 - Double Elimination - May 23rd

Expanding Our Offering

In 2026, we are hugely expanding our Halo Wars 2 tournament offering, with multiple formats to keep players and viewers entertained.

The Halo Wars 2 community have been staunch supporters of our project ever since we started in 2021. We have determined that this is the game where we can make the biggest difference, and our offering will reflect this going forward.

• We are growing our 2v2 offering with a Pro League for the first time ever, and are re-adding a 2v2 Amateur league.
• The projected frequency of Halo Wars 2 events is increasing by 77% compared to 2025.
• The total projected prize budget dedicated to Halo Wars 2 is increasing by 60% compared to 2025.

Rule Changes

Our community has cast votes, and we are making the following changes to our tournament rules:

• The Pro League will now allow the entire community to participate.
• Voridus' Combat Spoils will now be banned in the Pro League.
• In 2v2 events, we will prevent the best players with access teaming up on a case-by-case basis.

The Provisional Ranking System (Seeding)

We will continue utilising our Provisional Rankings for seeding 1v1 events as we have done in 2025.

Moving through Provisional Rankings happens every time a tournament series or a showmatch gets a result on our website with immediate effect. So if you are currently rank 8, and beat rank 5, you will be the new rank 5, and the former rank 5 is now rank 6. Everyone in between loses a rank as well.

The tiers are distributed as follows for Company of Heroes 3:

• S Tier: Rank 1-4
• A Tier: Rank 5-16
• B Tier: Rank 17-32
• C Tier: Rank 33-52
• D Tier: Rank 53-76
• E Tier: Rank 77-104
• F Tier: Rank 105+

How the Seasonal Ranking Ladder Works

Each tournament we host will reward players that have won any series with Meta Plays Ladder Points. The more you win, the more points you receive.

These Meta Plays Points then will go towards a Seasonal Ranking Ladder. Each League has its own separate Ladder.

The Seasonal Ranking Ladder will start everyone at 0 points when a new season comes around.

The scaling of the ladder points works as follows:

• Base value: 10x Prize pool in GBP (or monetary value in prizes).
• The number of players in the tournaments will scale the points in the following way:
  • 4-8: -50%
  • 9-15: -25%
  • 16-23: no change
  • 24-31: +50%
  • 32-47: +75%
  • 48-64: +100%
• You can review the point spread between player placements using our Tournament Point Calculator.

Cosmetic Features In The Seasonal Ranking Ladder

Based on your position in the ladder, we assign you to a "Class" - one of D(lowest), C, B, A and S(highest). The classes give you a badge and will be featured on your Tournament Profile.

The top 4 players will also receive medals corresponding with their final placement in each Tournament.

For additional info, please check our Tournament and Ladder explainer posts!

Can I Help Meta Plays Directly?

For any of you looking to support our project, the best way to do so is becoming a subscriber on the website. This is a monthly recurring payment that you get all sorts of perks for. The more goals we hit, the easier and safer it is for us to keep the project going.
You can also alternatively support us on Ko-fi, if you prefer using a third-party service for this.
We are also currently looking for Moderators to join our team, so that we can keep our chats, Discord and website a pleasant and friendly environment for all. Moderators will also help with entering scores during events. You can apply here.

Where To Watch

We will live stream all events on our Twitch, and YouTube, with edited videos released later.
Community casters will have access to cover matches - all games that we don't cover are open casting for live streamers. Please contact each event's manager for clearance.

How To Stay Informed

Here are all the places we announce our events:

• Email Newsletter: existing tournament players will be emailed when we promote events.
• Our tournament page: follow it to be notified by email when we post a tournament.
• Discord: We notify players of new tournaments here as well and maintain a schedule channel.
• YouTube Posts / Ko-fi / BlueSky / Mastodon: We post about new tournaments here as well.

Can I Host Tournaments Too?

Yes! We are in fact looking for additional Content Partners that are interested in either helping to cover our own events, or to host their own leagues with separate Seasonal Ranking Ladders. We will closely work with you to help you set up your events.
You can apply as a content partner here.

That is pretty much it! Let us know what you think in the comments below, join us on Discord for real-time chats, and we will see you on the battlefield!